Our German, Pilgrim, and Quaker Ancestors
By: Mary Belle Lontz 608 BroadwayMilton, Pennsylvania October, 1968
DIXON
The Dixon, or Dickson, family as we know it had its origin in. the lowlands of Scotland, where its line is clear for over four hundred years--from about 1200 to the reign of Be/ James VI of Scotland' who' upon the death of Elizabeth In of England, became James In of England, 1603-1625. When~James In declared the rebellious Celtic chiefs guilty of treason and confiscated their vast land holdings, whole Scottish communities were transplanted to Northern Ireland to settle the Celtic "plantations," which had been seized by the crown. This migration marked the introduction of Protestantism into Ireland, where the northern part today remains predominantly Protestant' while the southern part, Eire, remains Catholic. Then, too, the migration marked a second movement of religious and historical importance, that of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania under the influence of the immortal William Penn.
Perhaps the founder of the famous, hard-riding and foraying Dicksons, or Dixons, was Marshal Harvey de Keth, died 1240, who married Margaret Douglas, daughter of William Douglas, third son of Lord Douglas of Scotland. Their son, Dick (Richard) de Keth, was the father of Thomas Dickson of Hazelside, who was born in 1247. He succeeded his father as head of the clan and was killed on Palm Sunday, March 19, 1307' aged 60 years. His son, also Thomas Dixon, was next in line. The Dixksons continued in Scotland until many members of the clan left their native Lowlands for Northern Ireland and from there to the Quaker Colony of Pennsylvania.
1. HENRY and ROSE DIXON are the earliest known members of our American line. And according to the Compendium of American Genealogy, they are the parents of William, who married Ann Gregg. The first reference we have found is in the Marriage Book of Lurgan Monthly Meeting, Ireland, which states: "William Dixon and Isabelle Rea, both of Parish of Segoe, County Armagh, Ireland, were married at the house of Roger Webb, Parish of Segoe, 3 mot 4, 1683. Among those who signed the marriage certificate were Henry Dixon, Rose Dixon, Thomas Harlan, and Isabelle Logan." Immigration of Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania picks up this entry and continues it with these words:" This, no doubt, is the same family that came over to New Castle County prior to 1690. Henry Dixon, it is said, kept an inn at New Castle and had three children: 1. William was married about 1690 to Ann Gregg, daughter of William Gregg, who it is believed, also came from the north of Ireland. William was a weaver by trade and settled on Red Clay Creek, in Christiana Hundred' (now Delaware). . 2. Dinah married Michael Harlan, January 1690, at Newark Meeting. . .3. Rose married' 1690, Thomas Pierson, widower, Deputy Surveyor of New Castle County.
Children of Henry and Rose Dixon:
i. William, m. lst, Lurgan Monthly Meeting, Ireland, 4 May 1683, Isabelle Rea
m. 2nd New Castle County, Delaware, 1690, Ann Gregg
d. 1708 in Christiana Hundred
ii. Dinah, m. Newark Meeting, 1690, Michael Harlan
iii. Rose, m. 1690, Thomas Pierson
2. WILLIAM, son of Henry and Rose Dixon, born in Ireland ca 1662, and died in New Castle County, Delaware, in 1708. Answering the call of the times to colonization, adventure, religious freedom, perhaps even fortune in the new world, William Dixon sailed from Downes' England, with Thomas Pierson on Be 14 day of July 1676, and arrived in Great Wackacommacoe River in Maryland on the 9 day of September, 1676, aboard the ship "Joseph and Benjamin'" Matthew Pain, Commander. Thomas Pierson later became the brother-in-law of William Dixon when, in 1690, he married Williams sister, Rose. Williams returned to Ireland from this first trip to the new colonies and there on the 5 mot 4, 1683, as the Lurgan Monthly Meeting Minutes state married Isabelle Rea, both of the Parish of Segoe, County Armagh, Ireland, in the house of Roger Webb, with Henry and Rose Dixon (his parents), Thomas Harlan, and Isabelle Logan as witnesses. After the death of Isabelle, he joined the Quaker emigration from Ireland and came again to America, to William Penn's Colony of Pennsylvania, in that portion which now is Delaware, in 1688. Two years later, in 1690, he married Ann Gregg, second child and only daughter of William Gregg, who was also a member of the Quaker immigration into Pennsylvania, bringing with him his daughter Ann, born 1670, in Ireland. William Dixon was a weaver by trade and settled on Red Clay Creek' in Christiana Hundred, New Castle County' Delaware. He made his will January 31, 1708; and it was probate September 20' 1708. He mentions his wife Ann and appoints his brothers' Mic heel Harlan and John Gregg, as advisors. (Michael Harlan, brother-in-law, had married Williams sister Dinah in 1690; and John Gregg was brother of his wife Ann.) Ann Gregg Dixon died in 1729 and she married John Houghton after the death of William Dixon. She bore Houghton three daughters: 1. Mary, who married Isaac Cooke and removed to North Carolina in 1734; 2. Martha, who married, 1730, Joseph Hollingsworth; 3. Rebecca, who married Robert Comber. John Houghton' too' was of New Castle County, Delaware.
