Oliver James Dickey was born on April 6, 1823 in Old Brighton, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where his father, John Dickey, was postmaster and later sheriff.  The older Dickey also served in the State senate and was a Whig member of the U.S. Congress in two terms during the 1840s.  The son began his education at Beaver Academy before entering Dickinson College in 1839 with the class of 1844.  He left his course in 1843 before graduating, and took up the study of law in Beaver, Pennsylvania with James Allison, who himself had served in Congress twenty years before.