Outagamie County, WI - "Dixon Family, House part of" ************************************************************* USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************* Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives Subject: newspaper article "Dixon Family, House part of" Submitted by: county coordinator EMAIL: jmmarasch@aol.com Date Submitted: 15 March 2000 Source: New London Press newspaper article from Bicentennial issue, undated. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dixon Family by Leona Mech How many of you readers remember the Dixon house on the property purchased by the city to build a new high school in New London? The new school -- now Washington junior high - opened in the fall of 1932. The 1934 Classmate reads Dixon high, so for a short while the school bore that name. C. B. Stanley, a formal principal of the teacher's college in the Old McKinley school on Shawano St. -- where our Municipal Building now stands -- wrote a poem about the Dixon home on Feb. 22, 1925, after it had been razed. Melvin Wolfrath said he and his father restored much of the wood and brick when the house was razed back in 1925 intending to use it to build a home. They also purchased the old doorbell. They cleared thousands of the resurrected brick and then one night someone stole the entire lot - wood, brick and doorbell. Beth Stanley Reuter, Clintonville, wrote: "I remember the Dixon home and Alice vividly. Miss Susie Dixon was the surviving member of the family. She was a lady of the first water." "She was the leader of a campfire group to which my sister Margie belonged. She took them camping and on what today are called field trips. She would entertain them at formal teas at her lovely home." "After her death, I bought a little clock and a beautiful beveled Pier mirror, at a private sale. It was a 'Hall Mirror' walnut frame, floor length, with a marbel shelf for calling cards at about hip height." "Also, I remember Alice well, and occasionally went 'home' with her, though she usually came to our house. She was the daughter of Susie's brother, and came to spend the year, so her Aunt Susie wouldn't be alone. She came from Point Loma, California." "We still have Margie's Campfire gown - brown cotton, beaded with wooded beads and fringed. I'm sure she treasured it and her camping memories above all others of those years." (Alice Dixon graduated here in 1914, and is now Mrs. Bruce Jameyson of Oakland, California. She was the daughter of Albert Dixon, who lived in San Diego after he retired.) Back in 1974, the late Isabelle Margraff Schoenrock furnished snapshots of herself and Susie Dixon in Ceremonial Campfire gowns. Isabelle said she was a monthly visitor in the Dixon home as a Campfire Girl. Susie Dixon was the leader of the Whazita Campfire girls and Isabele was her assistant. "We met at Aunt Susie's magnificient and historical home twice a month. We sat in a circle in the foyer at the foot of the circular staricase, for a dimly lighted ceremonial. "Our slogan was 'WO-HELO', meaning Work, Health and Love. We had to earn money to purchase our ceremonial gown, which was of khaki material with dark brown leather fringe at the bottom, and hem of the sleeves. "As we earned our honors, given in beads, as merits of hiking, nature lore, weaving, beading. swimming, boating, and canoeing we added these symbols to our gowns. "We each selected our own Indian name and made our headband of beads, about one inch wide, using our name insignia throughout the band." Isabelle's band was banded in silver beads with small pine trees in green scattered from end to end in the headband. The Indian names of the group were all embroidered on Isabelle's gown at the bottom hemline. She wore the gown at New London's centennial celebration in 1952. The group camped either at Shawano Lake or Big Silver Lake, Wautoma, and earned their money for these summer camps by making tatting lace to sell, by baby-sitting, and holding bake and candy sales. "Aunt Susie was a special person," said Isabelle, "Kind and. willing, and a great person to know. Her home was beyond description, and we called it 'Our Castle'. Each Halloween, Aunt Susie (as we all called her) would escort us up the stairway to her attic, and back down to her cellar, where we bobbed for apples and other treats in dim lighting. "Cold spaghetti and peeled grapes were passed around for us to feel as Aunt Susie read a weird story-to test our strength. "Girls in the group were Gladys Borchardt, Gladys Bunzy, Marjorie Stanley, Helen LaMarche, Dorothy Trayser, Ruth Delano, Volita Ritz, Grace Vanderveer, Helen Hart, Helen and Lois Gherke, Eleanor Vaughn and Ruby Hutchinson."' In my research of the Dixons, I discovered an Edwin G. Dixon was a Civil War Veteran, being the first soldier to die from this area. His death date is recorded as June 15, 1862 in New London. He presumably died after receiving a disability discharge. Also noted that a Dixon (Hannibal) was part owner, in 1868, of the Wolf River Transportation Company.