Children of William Dixon and Ann Gregg:
i. Henry Dixon' b. 1692, d. 1742, m. 4 April 1715, Ruth Jones, d. 1758
Children of Henry Dixon and Ruth Jones:
1. John' b. 1717' d. 1767, m. Rebecca Cox, d. 1787
2. Joseph' b. 1719, m. 1742, Mary Pusey of Newark Meeting, Delaware
3. Dinah Dixon
4. Mary, b. Mill Creek Hundred; m. 18 August 1750, Hockessin Meeting, Delaware,
Herman Gregg, b. 1730' d. 1773, son of William Gregg, 1695-1747
ii. William, b. 1695, d. 1760; m. February 1718, Hannah Hollingsworth, b. 17 January 16S7' d. 1777, dau. of Thomas Hollingsworth, b. March 1661, at Belleniskcrannell, d. 1732/3, Winchester, Va., and his wife, Grace Cooke, dau. of William and Elizabeth Cooke of Darby or Concord, Pennsylvania. Grace Cooke Ma sister to to Elizabeth Cooke' who married John Gregg' 1668-1738, oldest son of immigrant William Gregg' and brother of Ann Gregg.
Child of William Dixon and Hannah Hollingsworth: Ann Dixon, b. 1724' d. 1779, Christiana Hundred, Delaware; m. Thomas Wilson
iii. John Dixon, b. 1702, m. 29 August 1724, Sarah Hollingsworth, sister of Hannah (See data above.). b. 7 August 1706.
Children of John Dixon and Sarah Hollingsworth:
1. Ann Dixon, m. 1st Richard Woodnut, 2nd William Gregg' 1695-1747, son of John Gregg, 1668-1738, and Elizabeth Cooke.
2. John Dixon' d. 1763, m. 20 April 1768, Susanna Prior, 1724-1805' Dau. of
John and Susanna Prior Dixon: Sarah Dixon, b. 3 December, 1760, m.
1st John Dixon, 2nd Stephen Gregg
iv. George Dixon, b. 16 November 1706, d. 14 March 1761, m. 17 November 1725, Ann Chandler, b. 1 February 1709, d. 14 March 1761. Removed to North Carolina at same time as Simon Dixon, his nephew' son of Thomas Dixon and Hannah Hadley, and settled in Chatham County near Siler City.
Children of George Dixon and Ann Chandler:
1. Enoch' b. 5 September 1727
2. Dianh, b. December 1729' a. 20 August 1742
3. Caleb' b. 6 September 1732
4. George, b. 18 April 1740
5. Phebe, b. 15 December 1743
6. Joshua, b. 26 December 1746
v. Dinah m. April 1721, Will am Hecklin
vi. Ann A. 26 September 1730, Robert Cain
*. vii. Thomas, B. 1705, Chester County' Pennsylvania; d. 1735, aged 30 Yeats; m.20 August 1727, in New Castle, Delaware, Hannah Hadley, b. 16 November 1709/10, d. 31 May 1783, dau. and fifth child of Simon Hadley and Ruth Keran
Children of Thomas Dixon and Hannah Hadley:
1. Simon' b. 1728, Chester County, Pennsylvania; d. April 1781, Cane Creek' North Carolina; m. 1751, Elizabeth Allen, b. 1728, Pennsylvania; d. 1793, Cane Creek' North Carolina
2. Rebecca' b. 13 January 1731, New Castle County' Pennsylvania (now Delaware) d. 9 February 1803; m. 28 March 1746' Hockessin Meeting, New Castle Co.' William Marshall, b. 4 August 1764, County Tyrone, Ireland' son of Jacob and Ann (Griffith) Marshall, d. 19
3. Ruth, b. 1734/5, Chester County, Pennsylvania' d. 1764' Cane Creek, N.C., married 11/25/1756' at Cane Creek Public Meeting, John Doan who was b. 11/30/173, Middletown, Pa., d. 3/6/1811, Cane Creek, N.C., s/o Joseph Doan and Mary Carter.
THOMAS DIXON, s/o William and Ann Gregg Dixon, was born 705 in Chester County' Penna., and died 1735, aged 30 years. August 25, 1721, he married in Meeting in New Castle County, Delaware, Hannah Hadley, born 11/16/1709/10 and died May 31, 1783, d/o and fifth child of Simon Hadley, Jr. and his wife, Ruth Keran. Thomas Dixon lived near the then fast growing city of Philadelphia and was deeply influenced by the Quaker founder of the Colony, William Penn. The Hadleys were *mother family of Penn followers who emigrated from Ireland to Penn's Province. Thomas Dixon is said to have died in the Philadelphia area of small pox and to have left widow Hannah and three children, all of whom in the mid-century joined the Quaker movement to the Carolinas. On August 18, 1742, at Hockessin Meeting, Delaware, Hannah Medley Dixon married John Stanf~eld, s/o Samuel & Jane (Andrew) Stanfield. John ~tanfi~ld died in 1755, leasing Hannah again a widow with three Stanfield children: 1. John' who on 4/~/1762 married Phillipina Jones; 2. Samuel, who married Lydia Vernon; 3. Thomas, who married Hannah Vernon. Hannah Hadley Dixon Stanfield died at Cane Creek, North Carolina, May 31, 1783' and is buried at Cane Creek burial ground.
