If I Were a Rich Man

So the township (precinct) that you live in is named after your father... the family must be rich? Right? Well, not so fast. This article (cut and paste to show the relevant parts), does list Joe Dixon (Sr.) as one of the “Heavy Taxpayers” even though he does not appear to meet the criteria stated. It is amazing to have a record of something so specific about the personal wealth of an individual in the 1980’s. Interestingly, the same list was published the prior year and we didn’t make the list, even though the rich neighbors did.

Not to cast aspersions, there was a public feud in later years between the Albion Journal correspondent for Dixon Precinct and Mr. John Tait, our neighbor. The correspondent called out Mr. Tait, without using his name, for hiding animals when the tax collector came. He implied that the neighbors were in cahoots with Mr. Tait. We know that he was talking about Tait because Mr. Tait penned an article challenging the correspondent to accuse him face to face. The correspondence from Dixon Precinct was practically non-existent for a couple of years thereafter.