William Fisher Dickerson

William Fisher Dickerson was the thirteenth bishop of A.M.E. Church.  He was born in Woodbury, N. J., January 15, 1844, the son of Rev. Henry and Sophia Dickerson, both members of the A.M.E. Church. He received a common school education in his native town. He was converted and received into the A.M.E. Church in New York in 1861. For some time led the choir. He entered Lincoln University and graduated; was licensed to preach while at Lincoln by Rev. H. J. Rhodes at Oxford, Pennsylvania, and joined the New York Annual Conference in 1870. He was ordained a deacon in 1868 and elder in 1871. He received the degree of D.D. from Wilberforce University; was fraternal delegate of the general conference of 1876 to the M. E. general conference in Baltimore. While he was pastor of Bethel, Sullivan Street, New York, in 1880, he was elected Bishop¹Centennial Encyclopedia of the AME Church, P. 84. and assigned to South Carolina and Georgia and during his administration the foundations were laid for both Allen and Morris Brown Universities. He was President of Allen University.²http://www.accessible.com/ He was secretary of the Council of Bishops. He died December 20, 1884, and was buried at Woodbury, N. J. He was later reinterned at Merion Memorial Park with 7 other Bishops.³Philadelphia Tribune, 20 July 1963, p.10.