A piece of Dixon history: How Charles Walgreen supported Dixon

Editor’s note: This is Part 4 of our series on Walgreens’ founder Charles Walgreen and Dixon. The first three parts, covering his life from 1873 to 1929, were published in print on Nov. 1, 15 and 29.

Most Dixonites know about the connection between the Walgreen family and Hazelwood, also known as the Walgreen Estate. Another prominent Dixon landmark connected with the Walgreens is Charles R. Walgreen Field at the Dixon Municipal Airport. This episode focuses on the Walgreen connection to the airport and other ways that he supported his boyhood home of Dixon.

By 1928, the head of Walgreens extensively used an airplane to travel to his 397 stores and to Dixon. On Oct. 13, 1928, because of his ongoing interest in Dixon and air travel, Charles Walgreen presented to the city a “huge airplane landing field sign” at the new Joseph Crawford Airport just east of town. The sign’s letters reached “12 feet in depth,” so that they could be seen from the sky.

For the official presentation, Walgreen brought four big airplanes to Dixon, which attracted a large crowd of fascinated citizens still in awe over Charles Lindbergh’s historic 1927 nonstop transatlantic flight. At the Dixon event, the four planes gave rides to Boy Scouts and citizens. As the Telegraph reported, Walgreen’s gesture was “evidence of his kindly feeling toward his former home.”

[ Read more: How Walgreens grew and how Dixon benefited ]

Supporting Dixon’s airport

In 1930, after his 1929 purchase of Hazelwood, Charles Walgreen returned to Dixon for the dedication of Dixon Municipal Airport. This time, he brought along his friends, famous aviator Jimmy Doolittle and Merrill C. Meigs, the namesake of Chicago’s Meigs Field airport. In 1934, Doolittle returned to Dixon as work began on its “modern new airport,” and he stayed at Hazelwood as Walgreen’s guest.

Ten days later, Dixon held a huge civic banquet to honor Walgreen, whose generous donations enabled the city’s new airport. In spite of the Great Depression, his empire had by then grown to more than 470 stores as he became “one of the nation’s most famous and successful businessmen.” Reporting on the event, the Telegraph noted that Walgreen’s Dixon roots enabled him to start out “with a good head on his shoulders” on his way to build “the largest drugstore chain in the world.”

[ Read more: Charles Walgreen opens his Dixon store in 1904 ]

Charles R. Walgreen Field

Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd, reputed to be the world’s first pilot to reach the North and South Poles by air, was another famous aviator who often flew to Dixon. Byrd and Walgreen were close friends. In fact, in appreciation for Walgreen’s funding of Byrd’s Antarctic Expedition, the admiral gave the name “Walgreen Coast” to a 1,000-mile coastline that Byrd discovered in West Antarctica in 1940.

Many years later, in 1964, the city renamed the Dixon Municipal Airport as the Charles R. Walgreen Field, “honoring a pioneer of Dixon aviation.” Merrill Meigs, the famed pilot, publisher, and friend of Walgreen, delivered the dedication address.

Supporting Dixon’s heritage

Walgreen’s support of Dixon extended far beyond the airport. In 1930, Illinois Gov. Louis Emmerson appointed Walgreen to the Fort Dixon Memorial to Abraham Lincoln Commission to commemorate Dixon’s centennial. Walgreen served on that blue-ribbon commission of Illinois dignitaries, which included George C. Dixon and William Brinton of Dixon.

The group secured funding to erect the famous statue of Abraham Lincoln as a soldier during the Black Hawk War, along with a memorial for Fort Dixon. During the city’s three-day centennial celebration in September 1930, the community unveiled the two landmarks, which still stand today along the river between the bridges.

[ Read more: Charles R. Walgreen’s roots in Dixon ]

The Dixonia

In 1935, Charles and Myrtle Walgreen bought a 136-foot yacht and named it the Dixonia in honor of his hometown. Myrtle described it as “a beautiful ship” and recalled taking “many happy trips” to Nassau, Bimini, Jamaica and elsewhere. On that yacht, Charles caught a 204-pound hammerhead shark that later was mounted at Hazelwood in Dixon.

When World War II broke out, the Walgreens allowed the Army to use the Dixonia for war purposes. The Army used the ship to test its sonic deception technology, which resulted in some strategic victories. At the end of the war in 1945, Myrtle was onboard when the ship sailed out from New York to welcome troops returning home.

“The government paid us $1 a year for the ship,” Myrtle recalled in 1963, “and the checks, neatly framed, hang on a wall at Hazelwood.” After the war, Charles Walgreen Jr. purchased a smaller yacht, christening it the Dixonia II.

Supporting Dixon’s institutions

For many years in the 1930s, Walgreen also served as a director of the Dixon National Bank at West First Street and South Galena Avenue, next to the site of Walgreen’s first drugstore in Dixon. In 1933, when thousands of banks failed during the depths of the Depression, Walgreen provided $200,000 to save the Dixon bank from collapse.

An avid golfer, Charles is reported to have donated land for the Dixon Country Club, where he was a longtime member. During the Depression, he also reportedly saved the club from bankruptcy by buying 100 memberships.

He also supported local charitable causes. When he died in 1939, his will established a fund that distributed $1,500 (about $34,000 in today’s money) per year to six Dixon churches: First Baptist, St. Anne’s, St. Patrick’s, St. Paul’s, First Presbyterian and First Methodist.

In our next episode, we’ll reveal details about Charles R. Walgreen’s personality, secrets to his remarkable success, and his funeral that took place at Hazelwood.

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