The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1911-11-23
CANAAN FAMILY HAS
WORLDS RECORD
Mr.. & Mrs. Chas. Dickey
Now Parents of y
Baby Dickey Was Born Last Week.
Mr.. Dickey is Now 53 and Mrs.
Dickey is As Years Old.

Dlchey Is to btdTs O1us
The Dickey family in Canaan, Me.
last week established the world &
record for a big family when there
was born to Mr.. and Mrs. Charles
Dickey their 22nd child.
Mr. and Mrs. Dickey live on a cross
road in Canaan with 10 OF their
twenty-five children. Here they have
90 acre farm surrounded by fence
10 keep the babies in safety without
constant watching to see If they are
getting run over by passing teams.
Nowhere else would it have been pos
sible for young couple unaided to
bring up with their own hands such
large family and supply them with
all the necessities of life. But Mr..
Dickey working on this farm and an
other which he owns free and clear OF
debt has been able to do this and today
doesn't owe a dollar to anybody He
says he and Mrs. Dickey were put
here to be an example to the world
of what other families should do, and
perhaps he is right At any rate all
his farming seems to prosper and he
and his numerous family intact. In a
way this family has been of SLOW
growth for there are no twins or trip
let's in it. Thirty years ago when
Charles and Eta, then a girl of only
fourteen, were married, no one could
have foreseen the future and it is
doubtful when Mr.. Dickey himself
first realized his mission to the world
Now Mrs. Dickey is a young looking
woman of about 45 and Mr. Dickey
is happy contented looking man oi
53 They do not show in face or form
that they have worked harder than
other couples with only a child OF
two; and perhaps they have not, for
they know how to manage pretty well
Mrs. Dickey has become so accus-
toned to cooking for a large family
that she can do 1t rapidly and the
children do a good deal, caring for
one another and helping with the
housework. Mrs. Dickey, too, gets
quite lot of help from the boys and
girls in taking care of the farm crops
1t is no job at all to get the woodboX
filled as a stick apiece carried by each
little shaver will almost do it and
two trips will surely finish it. Like
wise with the wedding of the garden
Still it is not an easy thing to raise
up % good children and Mr.. Dickey
realizes it. He is very proud of then
ALL however, and says they have nc
bad habits and neither smoke nor
drink. Besides the care required to
bring them up morally good, they have
to be kept physically well, and in
this Mr. Dickey and his wife have
been very successful for they have a
healthy looking lot of children and
have not lost any. The amount OF
food required would almost feed a
small hotel-full. 1t takes every year
about IA barrels of -four, 1i5 bushels
of potatoes and % cords of hard wood
to keep things running, besides a
quantity of other vegetables and
apples raised on the farm.
When it comes to educating the
children the little Dckeys do not lack
for there is the Dickey school nearby
where they make up the greatest num-
Der on the teachers roll of names
and it is a standing joke in Canaan
that sometimes the name of Dickey is
called fifteen times every morning. II
is safe to say that the little Dickeys
by their numbers at least, carry of
all the honors.
Besides their % children, Mr.. and
Mrs. Dickey have seven grandchildren
of which they are very proud, and
their oldest son, Arthur, is a minis
ter in Santa Rosa, Cal. Though yor
go far or near you will hardly find sc
happy and contended family as thai
of Charles Dickey where "A contentet
mind is a continual feast"