A Piece of Dixon History: Why Dixon loved John Dixon

Editor’s note: Today’s column is the second of a two-part series about the death of Dixon’s founder. The first column was published in the July 5 edition of the Dixon Telegraph.

When Dixon’s founder John Dixon died at age 91 on July 6, 1876, an estimated 10,000 people came to his funeral on the lawn of the Lee County Courthouse. In part one of this story, we reported Father Dixon’s achievements and notoriety as the foremost pioneer of northern Illinois.

In the funeral orations, Rev. D. F. Carnahan, the pastor of First Baptist Church, noted that John Dixon, born in 1784, was older than the U.S. Constitution and that he had lived through the death of his wife and all 10 of his children. But John Dixon was remembered for much more than his age, his accomplishments and his acquaintances.

As Carnahan said, “Let businessmen imitate Father Dixon’s business integrity; let the benevolent imitate the generosity of more prosperous days; let the youth imitate his strict temperance; let Christians imitate his unruffled gentleness.”

John Dixon’s generosity

Of all the accolades heaped on the departed ferryman, his most frequently cited virtue was his generosity. In his days of running the trading post at Dixon’s Ferry, he frequently extended credit for goods and services that often could never be paid back.

John K. Robison, a close friend who had known John Dixon from those earliest days, said his “experience with all classes of men should have qualified him to distrust humanity, but … he never tired of being wronged.” He added that Dixon was “hospitable and kind to the needy and helpless in every condition, (and) he often trusted strangers and travelers from whom he never received anything.”

The Rev. Dr. Luke Hitchcock of Chicago, who delivered the funeral sermon, personally knew the Dixons since his days as a Methodist circuit rider for the Dixon area starting in 1839. Hitchcock noted that Dixon encouraged others to settle here by giving them land and other considerations.

He cared more for the town

He thus “saw others become wealthy while he himself remained comparatively poor,” Hitchcock said. In 1843, even though John Dixon’s major source of income was the ferry, he lobbied for the town’s first bridge, even though it meant a significant personal loss of ferry fees.

In those early years, Dixon also gave a riverside lot to an Episcopal clergyman in hopes that he would settle here and help to build a civil and moral community.

In later years, the elderly benefactor donated significant plots of land for community purposes. More than 150 years later, these land gifts are still enjoyed today, such as the courthouse square, Haymarket Square, the Nachusa House plot, and Oak Park on the north side, now known as John Dixon Park.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the famous writer and lecturer, visited Dixon in the 1860s and talked with its 80-year-old founder. Emerson said, “He, who has made so many rich, is a poor man.” One of Dixon’s long-time neighbors explained the reason: “He cared more for the town’s advancement than his own.”

‘Lived and died without an enemy’

Upon his death, newspapers frequently published one particular tribute to John Dixon: “He has lived and died without an enemy … forgetful of himself he lived for others … he was the noblest work of God, an honest man.”

The eloquent statement has been attributed to the city council, a group of citizens and to Judge John V. Eustace, who delivered the eulogy. It’s possible that all three made the statement.

Yet, eulogies are sometimes noted for excusable exaggeration. While Father Dixon was certainly deserving of much praise, it’s not true that he “lived and died without an enemy.”

In his ongoing advocacy for his town, he inspired opposition from Oregon for the 1839 split between Lee and Ogle County, from Galena for the 1840 land office affair and from Amboy for the 1858 battle to keep the county seat in Dixon. But among his fellow citizens in Dixon, he was indeed loved as a father who worked for the good of the town.

By the time of his passing, any enemies from the past had disappeared. Even those who might have opposed him years earlier came to appreciate his honesty, generosity and kindness.

The local Winnebago tribe is a good example. When John Dixon first entered the valley of the Rock River, the local natives were leery of this white-haired white man, and one of them even attacked him.

But in time, historian Frank Stevens said, “They trusted Father Dixon implicitly and they carried his fame for honesty into other tribes … so that his family was never disturbed.”

Weeks after the funeral ended, several Winnebago came down the Rock in canoes for their annual visit with their old friend, Nachusa. They were grieved to learn that the old ferryman had crossed the great river for the last time.

As Jim Dixon wrote in his recent book, “The Dixons of Dixon,” “They camped in the front lawn of his home as always and spent many days around the campfires retelling stories as they had in the past with their friend.”

His final resting place

At the close of his funeral on the courthouse lawn, his family led a procession to Oakwood Cemetery. But the family included none of his children – he had outlived them all.

The long procession included civil and military organizations from Dixon and the surrounding communities, an honor guard of old settlers followed by scores of citizens in carriages and on foot.

‘One keen regret’

But for Dr. Oliver Everett, who was among John Dixon’s closest friends since 1836, something wasn’t right about Father Dixon’s burial. Grace Everett recalled that her father “had one keen regret, that the loved and revered founder of our town had no monument to mark his last resting place.”

So, Dr. Everett began the task of raising funds to erect an appropriate monument to Dixon’s founder at Oakwood Cemetery. But Everett died in 1888, the project unfinished. Col. Henry T. Noble, another old settler, picked up the fundraising task, but he too died in 1891.

Finally, in 1893, after 17 years of preparation, the Ladies’ Oakwood Association completed the task. The large 11-ton polished granite monument, which features a bronze relief of Father Dixon, now greets all who enter Oakwood Cemetery.

Among the eloquent newspaper tributes to the city’s founder, the Dixon Sun’s is the most memorable: “As long as the waters of the Rock River continue to flow, as long as its valley blooms or this city lasts ... John Dixon will live in memory, cherished and revered.”

• Dixon native Tom Wadsworth is a writer, speaker and occasional historian. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament.