Ammi L. Bixby 1856-1934

BIXBY, BATES, JOHNSON, BURNS

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 2/21/2012 at 21:56:31

Former Emmet County Pioneer Dies Suddenly
Dr. Ammi L. Bixby, 78, of Lincoln, Nebr., employed in the Northern Vindicator office in Estherville, in pioneer days, died peacefully in his sleep early Christmas eve at his home in Lincoln.

During the morning he visited and exchanged Christmas greetings with his many friends at the Evening State Journal office Lincoln, where he conducted a “Daily Drift” column. For a year or two he had done nearly all the work at his home but delivered his copy once a day to the Journal.

Dr. Bixby went through Estherville one day last summer and stopped in the Vindicator office for a brief chat with friends. He was also in this city in 1933 when he talked before the Emmet county Old Settlers picnic.

Dr. Bixby was born in Potsdam, N.Y., on April 21, 1856 and when a small child he moved to Dodge county, Minn., with his parents. In the year 1865 the family moved to a ranch in Emmet county. After the grasshopper plague in 1874 he abandoned agriculture and took up the task of learning the printer’s trade in the office of the Northern Vindicator. His marriage to Mary Bates at Center Chain, Minn., in May 14, 1878 was the culmination of a boyhood romance.

The young couple lived in various towns in Nebraska until 1881 he bought a half interest in the Swan Lake (Iowa) Mercury which he sold a few months later. He attended Rush Medical college in Chicago for about a year but the newspaper beckoned him and he became part owner of a paper in Austin, Minn., and Fullerton, Nebr. Later he moved to Columbus and then to Lincoln, where he became associated with the Journal.

Funeral services were held on Friday afternoon in Lincoln. He is preceded in death by his wife, who died in an automobile accident several years ago. Surviving are three daughters, Alice Lorena Bixby of Pocatello, Idaho, who was spending Christmas with her father Mrs. Anna Katherine Johnson of Salt Lake City and Mrs. Bessie Burns at home and a son, Alfred Leroy of Porterville, Calif. (Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, IA, January 3, 1935)