Children of Thomas Dixon and Hannah Hadley:
i. Simon Dixon, born Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1728, died at Cane Crime'-, North Carolina, April, 1781. He married, 1751' Elizabeth Allen, also born n Chester County, in 1728. In the general Quaker migration from Pennsylvania southward into Virginia and the Carolinas, Simon D con' in the spring of 17~, arrived at Cane Creek, North}-, Carolina, where he cleared some land in Orange County' built a pioneer cabin, planted a crop of corn. Discouraged however, by his primitive surroundings, his nearest neighbor was six miles away, he returned to Pennsylvania. In 1751, he returned to the Cane Creek area fringing with him P group of settlers, amoral whom were his mother and stepfather, Hannah and John Stanfield, and the three Stanfield children; his sister end brother-in-law, Rebecca and William Marshall; and his sister Ruth. Simon Dixon had been received into the Cane
Creek Society of Friends, Oft. 7, 1751, the year the Meeting was established. Both Simon and Elizabeth became members by certificates of removal from Newark Monthly Meeting, Kennet' Pennsylvanian June 2, 1753.
That same year, 1753, Simon Dixon built Dixon's Mill' the first mill for grinding corn or grain on Cane Creek, and Dixon's Mill, although several times rebuilt on the same and additional walls, for about a hundred and fifty years used the same water power that it used in 1753. At the same time, Simon Dixon built a handsome stone house, a dwelling which was commandeered for two days and nights by Lord Cornwallis as headquarters for his Lordship and Officers after the Battle of Guilford Court House. While there,
the British killed two hundred and fifty sheep, seventy-five cattle, and burned all the fences. During their stay some of the British soldiers died of "camp fever" as typhus was then commonly called. While the British Army was in Expression of his house and premises, Simon and his family stayed in the home of a friend, Col. Robert Mebane' in Hawfield County. After the departure of enemy troops' Simon Dixon returned home, but within a few days contracted "Camp Fever" himself and died about three weeks later.
Both Simon Dixon and his wife Elizabeth Allen, and several of their children are hurled in the Friends Cemetery at Cane Creek Meeting. The Alamance County Historical Society has marked their graves with the characteristic native stone marker bearing the following inscription:
In Memory of
Simon Dixon And his wife Elizabeth Allen Dixon
Born in Penna 1728
Pioneer Settler who bought these
Lands from the Lords Proprietors of
North Carolina, 1751
Built Dixon's Mill, 1753
Died April. 1781
Born in Penna 1728
Died 1793
Both were charter members of
Cane Creek Meeting organized 1751
Erected 1925
This monument in the Cane Creek burial ground is a large mill wheel from the Dixon mill. Thus mill' together with the Dixon house, was the source of much speculation, legend, and search for many years. According to the local history told us at Cane Creek
by Anna and Wilma Griffin and Anna Lois Dixon, Simon Dixon was reputably a man of means in the community, having a considerable amount of gold which he hid somewhere on the premises when the British, under Lord Cornwallis, took possession of the stone house and the mill of Simon Dixon. In or about 1953 fire destroyed the stone house and the mill. A man of some wealth from Durham' North Carolina, bought the remains and tore down the mill and the house stone by tone, brick by brick, stick by stick, in an endeavor to fled the lost Dixon gold. If he succeeded in his search, he let no one know of his find; so someday, someone may still find the hidden treasure which has been the source of speculation from the days of the Revolution. Another mystery and another search has been for the cannon which Lord Cornwallis had with him when he took possession of the properties of one Dixons but which he did not nave with him when he left. He had two when he entered; one wnen he left. Supposition has it that the British ran it out into the mill pond where it lies settled into the ground ~ perhaps forever.
Children of Simon Dixon and Elizabeth Allen:
1. Thomas Dixon was born about 1753 and died 4 January 1824, eyed 70 ye" _, 8 months, and 22 days, buried in Cane Creek Burial Ground. He married Abigail Stuart, born Lily IS, 1762, died May 26, 1843, aged 81 years and 8 days, buried Cane Creek. Thomas was sent by his father, Simon Dixon, to Philadelphia to learn his trade as a silver smith and clock maker. He returned to Cane Creek cr.] kept a shop for the repair of Clocks, watches' etc. In childhood, he received a severe burn of the foot which left him lame for the rest of- his life. ~ man of honor and truth, he died in the seventy-first year of his age and is buried in the Cane Creek burial ground with his Wife Abigail Stuart.
Children of Thomas Dixon and Abigail Stuart:
i. Jesse, m. Catharine Hadley
ii. Elizabeth, m. Peter Allen
iii Simon, m. Eleanor Williams
iv. Hannah, m. Solomon Allen
Elisha
vi Rebecca
vii. Joseph
viii. Ruth, m. John Stafford
ix. Cleopatra, m. Robert Woody
2. John Dixon, a farmer and herdsman, was twice married. His first wife was Rebecca Johnson, and the second Ruth Dix. John, his second wife, Ruth Dix, and the entire family of children removed to Orange County, Indiana, about 1815, in the general Quaker migration from slave country into the free Northwest Territory.
Children of John Dixon and Rebecca Johnson:
John
ii. Simon
Children of John Dixon and Ruth Dix:
iii. Solomon
iv. Zachariah
Elwood
vi Elizabeth
vii. Ruth
viii Lovina
3. Naomi
4. Jesse
5. Simon Dixon, as a young man, was in charge of the Dixon Hill when a Tory robber struck him on the head with his sword' inflicting a fatal wound which caused his death in 1781.
6. Solomon Dixon was born 8 October 1761. He was twice married; first, to Hannah Hunt; second to Elizabeth McPherson. Solomon had but one child, a daughter, Hannah. Soon after the death of Solomon, his wife and daughter moved to Richmond, Indiana, where both of them died a few years later.
