"CAPT." JAMES MOORE DICKEY was the third to serve as
  Superintendent of the Corinth National Cemetery, taking the post in
  April 1884 to July 1916.  James M. Dickey was born on January 6, 1845,
  in Manchester, N. H., the son of David and Rockceny Dickey who are
  both buried at the Corinth National Cemetery.  Capt. Dickey came to
  Corinth with his wife, Martha "Mattie" J. (Lockerman) Dickey, children
  and his parents from Barrancas, Florida.  Of all of Corinth's
  superintendents, Capt. Dickey's service in Corinth was the longest,
  being 32 years.  In July of 1916, at the age of 71, Capt. Dickey was
  transferred to Jefferson Barracks, Mo., where he died on January 6,
  1922.  Although not buried on "Superintendent's Row," his remains were
  interred at the Corinth National Cemetery near the site he selected
  for his parents.

          In addition to his duties at the cemetery, James M.
  Dickey had served in the Civil War as a private in the 4th N. H. Inf.
  U. S. Volunteers.  During the war he lost all of his toes to frost
  bite; he had special shoes.  As a cemetery caretaker, he served his
  internship at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., in early 1880's he served in
  Barrancas, Florida.   Because of the intense summer heat in Corinth,
  the Dickeys visited Mrs. Dickey's home in Holton, Kansas in the summer
  of 1884.  The Corinth Herald of July 18, 1884, quoting from Holton
  Record says. "Dickey says he was treated splendidly by the southern
  [sic, Southern] people, only they took him for a Republican and called
  him captain.  He remarks if they had know he was a Democrat they would
  have dubbed him colonel at least."

          Exhibiting considerable courage on September 3, 1884, soon
  after arriving in Alcorn County, Dickey attended the Confederate
  Reunion at Kossuth, Alcorn County, Miss.  The reunion had been
  advertised for the former soldiers of the 2nd, 26th and 32nd Miss.
  Regiments, C.S.A.  Capt. Dickey was one of three former Union soldiers
  to attend.  Much to the credit of the two hundred former Confederate
  soldiers attending, Capt. Dickey was welcomed, asked to address the
  two to three thousand persons present and requested to fall into line
  for the grand march.

          Like Martin Schmidt, Dickey supervised road construction.
  Dickey's road started from the area near the depot three quarters of
  a mile from the National Cemetery.  When completed in the late
  1880's it was the first macadamized road in Alcorn county. In 1902
  he put in the first iron bridges in the city.

          Capt. Dickey was an active and prominent Mason of the 32nd
  degree. Capt. Dickey was initiated in Corinth Lodge No. 116, on
  January 17, 1888.  Dickey was kinghted in the Mary Savery Commandery
  on May 3, 1899 and served as Eminent commander in 1911 and 1915.  In
  1902 he was appointed district deputy grand master of Masons for the
  eight counties in northeast Mississippi.   In 1914, Capt. Dickey of
  Corinth was elected Honorary Past Eminent Grand Commander of the Grand
  Commandery of Mississippi, Knights Templar.  At the time there were
  only three Past Commanders in the United States to be so honored.

          The old Superintendent's Lodge on the cemetery grounds was
  home to the Dickey family composed, in 1912, of his wife, Martha, and
  their sons, John S. Dickey, George Dickey and Joseph P. Dickey.  The
  older children were Alice R. Dickey who was born in Texas or St.
  Louis, Mo., in Nov. 1880; Charles A. Dickey who was born in Florida in
  Dec. 1882; James "Walter" Dickey who was born in Corinth, Miss., in
  August 1884; Edith E. Dickey, born in Corinth in Feb. 1888.  The
  youngest son, Joseph P. Dickey who served in Co. B., 11th Inf., 5th
  Division in World War I, is also buried near his parents and
  grandparents when he died on March 24, 1967.  Martha J. Dickey was
  born May 1, 1859 in Illinois.  She died in Corinth on March 22, 1926
  and is buried beside her husband.

          Capt. & Mrs. Dickey raised their son's daughter, Edith Dickey
  who was born in the old lodge.  She is now Mrs. C. E. Orr of 2305
  Proper Street, Corinth, Miss.  At the age of 87, Edith has been the
  link in the chain, without her reflections of childhood and youth at
  the lodge, a considerable amount of local history would have been lost
  or distorted.  Mrs. Orr has also preserved several photographs of her
  grandfather's family and the first superintendents lodge.

          Occasionally, one sees a colored postcard taken around 1915 at
  the south gate of the Corinth National Cemetery.  If you look closely
  to the right, notice the gentleman with the white beard -- that's the
  old-time superintendent Capt. Dickey, who was the most picturesque
  cemetery superintendent Corinth ever had.



  Corinth National Cemetery
  SUPERINTENDENTS

  Compiled December 17, 1994, by
  Stephanie L. Sandy
  P. O. Box 1535
  Corinth, Mississippi  38835


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