Zacharias Dicks was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania in about 1728. Dicks arrived in Guilford County, North Carolina in 1755, where he became a prominent Quaker minister. He visited most if not all of the Quaker Meetings in the Carolinas. He was appointed to present and defend a 1777 petition from the Perquimans County Quakers concerning the North Carolina General Assembly's requirements for citizens to swear an oath of allegiance and fight in the American Revolution. Later Dicks moved to Alamance County, North Carolina, where he witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Lindley's Mill in 1781 and helped care for the wounded soldiers. Dicks died in Clinton County, Ohio in 1809.