Grundy County IL Archives Biographies.....Dix, Oliver 1822 - 1900
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com March 25, 2006, 4:06 pm

Author: Bio/Gen Record LaSalle/Grundy 1900

Oliver Dix

The subject of this sketch died February 16, 1900, aged seventy-eight years, 
one month and eleven days, passing quietly and peacefully away on the home 
farm which he had entered from the government April 10, 1847. He was well 
preserved and continued in active business until the early part of 1899. His 
great activity during life should put to shame many a younger man who, grown 
weary of the struggles and trials of life, leaves to others burdens that he 
should bear. Mr. Dix began life a poor boy, met with many hardships and 
experienced many difficulties, but in pursuance of a determined purpose and 
well laid plans steadily worked his way upward until his extensive realty 
holdings of eight hundred acres became the monument of his active and useful 
life.

Oliver Dix was born in Oneida county, New York, January 5, 1822, a son of Ara 
and Lydia (Richards) Dix. His paternal grandfather, Charles Dix, was a native 
of Connecticut and was of Welsh descent. By trade he was a tanner and followed 
that pursuit through his entire life. He removed from his native state to 
Oneida county, New York, where his death occurred some years afterward. Ara 
Dix was born in Connecticut, July 14, 1793, and here spent his boyhood days 
learning the shoemaker’s trade. He accompanied his father to the Empire state, 
where throughout his business career he followed the pursuit with which he had 
become familiar during his minority.  He died September 4, 1826, leaving a 
widow and son, Oliver, who was the only child of their union.  Mrs. Dix was 
born June 18, 1792, and died September 21, 1881.  After the death of her first 
husband she became the wife of J. E. Waterman, of New York, and in 1837 they 
left that state and removed westward to Kendall county, Illinois.  There Mr. 
Waterman located on a farm which he made his home until his death.  After the 
marriage of her son Oliver, Mrs. Waterman became an inmate of his home and 
there received loving, filial care and attention until her demise.

Between the ages of five and fifteen years, Oliver Dix spent considerable time 
in the school-room at Vernon, New York.  He then accompanied his father to 
Kendall county, Illinois, and remained on the farm assisting his stepfather in 
the cultivation of the fields through the summer months, while in the winter 
engaged in teaching.  Thus he accumulated money enough to buy some oxen and 
such farming implements as were in use at that day, after which he began 
breaking prairie for the neighbors.  In the fall, when the work of cultivating 
the fields was over, he would borrow oxen and do more work in breaking 
prairie.  On one occasion he was employed by John Gray to break some prairie 
land in Grundy county, and with his four yoke of oxen he traveled to the place 
where he was to prosecute his labors.  As there were no houses in the locality 
he had to take with him enough food to furnish his own meals.  He would make 
his bed under the plow-beam and thus he slept until his life was endangered by 
the wolves that were then quite numerous in the neighborhood!  This compelled 
him to change his lodging place to the wagon-bed.  In going to and from the 
field of labor he had nothing to guide him but some stakes which he had 
previously placed upon his line of journey, or perhaps a small tree now and 
then would serve as a landmark.  When he had completed the arduous task he 
returned to Kendall county and harvested his summer crops.

However, in the meantime, Oliver Dix, being well pleased with the land in 
Grundy county, had determined to seek a home here.  Accordingly the following 
spring he returned and purchased a tract of wild prairie from the government.  
Not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made upon the place, but with 
characteristic energy he began its development and in the course of time the 
well tilled fields yielded to him the ripe golden grain.  He is perhaps the 
only purchaser of land from the government who lived upon the original 
purchase until the present year.  With the passing years he continued the task 
of tilling the soil and improving his place, being actively connected with the 
agricultural interests of the county until 1899, when he turned the management 
of the farm over to his youngest son.  He had from time to time added to his 
land possessions until his real estate aggregated eight hundred acres.

In 1848 Mr. Dix was united in marriage to Miss Lydia Wing, a daughter of 
Thomas Wing, of Illinois.  Their children are as follows:  Ara W., who married 
Mary E. Caldwell, and lives in Nettle Creek township, Grundy county; Orville 
E., of Iroquois county, who married Elizabeth Riggs, and after her death 
married Mrs. Matilda Harvey.  The mother of these sons died in 1858.  Mr. Dix 
afterward wedded Louisa S. McKinzie, a daughter of William and Sophia 
(Spillman) McKinzie, a native of Maryland, and the children of this union 
are:  Lydia B., the wife of J. W. Johnson, of Wauponsee township; William O., 
who married Jennet Wilson and lives in Nettle Creek township; Etta M., the 
wife of William Caldwell, of Erinna township; Susan Louella, the wife of 
William C. West, of Kendall county; and George R., who married Maude A. 
Tinsman, and runs the home farm.

In politics Mr. Dix was a Republican, and in religious faith a Methodist.  He 
was one of the honored and esteemed citizens of his adopted county, for his 
life was ever such as to merit the public regard.  He certainly deserved great 
credit for his success and justly won the proud American title of a self-made 
man.

Additional Comments:
Source:  Biographical and Genealogical Record of La Salle and Grundy Counties 
Illinois, Volume 11, Chicago, 1900, pages 445-447

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