7. Benjamin Dixon was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, 8 October, 1766. He married Ruth Marshall' who bore him five children. As a farmer and a fuller, Benjamin lived his life in Cane Creek area and died aged About 75 years.
Children of Benjamin Dixon and Ruth Marshall:
i. William
ii. Elizabeth, m. Jobe Kemp
iii. Mary
iv. Hannah' m. William Stout
v. Simon, m. Hannah Stout
8. Elizabeth Dixon married John Stuart and became the mother of eight children. She died in the thirty-sixth year of her age of lock-jaw thirteen days after the birth of her last child.
Children of Elizabeth Dixon and John Stuart:
i. Naomi v. Simon
ii. Dina vi. Hannah
iii. Solomon vii. Benjamin
iv. Alexandra viii. John
REBECCA DIXON was born 13 January 1731, in New Castle County, Pennsylvania (now Delaware). She married at Hockessin Meeting House, New Castle County, 28 March 1746,(Records of Newark Monthly Meeting) William Marshall, son of Jacob and Ann (Griffith) Marshall, born County Tyrone, Ireland, about 8th month 1724, died 28 May 1803, Cane Creek, North Carolina. Rebecca and William emigrated to North Carolina with other members of the Dixon, Marshall, Hadley, and Stanfield families. There they reared a family of eleven children; and there Rebecca died 19 February 1803 and was buried in Cane Creek burial ground. The three Dixon children of Thomas Dixon and Hannah Hadley are buried near each other in that burial ground. The Marshall monument lies perhaps one row of graves and slightly to the left of the Dixon marker; the grave of Ruth Dixon Doan lies slightly to the right; so that all three of the children of Thomas Dixon are buried in the same area of the burial ground. Although the grave of Hannah Hadley Dixon Stanfield is unmarked, the Cane Creek Church Book gives the date of her death as 31 May 1783, and her place of burial as Cane Creek. Perhaps she, too, lies in the area occupied by the graves of her three children which she bore to Thomas Dixon. The graves of William Marshall and Rebecca Dixon, his wife are marked by a monument similar to that of Simon Dixon and Elizabeth Allen. The bronze plaque reads:
William Marshall
Born 1724 Died 1803
Married 1746 to
Rebecca Dixon
Born 1732 Died 1803
Came to Cane Creek 1754
Gave 26 acres of land
To Cane Creek Meeting
They lived across the Creek
West of the Meeting House.
Ancestors of the Marshall family
Of North Carolina dnd of the West.
Erected 1930.
The children of William Marshall and Rebecca Dixon are recorded in the church book at Cane Creek Meeting House entitled CANE CREEK MONTHLY MEETING OF FRIENDS, ORANGE (NOW ALAMANCE) COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA, page 28 (2), and their marriages and deaths are recorded in pages of the same book as numbered in the notes copied from the research records copied for this section of family history.
William Marshill, son of Jacob and Ann, b. Ireland, on or about 8 m 1724
Rebecca Dixon, aft. Thomas & Hannah' b. in New Castle County, Pa., 13-1-1731
i. Hannah b. Augusta County, Va. 4-1-1747
ii. John b. Augusta County, Va. 4-1-1749; d. Apr 13, 1815; bd Cane Creek
iii. Thomas b. Augusta County, Va. 10-8-1751; m. Ann, daughter. Thomas & Margaret Chapman, b. Bucks Co., Pa.,17-7-1752
Children of Thomas Marshall & Ann Chapman:
1. Rebecca, b. Guilford Co., N.C. 24-1-1780
2. Thomas " " " "" 7-2-1782
(From Lost Creek Records)3. Margaret, b. 26-4-1785
4. Miles b. 18-3-1789
5. John b. 1-2-1791
6. Jacob b. 8-3-1793
7. Aaron b. 29-3-1796
iv. Jacob, b. Orange Co., N.C., 20-12-1755
v. Deborah, b. Orange Co., N.C., 14-3-1757; m. Benjamin Hinshaw, s. of Jesse & Abigail' b. Tyrone Co., Ireland' 2-11-1749; d. 24-7-1779, Cane Cr.
Children of Deborah Marshall & Benjamin Hinshaw:
1. William, b. Chatham Co., N.C., 21-6-1775
2. Abigail, b. Chatham Co., N. C., 11-3-1777
3. Hannah b. Chatham Co., N. C. 24-3-1779
vi. Ruth, b. Orange Co., N.C., 6-10-1759; m. Ezra Hinshaw, s. of William & Sarah, b. County Tyrone, Ireland, 23-1-1753, d. 26-11-1836
Children of Ruth Marshall and Ezra Hinshaw:
1. William, b. Randolph Co., N.C., 21-1-1779
2. Ruth b. Randolph Co., N. C., 9-7-1781
3. Hannah b. Randolph Co., N. C., 1-7-1786
4. Sarah b. Randolph Co., N. C., 9-4-1789
vii. Rebecca. b. Orange Co., N.C., 16-5-1762; m. Thomas Hinshaw, s. of William & Sarah b. Tyrone County, Ireland, 30-9-1757.
