Sunday, July 27, 2008

Joseph Freemont Dixon, Jr.




Joe Dixon (J.F. Dixon, Jr) was my great-grandfather and the father of George Dixon.




I have trouble keeping the life stories of Joe (Jr.) and his father, Joseph Freemont Dixon (Sr.) straight in my head.




The obituary that I was given on my recent trip to Albion helped a lot to clarify things.




Joe died at age 69, of a stroke. He had suffered a stroke three years previous to the fatal stroke.




He was a farmer... he was the son and grandson of farmers. My grandfather was the first in the line not to become a farmer.




He later joined as a partner in a monument business, which may explain the nice grave markers in Ridge cemetery. He also owned the Red Hill service station, just outside of Albion on Highway 15. He lived in town during his later years.




He was also he first in our line to be born in America, and he was born right there in Edwards County.




He married Mina Kershaw, and they had 7 children. Two died before becoming adults, leaving my grandfather and four sisters as adult children.




Mina died a few months after giving birth to their youngest child, Lucy, in 1901.




He married Kate Green Kellett, who had four kids of her own from a previous marriage.




I don't recall ever hearing about the fact that my grandfather George had a stepmother, even though he was in his early teens when his father remarried.




Joe Dixon died on September 28, 1933, when my dad Jerry was just 4 and 1/2 years old.

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