The Wolcott House Museum Guild, in conjunction with the Maumee Branch of the Lucas County Public Library, will open this year’s lecture series on Thursday, March 6, at 10 a.m., at 501 River Road.
Kenneth R. Dickson will be the first presenter and will discuss his biography relating the eclectic life of Benjamin Franklin Stickney, an early 1800s resident of the Maumee Valley who was pivotal in mediating all the divisive facets of the emerging population.
Dickson has written two books about Point Place and is the author of another two books about local gangsters, “nothing personal, just business” that was available in 2006 and won the 2007 Independent Scholar Award for Local History from Bowling Green State University. The other book was, “something for nothing: gambling in the glass city 1910-1952.”
He is the collector of minuscule details and rare stories of crime in the early history of Toledo.
A historical research quest that lasted 20 years culminated in his 2007 book, “Benjamin Franklin Stickney and the Maumee Valley.”
He was accorded a great honor by the Toledo Blade with its publishing various excerpts from this book in a serial form for many weeks. Dickson was a contributor to the Northwest Ohio Quarterly on the “Traditions of the Ottawas” and in 2011 compiled a book on the history of Masonry in the Northwest Territory and the Maumee Valley titled, “Rough Ashlar.”
He and his wife Bonnie are partners in all phases of researching, recording and unearthing little known history about people, places and stories concerning living and happenings the Toledo area.
The couple enjoys walking in the Toledo and Ottawa parks every morning and are amazed by their flora and fauna diversity. They are longtime residents of Point Place and live in a Maumee River lakeside home that was enlarged and hand crafted by Dickson.
He is a graduate of the University of Toledo and a retired math teacher who taught for 32 years at Bowsher High School. She has been a member and treasurer of the Wolcott Guild for many years.
All lectures are free and open to the public.
For more information, contact the Guild President Judy Justus at 419-8746828.
In case of inclement weather and Maumee schools are closed, the lecture will be canceled.