Children of Rebecca Marshall and Thomas Hinshaw:
1. John b. Randolph County, N.C. 11-3-1781
2. Ezra b. Randolph County, N.C. 20-4-1783
3. Simon b. Randolph County, N.C. 14-6-1785
4. Hannah b. Randolph County, N.C. 20-6-1787
5. Aaron b. Randolph County, N.C. 15-7-1789
6. Emey b. Randolph County, N.C. 9-10-1791
7. Enoch b. Randolph County, N.C. 24-1-1794
8. Ruth b. Randolph County, N.C. 13-8-1796
9. Rebekah b. Randolph County, N.C. 5-4-1799
10. Thomas b. Randolph County, N.C. 2-12-1802
viii. Ann' b. Orange Co., N.C., 2~-6-1764; m. William Davis, s. of John & Mary , b. Orange Co., N.C., 24-10-1763
Children of Ann Marshall & William Davis:
1. Jacob, b. Chatham Co., N.C. 7-1-1784
2. Joseph b. Chatham Co., N.C. 3-10-1785
3. Mary b. Chatham Co., N.C. 19-2-1788
ix. William, b. Orange County, N.C. 28-8-1768
x. Emey, b. Orange Co., N.C., 23-11-1768; m. Isaac Hobson' s. of Charles Sarah b. Chatham Co., N.C.' 23-3-1766
Children of Emey Marshall & Isaac Hobson:
1. Elizabeth, b. Chatham Co., N.C., 30-3-1792
2. Charles b. Chatham Co., N.C., 25-5-1793
3. Simon b. Chatham Co., N.C., 6-5-1795
4. William b. Chatham Co., N.C., 4-6-1797
5. Isaac b. Chatham Co., N.C., 19-1-1799
6. Sarah. b. Chatham Co., N.C. 23-1-1801
7. Jesse b. Chatham Co., N.C. 27-12-1803
8. Rebecca b. Chatham Co., N.C. 27-8-1806
9. Aaron b. Chatham Co., N.C. 28-10-1808
10. B. Chatham Co., N.C. 12-1-1811
xi. Dinah, b. Orange Co., N.C., 18-9-1771; m. George Hobson, s. of Stephen & Ann, b. Chatham Co., N.C.' 27-2-1765
Children of Dinah Marshall & George Hobson:
1. Stephen b. Chatham Co., N.C. 21-2 1796
2. Elizabeth b. Chatham Co., N.C. 23-4-1798
3. William b. Chatham Co., N.C. 30-1-1800
4. Rebecca b. Chatham Co., N.C. 24-11-1801
5. John b. Chatham Co., N.C. 26-2-1807
RUTH DIXON, daughter of Thomas Dixon and Hannah Hadley' was born 1734/5 in Chester (Lancaster) County, Pennsylvania and died in 1764 at Cane Creek, North Carolina. She married 25 November 1756, at Cane Creek Meeting, John (5) Doan (Joseph (4) Daniel (3), Daniel (2), John(1) ) born 30 November 1731, Middletown, Pennsylvania, died 6 March 1811, Cane Creek. Her simple
grave stone,"R. Doan-1764," is the oldest recorded grave in the Cane Creek burial ground and has been so marked by the Historical Society there.
RUTH DIXON (Thomas , William, Henry ), daughter of Thomas Dixon (b. 1705, Chester County' Pennsylvania, d. 1735, Chester County, Pennsylvania, aged 30 years) and Hannan Hadley, his wife(b. 16 November 1709/10, County Westmeath, Ireland, d, 1 May 1783, Cane Creek, N.C.), daughter and fifth child of Simon Hadley and Ruth Kerar, his wife. After the death of Thomas Dixon, her father, who is said to have been the victim of smallpox, Ruth's mother remarried, this time to John Stanfield, and bore him three sons. In the general migration of Quakers from Pennsylvania a into Virginia and the Carolinas, Ruth accompanied her brother Simon and his family, her mother and step-father and their family, and her sister Rebecca Marshall and her husband and family ~ their migration about 1751 into North Carolina, and settled at Cane Creek, Chatham County (Orange), where Simon Di on had pioneered a few years prior to 1751. Families were close-knit groups in the mid, 1700's; so let us take another look at the Dixon family in migration Ruth's sister Rebecca, who had married William Marshall 28 March 1746, in Neckessin Meeting, with her husband and their children; her mother, Hannah Hadley Dixon Stanfield, and her husband John Stanfield, with their three sons, John, Thomas, and Samuel; and her brother Simon Dixon and his wife Elizabeth Allen--all a part of that great Quaker migration from Pennsylvania down the Shenandoah Valley through Virginia to the Carolinas. At Cane Creek the Dixons built a handsome stone dwelling at what was and always has been, Dixon's Mill, built and first used by Simon Dixon in 1753. Some of we interesting experiences which the stone house and the mill have seen and experienced are related under the account of Simon Dixon, who headed the family after the death of his father. The Cane Creek Meeting House shared in the Revolutionary War part of history. The wounded British soldiers were temporarily housed in the Meeting House as a hospital and the Dead were given Christian burial in the burial ground adjacent to the church. A marker erected to their memory pays silent tribute, not only to the dead but also to the living of that day who cared for the dying and respected their graves. By a certificate of removal from the Newark Meeting, Pennsylvania, Ruth was received into membership at the Cane Creek Meeting, 6 April 1754. There, two years later, on 25 November 1756, at Cane Creek public Meeting, she married John Doan, son of Joseph Doan and Mary Carter, his wife. Ruth died in 1764, the same year she gave birth to her daughter Hannah, born March 6 (or June 3) 1764. She is buried in the burial ground at Cane Creek Meeting, where a small, native stone, simply but clearly marked:"R. Doan, 1764" marks her grave. The Historical society has re-set this simple marker into a concrete base which bears an inscription designating hers as the oldest recorded grave in the Cane Creek Cemetery.
