DICKINSON, ALMARON (ca. 1800-1836). Almaron Dickinson, defender of the Alamo, was a Pennsylvanian who served as an artilleryman in the United States Army. He became a Mason in the area of Bolivar, Tennessee. On May 24, 1829, he eloped with Susanna Wilkerson (see DICKINSON, SUSANNA W.). The couple moved to Gonzales, Texas, in 1831 and had a daughter, Angelina Dickinson, in 1834. As a colonist in Green DeWitt's colony, Dickinson received a league of land on the San Marcos River. He participated in the battle of Gonzales on October 2, 1835, which began the Texas Revolution. At the siege of Bexar he distinguished himself as a lieutenant of artillery; at the battle of the Alamo he was the captain in charge of artillery. On the morning of March 6, 1836, as the troops of Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna stormed the mission, Dickinson ran to his wife, reported that all was lost, and expressed hope that she could save herself and the child. Although he died at the Alamo, his wife and child survived.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: James T. DeShields, Tall Men with Long Rifles (San Antonio: Naylor, 1935 Gonzales County Historical Commission, History of Gonzales County (Dallas: Curtis, 1986 Edward Albert Lukes, De Witt Colony of Texas (Austin: Jenkins, 1976 Phil Rosenthal and Bill Groneman, Roll Call at the Alamo (Fort Collins, Colorado: Old Army, 1985 Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Amelia W. Williams, A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and of the Personnel of Its Defenders (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1931; rpt., Southwestern Historical Quarterly 36-37 [April 1933-April 1934]).
