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William Beach Dix
Born: March 19,1865, Midway AL Ordained: March 8, 1885 (age 19) in Union Springs AL Died: August 27, 1886 (age 21) Buried: Oak View Cemetery, Albany GA There is no known photograph of Uncle Will. The only information that we have discovered comes from Mary Vernon (Dix) Sproles and her son, Ed Sproles Jr. All of the documents below are from the scrapbook that Nellie Beach Dix kept in memoriam to her children died in their prime. Mary Vernon (Dix) Sproles made these notes including the following excerpt, following a conversation with Madeline Dix Reeves, daughter of Thomas Murrell Dix, on July 22, 1994: ... I asked [Madeline] if she didn’t tell me she had been to * Uncle Will’s grave in Albany Ga. She said she and Mr. Reeves and his son W.P. Jr. (who has died) were on their way home from Fla. when they happened to come through Albany Ga. She said there are two cemeteries in Albany, an old and new. She knew he would be in the old one. No one was there to direct them so they just drove around and happened to go right to it.Here are the other items on W B from the scrapbook. I scanned these a week or so back and just had not gotten around to sending them. Some are clearer than others, the newspapers have yellowed or beyond, is browned a term used for such?? This batch is quite voluminous, and somewhat interesting. It must have been a real disappointment for AFD to have a son who was apparently a gifted preacher and then to lose him so young. But, as we have noted, sadness must have been a common resident in those days. Ed Sproles Jr.
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My mother, Mary Vernon Dix Sproles, has a framed object in her home of the following description. The image is a cross fabricated from thin wood as one might use for veneer. The image is formed by removing shaped pieces of wood so that the remaining wood forms a latticework cross covered with ivy. Incorporated in the ivy and latticework are the words: "In my hand no price I bring" which are found in the hymn "Rock of Ages." The wood cross is mounted on a red cloth backing and framed under glass in a gold colored frame. The framed cross was given to my mother by her "Aunt Dimple" (Mrs. James Hall) when they found it in a storage room at Mrs. Hall’s house in Pine Grove, Alabama. Mary Vernon and some of her family visited Aunt Dimple after the funeral of Grandpa Nix. Mom lived in Decatur at the time, they had traveled to Montgomery following the hearse bringing Mr. Nix’s remains to Montgomery for burial. The Halls had a large house on their farm in Pine Grove, but by this time most or all of the children were out on their own and Uncle Jim had died. They found the framed cross with a dirt dobber nest in the corner of the frame and Aunt Dimple told Mom to take it if she liked it. My mother did like it, and cleaned it up and has displayed it in her home for years. According to the information that my mother has, her father’s older
brother, William Beach Dix (1865-1886), made the cross. This cross
may be one of the few items that we have that relates to William other
than his obituary notices.
Ed Sproles |
Oak View Cemetery
Albany GA
Photo submitted by Mike and Caroline Lyon
Mike Lyon wrote: The notation "Aunt Vernon" is in my wife, Caroline's,
handwriting. The "Albany, GA" predates that. Caroline and her
aunt Winifred Hall went through many of these photos in the late 70s and
made notations where they could identify folks.
There is an inscription on the left side, but the angle is too shallow to read it. I assumed that it was Uncle Will's grave since your grandmother had a photograph made with it, presumably taken by your grandfather, and that we don't know of any other Dixes in Albany GA. I decided to say it is unless someone knows better.
Well, here's the proof:
Photograph
by Larry Childs