sentences:  Dickinson was a director and founder of the Rensselaer & Saratoga Insurance Co. in 1814.He served as a member of the New York State Assembly from November 1816 to April 1817, and was the first president of the Troy Lyceum of Natural History in 1818.Dickinson was elected as a Federalist to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Congresses from March 4, 1819 to March 3, 1823.