-At one time this group owned the steamers Tigress, Tom Wall, John Lynch and Milwaukee river steamers. In the 1952 New London centennial issue, I found an article which read: "S.E. Wright, one of New London's early merchants and H.S. Dixon, in 1873, started construction of the building, now occupied by Lercher's. "In 1874, they opened a general store there and in a few years built the east half of the building where Kellners was housed. (now Brown's Ben Franklin) "After Mr. Dixon's death, Mr. Wright continued operation of the business until his death in 1920." An 1876 map of New London, at the Museum, which listed business places then in our city mentioned Dixon and Wright as dealers in dry goods and groceries, boots and shoes, Gent's furnishing goods, etc. located on Dixon and Wright's new brick block (North Water street). According to the Alumni Directory of the 1925 classmate of the New London high school, a Fred Dixon graduated from High school in 1893. In 1925 he was a rancher in Corona, California. Also noted the 1894 New London Fair booklet proclaimed Susie Dixon as superintendent of the Art Division displays. And a 1900 cookbook compiled by the Ladies Aid of First Congregational church had two recipes in it from Susie Dixon. My gleanings of the Dixon family are mostly bits and pieces and heresay, but historian Lester Lehman has a detailed account as follows on the family of Hannibal S. Dixon: He said, "You'll find a biography on Dixon in the 'History of Northern Wisconsin'. Of course, there's another source of information . . . composed of documents, publications and public records that haven't been amassed and integrated into one complete history. "Information from a number oi sources tells us that Hannibal S. Dixon was the son of S.N. Dixon, a surveyor who resided in Liberty and New London. "Hannibal came to New London from Milwaukee in 1858, when he opened a store under the Globe Hall on North Water, which he operated three years. "In October of that year, he married Alice Dickinson, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Parley Dickinson, who were prominent in New London, before the turn of the century. "About 1860, he moved to Liberty where he operated a farm and began as an employee on a river steamer. A man of his stature, no doubt, was serving in some clerical or supervisory capacity. "During the Civil War years, he was the Justice of Peace who performed quite a number of marriages. There is reason to believe that Hannibal had moved back to New London about 1864-65. "On one of the legal documents, dated 1865, he was listed as president of the Floral Hill Cemetery. "During the early spring of 1868, Hannibal, with Captain Martin Stimson, Wm. and H.C. Mumbrue, John Lynch and Tom Wall organized the Wolf River Transportation Company. At one time or other this Company owned the river steamers Tigress, Tom Wall, John Lynch, and Milwaukee. "Hannibal also once owned, near the brewery, a hub and spoke factory, which burned out in 1875. That same year he and Silas Wright, son-in-law of Ira Millerd Sr., formed a partnership in a mercantile business. "During their joint ownership, a brand new store was erected, perhaps the one we always have known as Lerchers. "Two years later, 1877, Hannibal became part owner and manager of the New London Stave factory, which was located on the same site where the old hub and spoke factory had once stood. Photo: Fred Dixon - age 22 - taken on January 20, 1897, was the son of Hannibal Sloats Dixon. He graduated from New London High school in 1893. An old pioneer of New London - Hannibal Sloats Dixon, taken in 1877. "Hannibal also was identified in local politics and played an important role in molding the destiny of New London. In April, 1872, he was elected village president and the following year, elected a member of the Waupaca County Board. Also, he served as a member of the Board of Trustees. "New London in 1877 received a city charter while Hannibal was serving as our Assemblyman. "Mrs. Alice Dixon, the widow of Hannibal, died on Friday, January 26, 1912, in Rosevale, San Diego, California, at the home of her son, A.E. Dixon. Other survivors were Fred of Los Angeles, and Susan of New London. Alice Dixon, the granddaughter, must have been named after her grandmother." In July, 1975, a Dixon visited this writer. She is Margaret-it was her father Fred who graduated from New London High in 1893, and the University of Wisconsin in 1897. Margaret Dixon Lane was born in California and had very little information about her ancestors. Being at a Convention in Milwaukee, and in Wisconsin for the first time, she, with her husband Russell, decided to visit New London. She carried an old photo of her father -Fred Dixon and his friend Merton Weber (also an 1893 New London graduate) but when they made inquiries at a restaurant, the name Dixon did not ring a bell. She was referred to me, and we spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon, looking up Dixon data in my column scrapbooks. So thus runs the Dixon story from 1858 to this bicentennial year 1976. Photo: Margaret Dixon Lane's family: Rear - John Robert and James Russell Lane (twins) and Margaret - front Russell Delbert Lane, husband and father; Judith Ann Lane and Andrew Dixon Lane. Taken in California on June 5, 1975, on occasion of Andy's graduation from eighth grade at Bear River school. Photo: Margaret Dixon Lane, daughter of Fred Dixon, lives in Wheatland, California. Picture taken in 1975.