Children of Ruth Dixon and John Doan:
i. Joseph, b.23 October 1759, Cane Creek; d. 28 May 1835' Wilmington, Ohio; m. Rocky River Meeting' IS November 1780, Jemima Vestal, b. 8 May 1762, d. 23 July 1832,Wilmington, Clinton County, Ohio, daughter of Thomas Vestal (b. 8 September 1727, Chester County, Pennsylvania, son of William and Elizabeth Mercer Vestal) and Elizabeth Davis, his wife, (b. 17 December 1737, Chester County, Pennsylvania, daughter of Charles Davis and Hannah Matson, his wife). Witnesses at their Rocky River marriage were: Jacob and John Doan, Stephen Hobson, Hannan Davies (Joseph's youngest sister, who had married Joseph Davies), Thomas, Elizabeth and Rachel Vestal (parents and sister of Jemima), Jacob Marshall, William Vestal, Levi Branson, and Joseph and Richard Kemp.
ii. Hannah, b. 6 March 1764 (or 3 June), Cane Creek; m. 14 June 1781, Cane Creek Meeting, Joseph Davies, son of John Davis and Mary Chamness, his wife, b. 1 December 1761, Orange County, North Carolina. Witnesses at the marriage were: Joseph Doan (Hannah's brother), Thomas, Jacob, Ann, John, William and Rebecca Marshall (cousins and uncle and aunt of Hannah, for Rebecca Dixon sister of Hannah's mother Ruth, had married William Marshall), Peter Stout, John and Mary Davies (parents of the groom, Hannah Stanfield (grandmother of Hannah Doan and mother of Ruth Dixon Doan; she is now a widow, John Stanfield having died in 1775), and Jane Maynor.
Children of Joseph Davies and Hannah Doan' his wife:
1. Ruth, b. 26 April 1782
2. John, b. 1 June 1784
3. William, b. 19 December 1786
Joseph Davies died sometime before 4 April 1812, on which date Hannah Davies (formerly Doan) was dis mou Cane Creek Meeting. With Ruth Dixon, the Dixon line of our family merges wit, the Doan line of Joseph (6), John (5), Joseph (4), Daniel (3), Daniel (2), Deacon John (1).
On a separate sheet is the detailed line of Cane Creek Dixons given to me by Anna Lois Dixon,(Mrs. James Dixon), of Cane Creek, North Carolina.
THE OLD STAMPING GROUNDS
__ _
Some Notes on the Quaker Dixons of
Chatham County, North, Carolina.
By: Ben F. Dixon
I have always wondered whence my father's people came. Losing him in 1900, when I was but eight years of age, I never knew any of his people: except his mother who visited us three times within my remembrance; and a niece who, when I was three years of age, had come with her on the first of three visits that I could recall.
I know that he was born in Ohio; that he had spent his boyhood days on a farm adjacent to my mother's childhood home in Stark County, Ill.; and that Grandfather Elisha Dixon had been a soldier of the Civil War. Vaguely I recalled the name of his brothers and sisters, my aunts Sophia, Eva, and Emma, and my uncles Ollie and Frank, -- and some of his uncles and aunts: David and Jane Ray; Joe and Frankie Nicholas; Wayne and Harrison Dixon. But from the time of his death in 1900, until Thanksgiving Day, 1931, I knew little more than this.
On the latter date, with my family, I was at my mother's home at Kahoka, Mo., the town where I was born and reared. I was regretting the fact that I knew nothing of the Dixon's family , when mother said, "If you will get out your father's old ledger, you will fine a record of the Dixon Family that he and his mother put down there years ago, "We found the old ledger, and located in my father's handwriting six or eight pages of family records that had been entered there 40 or 50 years before. It was an open aces to a vast acquaintance with his people and their history.
Letters to his living brothers and sisters brought me to names of many cousins I had never heard of, One of these, Jonne Johnson, a lawyer of Milwaukee, found in the library there a volume called "Kith and Kin". It was published in Los Angeles in 1922, by Willis Wilner Dixon. And it set forth the records of the family of William Dixson, son of Henry and Rose Dixson of County Armagh, Ireland. In 1688, William Dixson, a Quaker, came to Delaware with Penn's immigrants, and married in Newcastle County, Ann, daughter of William Gregg,
Working out the lines from both ends of the chain, it was my good fortune, in less than three years, to trace the line of descent accurately, from William Dixson the Quaker Immigrant, to Pearly Nicholas Dixon, my father. The ends of the chain, and traveling from Pearly backward, the other from William forward, met in Chatham County, N.C. And on the afternoon of August 3rd, 1934--131 years after my father's people had left Chatham County, --I had the pleasurable thrill of stepping back over the county line, the first of the many cousins, so far as I know, to return to the land of their fathers. (The occasion was celebrated by a lead exploration, just as the Ford that was driven by Tommy Dixon--a cousin, six generations removed--blew out a tire as it crossed the line!)
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"THE THREE NUTS"In the car with me were three North Carolina farmers whom their neighbors call "the three nuts". They are Prof. R. H. Hutchison, and Harvey Newlin of Snow Camp and Prof. M. P. Dixon of Graham. They live on neighboring farms near Saxapahaw, in Alamance County. In addition to being farmers, two of them are Veteran teachers. The oldest, Mr Hutchinson, was born in 1877.
