Melanie Akren Dickson’s avid research of documents, her phone calls to family’s ancestors, and visits to cemeteries have resulted in person to person and family to family historical connections. She recently completed her fourth book providing readers with insights into coal region life that traces back to 150 years ago.

“When I was in the 10th grade, I wrote an essay for school about European history,” she recalled. “Then, I would visit my grandmother in Hazleton during the summer and after she died, I found something that made me curious enough to write my first book.”

What the current Virginia resident found was an old autograph book in her grandmother’s house that belonged to a woman named Mary Boyd.

The book was filled with signatures that had been collected for 14 years.

Akren-Dickson discovered she was a first cousin, four times removed of Private William J. Boyd, a Civil War soldier of the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry. She found that Boyd was buried in the Upper Mauch Chunk Cemetery with no headstone.

After dedicated time and effort, she had a military marker placed upon his grave to commemorate his service to the Union cause.

Finding more history

In Mary Boyd’s autograph book were the names of coal miners, teachers, Civil War veterans, and the daughters of a wealthy Philadelphia magnate. This led Akren-Dickson to write, “This, Their Friendship’s Monument” in 2020.

“I wanted to be an archaeologist, but I became a nurse and after a battle with cancer, I’m now a writer,” she said. “I just have this curiosity to look into the lives of people from the past and try to piece together their stories.”

Her second book, “Coal Country Connections” published in 2022, is a republication of her first book with a different title.

In July of the same year, she completed, “You Dream Every Night That I Am Home,” the story of 22 year old Civil War soldier named John Williamson from Eckley. The book is based upon several transcribed letters written by him to his new wife, Hester in 1861.

“I included then and now photographs of places John Williamson was sent to during the war,” she said. “He fought in the Seven Days Battles in Virginia, but he only survived until the sixth day. He died June 30, 1862 and never got to see his newborn baby.

“His letters revealed details about the weather and the bad the food he had to eat. I thought that John Williamson and his wife and child should not be forgotten in old graves. They are an important part of local history.”

Finding inspiration from the past

Asked how she was able to write four books in such a brief period of time, she replied, “I was basically writing words that have been said or written by others so I didn’t have to add much original thought of my own.”

To add to her extensive research, she visited coal regions in Carbon County and cemeteries in the summer of 2019. She and her husband spent hours cleaning the moss and mildew off old headstones.

Together they found Matilda Williamson’s grave. She was born in 1862 and died in 1917 and is buried at a cemetery in Luzerne County.

Another piece of research was the genesis for her fourth book published in March of this year.

“Conversations with the Court House Deer” is based upon a life size iron deer which had been on the Wilkes-Barre courthouse circle for over 150 years.

A young reporter named Ernest Hanson had written a newspaper column in which he discussed local people, news, and politics. The reporter personified the iron deer giving it a voice to pass opinions about local life and that included a comment about the police force.

This is a quote from the deer.

“A couple of nights ago, a policeman came along and hit me on my nose with his club because I had said the police force was not composed of first- class men.”

Akren-Dickson contends that the deer and the reporter were champions of the working class and the poor and were critical of the wealthy and the powerful.

Connecting the dots

For Melanie Akren- Dickson, finding an autograph book has led to writing four books where she connects the dots together to form a picture of Northeastern Pennsylvanian life during the 19th century.

Her revelations are reminiscent of author, Mitch Albom’s words written on the last page of his book, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.”

“ … that each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.”

Her books can be purchased in paperback and kindle editions on Amazon Books.