After completing preparatory studies, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
[1] Dickinson married Eliza A. Grantland, in Milledgeville, Georgia, on December 8, 1835.
His second marriage was to Sallie Brickell Murfree, who was born in September 1821.
[4] Unable to attend the last session of Congress due to his failing health, he died at "Grantland," his father's home, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on April 27, 1845 (age 36 years, 321 days).
He was the nephew & son-in-law of U.S. Representative William Hardy Murfree.