He has been teaching since 1898-- the year the writer of these notes first enrolled in public school under Miss lutie LaHew at Kahoka, Mo. Ernest Dixon was born in 1879, and has been teaching more than 30 years. For 14 years he has taught in the Eli Whitney consolidated scholls of Alamance County. Seven years ago Prof. Hutchinson came there, and since then those two have been closely associated, not only professionally, but manually as farmers, and avocationally as historians and genealogists. Their farms are four or five miles apart. Midway betwenn them is the farm of Harvey Nowlin, the third and youngest of the "three nuts". He was born in 1888. Mr. Hutchinson is a Baptist. Mr. Dixon is a Quaker of the modern school. But Harvey Nowlin is an old school Quaker, a genuine hixite, who wears his coat collerless, and his Quaker hat in church.
These three neighbors have during the past ten years became intimately associated in the matter of monumenting the local history of Chatham and Alamance Counties, and in searching at the sources for history and anecdote of their early pioneers. They have organized the South Alamance Pioneer Association, which fosters annual reunions of historic pioneer families, and which from time to time erect monuments to the founders of these families and markers for historic spots. They inaugurated the organization half a dozen years ago with a play depicting the history of the pre-revolutionary regulator movement. From Virginia to South Carolina they travel, in search of probate, court, church and cemetery records that will give them information on the pioneers. It was on an excursion of this kind that they found in Napton Burying Ground below Siler City, the weather-worn gravestones of my Great-great-great-grandparents, Joseph Dixon and Mary Jungy, who went from Delaware to North Carolina in 1764.
No one else in the whole of two counties is so vitally interested in this matter as those three farmers, many people wonder what indeed they can see in this business of digging out records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, bequests and legacies. Who is interested in learning of such stuff? When our Ford stopped at the Hutchinson homestead to pick up the Professor, Hutch, Jr., was scrubbing up his neck on the back porch. "Where you-all goin' today?" he asked of my cousin. "Oh, we're headed for Chatham, to look for a bone," replied Tommy nonchalantly. As the neighbors have slyly dubbed the three local historians "the three nuts". And when I came one of them crowd, "now we have four nuts"!
Those three investigators resolve inquiries from all over the country, for information about the old families, churches, schools, cemeteries, wills, etc., of the pioneer days of Orange, Chatham, and Alamance counties. For no recompense or reward, and in the face of a great deal of local discouragement, they continue their researches, and they feel amply rewarded when some long-lost common cousin turns up suddenly to worship a moment at the pioneer shrines they are trying so hard to authenticate and mark. Hard times have overtaken them along with the rest; but still they keep plugging away. "We used to get a dollar bill with our mail once in a while," said Professor Hutchinson, "but the last year or so we haven't even had our postage bills paid."
EARLY SETTLEMENTS
The early settlement of western North Carolina was effected principally by three tides or immigration which swept southward from Pennsylvania in more or less parallel stream. The easternmost was Presbyterian. The central was Quaker. The western was German. These did not intermingle, but carried three distinct types of civilization southward, through Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, and had penetrated as far south as Georgia by Revolutionary times. Westward movement from the seaboard brought: other elements, Episcopal, Baptist, etc., and these infiltrated in places with the southbound tides of population.
In Orange County, N.C. (from which Chatham and Alamance were later set up) the Cane Creek Monthly Meeting (Quakers) was set up October 7, 1751. Thirty miles to the north and east the Hatsfield Presbyterian Church was organized in 1753. To the southward the Handy Creek Baptist Association was established in 1755. Shortly afterward the Rocky River Baptist Church was organized ten miles east of Cane Creek. From the latter church were formed various other Quaker meetings of the locality.
To the Cane Creek Church came the Allens, the Coxes, the Dixons, the Greggs, the Hadley, the Newlins, the Stuarts, and many other Quaker families from Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania,---- progenitors of man illustrious names; among others: Herbert Hadley, former governor of Missouri; Joseph Dixon, former governor of Montana, and Assistant Secretary of Interior in the Hoover cabinet; and Herbert Hoover himself. These and many other great men trace their Quaker ancestry back to the Cane Creek Meeting of North Carolina.
At Least on son and two grandsons of William Dixson, the Quaker immigrant, settled in Chatham County. Two other sons settled in Virginia, and later went on into Anson County, S.C. One son, lat least, went west into Fayette County, Ia., whence his descendants migrated to eastern Ohio. Descendants of two North Carolina branches went about 1800 into southern Ohio. To get a picture of this dispersion of a fine old Quaker Family, permit me to present my immigrant ancestors:
WILLIAM DIXSON
He was born, about 1662, in County Armagh, Ireland, & son of Henry and Rose Dixson; and married there, Isabelle Rea. She must have died in Ireland, for he was single when he came to America in 1688. On the ship with him were his mother, Rose Dixson, widow; and two sisters, Rose and Dinah. In the year 1690, these three younger Dixons were married in Newcastle County, Delaware; William to Ann daughter of William Gregg; Dinah to Michael Harlen; and Rose to Thomas Pierson. William died in 1708, leaving the following children:
1. Henry Dixon m. April 4, 1715 to Ruth Jones
2. William Dixon m. Feb. 5, 1718 to Hannah Hollingsworth
3. Dinah Dixon m. April 3, 1721 to William Hicklin
4. John Dixon m. August 28, 1724 to Sarah Hollingsworth
5. Thomas Dixon m. August 25, 1727 to Hannah Hadley
6. George Dixon m. October 29, 1725 to Ann Chandler
7. Ann Dixon m. 1730 to Robert Cane
Of the above family, William and John Dixon, with their wives and Thomas Hollingsworth, their father-in-law, migrated to Winchester, Va., where Mr. Hollingsworth died. Later, the two sons entered land in Anson County (then North but now South}
Carolina: John, 244 acres on Fair Forest Creek, in 1753: William 300 acres on Brush Creek, below John Dixon's, May 17, 1754. Apparently, no genealogist has picked up these Dixons and traced their descendants.
