Dickerson-also spelled Dickason, Dickieson, Dickinson, Dickison, and Dickson.
A grist mill is a building where a miller grinds gain into flour.
Joshua Dickerson was born about 1740 in Frederick County, Maryland. His parents were John and Ruth Dickerson.
He married Susannah Witten. She was the daughter of Thomas Witten and Elizabeth Cecil.
Joshua and Susannah's children included:
Thomas Dickerson (1764, married Mary Curry),
Eli Dickerson (1768),
Levi Dickerson (1769),
Sarah Dickerson (married Samuel Dunlap),
Elizabeth Dickerson (1778, married William Hamilton),
Joshua Dickerson, Jr. (1779),
John C. Dickerson (1785), and
William B. Dickerson (1788).
About 1770, the family settled on Dickerson's Run in Dunbar Township, near East Liberty, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
In 1780, he built a grist-mill.
At the time of the 1790 census, they were in Tyrone, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The household consisted of:
3 men over 16| -John, Eli, Levi
3 boys under 16 - Joshua, John, William
8 females
-Susannah, Sarah, Elizabeth ???
In 1808, Joshua and his siblings freed three people who his parents had enslaved: Roger, Molly and Nancy.
On October 10, 1827, he died in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
Fayette County is in southwestern Pennsylvania, adjacent to Maryland and West Virginia. It was created on September 26, 1783, from part of Westmoreland County.
from Historical Collections of Harrison County by Charles Augustus Hanna
Joshua Dickerson, b. 1740; d. in Fayette county, Penn., Oct. 10, 1827; came from New Jersey; settled on what is now called Dickerson's Run, in Dunbar township, near East Liberty, Fayette county, Penn., about 1770: here, in 1780, he built a grist-mill on the site of the mill now owned by the Oglevee brothers; from this settlement and its vicinity emigrated to Harrison county the families of Dunlap, Oglevee, Barricklow, Rankin, and others;
Joshua Dickerson had six sons. Thomas, William, John, Joshua, Levi, and Eli, all of whom removed to Ohio near the beginning of the present century. Joshua Dickerson also had, among other daughters, one, Sarah, who m. Samuel Dunlap; of the sons Eli, b. 1768; d. in Harrison county, Nov. 24, 1834; m. Mary , b. 1776; d. April 28, 1831. Thomas Dickerson, b. May 19, 1764; d. Dec. 24, 1852: Joshua, b. in Fayette county, Penn.; d. April 12, 1850
