As a young man, Consider Dickinson of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was a soldier in the American Revolution (1775-1783) and spent some time in Canada hunting and trading in furs. In Deerfield he was known for his ability to tell stories and sing. In 1789, he bought the house on Deerfield’s Ministry Lot, built by Elijah Williams ca. 1760. He married twice, first in about 1785 to Filany Field. She died in 1831 and nine years later, in 1840, he married his housekeeper, Esther Harding of Whately. Consider, called “Uncle Sid,” had “by industry, good judgment, and economy” accumulated a fairly large estate for his time. When he died at age 94, he left it all to his second wife with the understanding that she would leave a bequest to the town of Deerfield for a public high school and library.