Sarah Esther Palmer Family

Rundall Palmer married Miss Julia Briscoe and settled in Huron County on the fire lands where they operated an inn (The Old Fountain Hotel) in the town of Fitchville. In 1857 they moved to Henry County. While still in Huron County they had five sons and one daughter of whom Nathan Palmer was one. He was born Nov. 18, 1822. After marrying Miss Sarah Close of Sullivan, Ohio, they settled on land in the wilds of Harrison Township.

Nathan and Sarah Palmer had 3 sons: Elmer, Okee and Aiken. Aiken died in infancy. Elmer became a lawyer having gone to Oberlin College and the University of Michigan. He married Miss Mary E. E. Elarton. About that time, in 1894 he moved to Napoleon and became the proprietor of the Henry County Signal for 31/2 years.

Okee Palmer told many stories of life in the log cabin in Harrison Township; how he would wake up in the morning with his bed covered with snow blown through the cracks between the logs at night.

Nathan and Sarah, being very strong Presbyterians and among the first members of our church, permitted no work to be done on Sunday except the feeding of livestock. They spent Sunday in church and reading the Bible. Okee innocently climbed a cherry tree and enjoyed the cherries one Sunday morning until they stained his pockets; he was caught and severely reprimanded. Okee graduated from high school in Napoleon with only four in his class. He then spent several years helping on the farm in summer and teaching school in the winter. Then he went to Idaho where he taught school in the winter and panned gold in the summer. Many was the time he baked bread on a plank over an open fire and many times did he get caught in snow storms so bad that snow shoeing was impossible. In 1905 he came back to Napoleon and married Miss Etta Breeding. Etta Breeding had for some years made her living as a seamstress, having been made to leave home in Van Wert County with just the clothes on her back, to make her own living. In 1914 Okee Palmer became the first Republican in 35 years in Henry County to be elected a member in the State Legislature. Later he was also elected Mayor of Napoleon. Perhaps one of the most common sights for many years in Napoleon was to see Okee Palmer riding on his wooden wheel bicycle from his home on W. Washington St. to his office. He and his wife had two daughters, alas to his despair no sons, making him the last male in his family line. Sarah Esther Palmer graduated from the Napoleon Schools in 1924, spent 2 years at Wooster College, then went to Johns Hopkins and became a Registered Nurse. She married Moses C. Dickey and they had two children: a daughter who drowned at 2 years and a son Dr. Richard Dickey. Richard Dickey married Wilhelmina Hedwig Kuehn and they have 2 boys and 2 girls. Richard is at present on the staff of the University of Louisiana Medical School, teaching, doing research, and practicing as a F.A.C.O.G., M.D. and Ph.D. He graduated from Napoleon Schools in 1953.

Moses Dickey was a Democrat and came from Putnam County. A graduate of Bowling Green State University, he was a teacher, a farmer and an unsuccessful candidate for office on the Democratic ticket. He belonged to the Masonic Lodge, the Scottish Rite, the Shrine, the Elks, the Grange and for a time was the State Legislature Agent for the Ohio State Grange.

Sarah Palmer Dickey is the only member of this Palmer family still in Henry County and resides alone on a part of the family farm in Harrison Twp.

Nancy Francelia Palmer was 9 years younger than Sarah. She went to International Business College in Ft. Wayne and later married Richard George. They live in Wauseon, have three children and five grandchildren.

Okee Palmer told his daughters many tales of the underground railroad in which his parents, Nathan and Sarah Palmer took a very active part. He told of a black face peering through a door in the cellar, of people in rags running across the fields on their way to freedom up north. His parents also raised an Indian girl and there is still a blue and white quilt made by this girl and Sarah Palmer to testify to this time in life.

Sarah Palmer Dickey has leased what is left of her family farm to Campbell's Soup Company except for the buildings where she hopes to live as long as possible. Richard Palmer Dickey has pride in this family farm and does not want to lose ownership of it, ever.

Submitted by Sarah Palmer Dickey