They founded the school for the education and religious training of African American men, whose opportunities were limited.

[2][3] Dickey served as the first president of Ashmun Institute from 1854 to 1856 and continued to chair its board of trustees until his death twenty-two years later.

[3] The son of a Presbyterian minister, Dickey was born in Oxford, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Dickinson College in 1824 and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1827, where he earned his doctoral degree in divinity.

After conducting missionary work in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Georgia and serving briefly as a pastor in New Castle, Delaware, Dickey settled in Oxford on June 15, 1832, where he served two local churches through April 9, 1856, when he retired due to ill health.

[4] The John Miller Dickey Hall at Lincoln University was completed in 1991 with funds allocated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.