Before covering the article on the Dixon Mill, I have to say a word about the location for this correspondent’s report. It appears that Dixon Precinct, which was essentially a township in Edwards County, was known by many other names. At least according to where news of the area was reported in The Albion Journal. It did not surprise me to see reports coming from “Boultinghouse Prairie”, because that was the name of the precinct before Mr. Boultinghouse was disgraced and the name of the precinct was named for John Dixon, our patriarch. But I also see news reported from “Browns Chapel”, which was a real church in nearby French Creek precinct... Okay, there was no volunteer within Dixon Precinct to be the correspondent and it’s essentially all one neighborhood. I even see mentions of Dixon affairs in reports from Grayville, the town which is almost as close as Albion. But “Stumpy Hill” takes the cake. I have to know why someone decided to say they were reporting from “Stumpy Hill”!
So there were two reports a week apart, of an old-fashioned baptism in the Little Wabash river at a place... “Dixon’s Mill used to be...”. The other article mentions “Dixon’s ford” (sic). I remember hearing that John Dixon may have operated a mill in the area, but the brain is mush and a can’t find documentation of this fact. If he ran even a small mill in the area, he would have been a very important person as farmers needed to grind their grains to make flour, etc. and it would make some sense to name the area after him.
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