The Death of John W. Dixon

There was no article or announcement of the passing of John W. Dixon, the son of John Dixon (Jr.) and grandson of John and Anne Dixon. Obituaries were not that common and were generally reserved for the social elite of the community. Perhaps a paragraph would be done when I person of some means would die unexpectedly. John W. Dixon was a cousin of Joe Dixon (Jr.), my grandfather’s dad. John W. Dixon was living with another of his cousins, John Marshall, as a young adult.

I originally did not notice this Executor’s Notice in The Albion Journal of October 27, 1892. He presumably died a few weeks prior to this legal notice. There was one earlier notice of the exact same  wording.

There were actually very few announcements of the deaths of members of the Dixon family during the years 1884-1900. The family was very fortunate during this period. I’m not sure any of the 50 or so families that were repeatedly covered by the newspaper were as fortunate. The story would be very different if we were able to look at the period from 1900 to 1920. Both of my grandparents lost their mother before they became adults and my grandfather lost two older brothers as he was growing up.