The house at 3217 Whitney Avenue in Hamden was built around 1770 by Jonathan Dickerman (1719-1795), father of the Jonathan Dickerman who built the 1792 farmhouse now at 105 Mt. Carmel Avenue. The elder Jonathan Dickerman settled in what is now Hamden in 1743. During the Revolution, he served on New Haven’s Committee of Inspection. The house was next owned by his son, Amos Dickerman and then by Amos’ son Ezra (1800-1860). Three years after Ezra’s death, the house was sold by his heirs. Today, the house has modern siding and has recently lost its original central chimney.
Jonathan Dickerman I House (1770)
Ezra’s daughters were pioneers in the education of women in Connecticut, helping to found (and teaching at) the Mount Carmel Female Seminary. They all died young, however. His son, Captain Ezra Day Dickerman, was a Civil War hero, who performed some astounding feats of bravery, and was the leader of the so-called Whitney Rifles. He died in 1867 of a head injury sustained three years earlier in the war. They all grew up in this house, but as you say above, the family was forced to sell, while Ezra Day was still fighting the war. By that time, only the mother and two youngest sons were left. It is a much more important house than often thought, because of the amazing people who lived there, and needs to be better preserved.