Page 130 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

LEAMON ROBINSON

The Patriarch of the huge Dicks family in Columbia County, Joseph Dicks, was the lather ol thirteen
children, as far as I can determine. It is a little strange to me, although not a matter of great importance,
that he did not get around to naming one of his sons after himself until the next to the last child was
born. That child, was the Uncle to my daddy, and thus my great uncle, Joseph Z. Dicks.

I have never heard my great uncle Joe Dicks referred to as Joseph Dicks, Jr., and it very well could be
that his middle name was different from his father’s middle name, and therefore he would not have been
Joseph Dicks Jr. However, I know that my father, the Reverend John Dicks, was very fond of his uncle
Joe, and apparently great uncle Joe Dicks was also fond of my dad. I know that he used to lend my dad
money, and in one instance loaned him enough money to buy another 40 acres to add to his farm, and
great uncle Joe had no sons. He had 4 daughters, Samantha, Elsie, Gussie, and Margie. Margie was the
mother of Pink Kerce, and she died in child birth at the time that Pink was born. She was only 16 at the
time. Gussie married Jessie McCall, and Elsie married my mother’s brother Gordon Tyre, and Samantha
married Ammon Robinson, and she and Ammon had quite a large family, all of their children being first
cousins to my dad. That would make them all my third cousins, the way I figure kinship.

One of those children of Sam and Ammon Robinson was my third cousin Leamon Robinson, although
during the several years 1 was closely associated with Leamon, it was more like he was just a close
friend, rather than the fact that he was a cousin.

Leamon was not long on formal education, but he had a world of common sense, and was a very fine
mechanic. I used to take my car for mechanical repairs to Leamon and got to know him quite well, and
gradually came aware that he had an immense talent for restoring older cars.

Leamon was very much interested in antique cars, and some of that interest rubbed off on me. Due to his
influence, and help in locating them, at one time I owned four Model T Fords, ranging in model years
from 1908 to a 1927. Most antique car buffs did not lean towards the Model T since it is not an easy
automobile to operate. The Model T Ford did not operate, and was not driven in the same way, as the
cars that Ford later built.

The successor to the Model T Ford was a Model A Ford which was only manufactured for four years,
but was one of the most popular and widely used automobiles in the history of automotive USA.

Leamon was an absolute genius with a Model A Ford. He knew where every bolt, every nut, every wire,
and every other part went and what it was for, and he was a master at rebuilding and tuning up Model A
Fords, including the upholstery and exterior paint. Leamon would rebuild a Model A Ford, and 1 would
supply the money for the necessary parts, and when he finished restoring a car we would sell it and split
the profit.

I recall at one time that we bought a Model A Ford in Jacksonville from a man who had already
disassembled it, with the intention of putting it all back together and restoring it himself, but he either

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: B423BA50-F22B-4D87-A44C-403308C92982