Dixon, Abel (1840 - ?)

DIXON

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/11/2006 at 01:05:54

Abel Dixon
born 1840 died between 1185-1900

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.146, Lewis Twp.)
A. Dixon, farmer, P. O. Council Bluffs, was born in Ohio in 1840, and emigrated to Iowa in 1859, being employed about twelve years on Des Moines Valley Railroad. In 1871, he moved to this county, and went to farming. Bought his place in 1875, and the next year moved to it. He was married July 20, 1863, in Keokuk, Iowa, to Miss Marilla Jane Wells, born in Missouri in 1843. They have had eight children, seven now living - four boys and three girls. Mr. Dixon began railroading, when about sixteen, in Ohio, and kept it up till he began farming in Pottawattamie County. His father, Jacob Dixon, was a miller by trade; he died in the army in 1862, having gone out with the cavalry from Missouri - Col. McKee. His mother is still living in Iowa. He has always been Democratic. Belongs to Bluff City, No. 71, Masonic fraternity, becoming a Mason first at Keokuk, Iowa. When coming to his place, it was wild land with no improvements whatever. Mr. Dixon has given fruits of various kinds a trial, and has been rewarded with success - blackberries, grapes, plums, etc., of small fruits; and besides these, he has peaches measuring two and a half inches in diameter and well flavored; apples four inches in diameter. Such is the success in a country where the theory has been that fruit could not be raised.