John Wesley Dixon Jr.

          

     John was born on July 1, 1864 in a log cabin in Illinois. Following is a letter from his son William Lynn Dixon, dated August 13, 1987.

     "My father was born two months after his father's death in the Civil War. When he was a young man, be became manager/cashier of the Yates City, IL., National Bank. Later he opened a grocery store and that failed during the 1898 depression. At this time he was active in politics and was on the Knox County School Board. All of his life he was a Republican and very conservative. In 1911 he became Solicitor for The Republican Register Newspaper in Galesburg, Ill., and held that position until his death on August 15, 1932. He died from infection after appendectomy surgery.

     His hobby was his garden and care of his yard and home. He was always good to me and he and my mother were very faithful to me and my small family during the Great Depression. My father was very plain, no frills, never swore. He was generous, smoked a pipe and never went to church. Grumpy at times but always reliable and very honest. My father and mother were great people. I love the memory of them so very much."

John W. Dixon, 938 Maple avenue, for 23 years a solicitor for the Register-Mail, died Monday night at 10:30 o'clock at Galesburg Cottage Hospital following a series of sicknesses that originated in March, 1931. In March a year ago Mr. Dixon received a broken leg which caused his confinement for several weeks. In November, 1931, Mr. Dixon was injured in a auto accident and had been in failing health since that time, on June 28 his condition was aggravated by an operation for appendicitis and from which he failed to rally. Mr. Dixon became an employed on the Republican-Register in 1909, coming to Galesburg from Yates City where he had resided his entire life previous to that time. At the time of his marriage in September, 1885, to Miss Lulu V. Wood of Yates City, Mr. Dixon operated a grocery store. He left this to enter a bank in Yates City and for 14 years was cashier of the institution until his resignation when he returned to the grocery business.

Surviving Mr. Dixon are his widow and children, Ralph C. Dixon, Galesburg: Mrs. Merle Johnson, Peoria: George R. Dixon, Wichita, KS: Clarence Dixon, Peoria: Frank Dixon, Peoria: and Lynn Dixon, Galesburg: There are 16 grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Horton, Hinchiff and Wilson funeral home on North Broad street. Rev. Mr. Morton of Williamsfield, a personal friend of Mr. Dixon, will preside. Burial will be made in the cemetery at Yates City.

Ill two weeks of a heart condition, Mrs. Lulu Dixon, 900 East Main street, died in St. Mary's hospital Wednesday night at 11:45 o'clock, December 26, 1945. Funeral rites are to held next Monday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock in the Kimber and West mortuary where acquaintances may call Saturday and Sunday. Burial will be at Yates City.

Mrs. Dixon was born at Yates City, July 16, 1868, where the first half of her life was spent. The last 38 years she had dwelled in Galesburg. She was sill a resident of Yates City when married to John Wesley Dixon Jr., in 1885.

Mrs. Dixon, a member of the Universalist church, was a past noble grand of the Rebekah lodge, a member of the Eastern Star, and W. R. C.

Surviving are five sons, Ralph C. Dixon and W. Lynn Dixon, both of Galesburg; George R. Dixon, Chicago; Clarence W. Dixon, Oklahoma City, Okla., and Frank J. Dixon, Chicago. There are 16 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.