Above: Lyle Dickerson "H.F.S." net

What Are The Chances?

A Dickerson net recently came into my possession. The net has three initials lightly scratched into the handle. What are the chances an original Dickerson net could be traced back to the original owner with just three initials scratched into it? Normally, the chances would not be very good. However, I do have a copy of Dickerson’s production records. Even though Dickerson did not record his nets in the production ledger, it is likely that most of the nets ended up with the same customers who owned his rods.

With the goal of locating the name to accommodate the initials H.F.S., I began searching Dickerson’s ledger. I have transcribed the ledger to a spread sheet to make it easy to search. It didn’t take much effort to locate Howard Smith, actually Howard F. Smith Jr. Mr. Smith was a repeat Dickerson customer.

Rods ordered include an 861711 in made Nov. 1947, an 801510 in Aug. 1948, and an unspecified model ordered for him by his mother-in-law in Nov. 1948. His residence, located at 358 Provencal, Grosse Pointe, made him a local customer. Affluent Grosse Point harbored many of Dickerson’s regular customers.

So, what are the chances? Pretty good, I think. Could there have been another customer with the initials H.F.S ? Sure, but I’d like to think otherwise.

Addendum 12/15/22: A website viewer recently asked me some questions about Dickerson nets which led me to research and consider the following... I did not recall if Dickerson recorded net sales/orders in his ledger. However, in reviewing the records looking for nets sales, I did find seven nets listed. These nets were sold between 1933 and 1938 and priced between $2.50 & $5. It is my belief that the majority of the nets were not recorded in the records so we will never know how many were actually made. Based on the number of nets I have seen over the years, my guess is somewhere between 75 and 150. Estimating the number remaining in existence is difficult. Accounting for attrition due to loss, breakage, and especially disposal, my best guess is there are roughly 30-40 still in existence. Purely an estimate though.