SIMON DIXON
About 1750, the southward bound stream of Quaker emigration from Delaware and Pennsylvania began to reach Chatham (then Orange) county. In this stream came Simon, the first Dixon to settle in North Carolina. His mother was Hannah, daughter of Simon Hadley: and from her family came the greatest of Missouri's Republican Governors, Herbert Hadley. His father was Thomas Dixon, a son of the immigrant William. Simon was born in Pennsylvania, in 1728; he bought lands from the Lords Proprietors of North Carolina in 1751; and erected Dixon's Mill on his land in 1753-- a mill which is still grinding. When the Pioneer Association created a monument to Simon's memory in the old Crane Creek Burying Ground in 1929, a millstone with which the Pioneer Simon had once ground corn, was used as a fitting marker for his grave. It was from Simon's branch that the late Governor Joseph Dixon of Montana came.
When Cornwallis's troops were fleeing from Greene's armies, they encamped a day and a night at Dixon's Mill. Cornwallis commandeered Simon Dixon's stone house, for his headquarters. About 20 of his sick and wounded soldiers died at this encampment, and were buried in the Cane Creek Cemetery. When the Lord General took over the Dixon house, the family took temporary quarters in an out - building near by. That night the good old Quaker lady, Mrs. Dixon (who was Elisabeth Allen) wanted a smoke. She remembered that she had left her pipe in the house. But when she went to retrieve it, a hard boiled sentry barred the way and refused permission to enter.
'But I want my pipe!" said Aunt Lib.
"You can't have yer bloody pipe!" growled the sentry, "An' 'ow do I know yer not a bloody hound? Away am' begone, ye rebel!"
The General heard the argument and came outside the house. He had recognized Mrs. Dixon's Voice.
'What's this! What's this!" He called to the sentry. "Trying to keep a - lady out of her own house! Of course she can have her pipe. Come on in, Mrs. Dixon, and get what you like."
JOSEPH DIXON
In 1764, another Dixon came into Chatham County. This was Joseph, a son of Henry, and Ruth Jones. The majority of this family went into Fayette County, Pa., and thence westward. John Dixon, Joseph's brother married Rebecca Cox -- the first of the Dixon - Cox marriages which have since occurred all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific. John and Rebecca were the ancestors of Willis Milner Dixon, who in 1922 published the book "Kith and Kin". He is a fine old man, hale and hearty at 88. It was our pleasure to make his acquaintance a few months since, when with my family I drove up to his home in Los Angeles from San Diego... The great Mark Hanna, whom my old dyed-in-the-wool Republican grandad, E. J. Kinkade, of Clark County, Mo., almost worshiped, was a descendant of John Dixon and Rebecca Cox.
Joseph Dixon was a great land trader in North Carolina. The records show that he was constantly buying or selling tracts or parcels of land. His home tract was on Tick Ridge, three miles south of the present Siler City, in Chatham County. In 1781 his estate was inventoried at 1096 pounds sterling; and Joseph, staunch old Quaker that he was, cited for a four-fold tax for refusing to render military service.
The stretch of country immediately south of Siler City was the old stamping grounds of many pioneer Quaker families who later went into southern Ohio and Indiana. Wilkinson and Roubottom land lay along Love's Creek, Simon Roubottom, a famous gunsmith of those days, had his shop just south of the present site of Siler. Three miles further south was Tick Creek, where Dixon land stretched for several miles. Still further was Brush Creek, where the Rays, Hadley, and Coxes flourished.
Three of the sons of Joseph Dixon and Mary Pusey went into Ross County, Ohio: Jesse, Samuel and Joseph. Another son, Soloman, has been lost in the shuffle. Two boys died young. Nathan, the oldest, married Sarah Winters, and raised a family of eight in Chatham County. He and his wife lie in the Dixon plot in the old Napton Burying Ground on Tick Ridge. Near by are the graves of Pioneer Joseph, his wife Mary, and the widow Mary's second husband, Daniel Winters.
NAPTON
The Napton meeting was set off from Cane Creek in 1780. The Dixons, Roubottoms and Dowds were its pillars. Many local names in that area are Indian names; but Napton is English. It is an old-time Quaker name, carried by English Quakers from Worcestershire into Ireland, and thence brought to Pennsylvania. The Quakers were great people for carrying with them names that had grown dear to them in persecution. Many a Quaker Meeting in this country is the namesake of some parent meeting or the early Pennsylvania and Delaware settlements, or of the English and Irish days of the persecution. So with Napton.
A part of this cemetery is still in use, the latest burials having been Dowds, in 1928 and 1931. In one corner there is a whole colony of Roubottoms and Dowds. Apart from them a little way, is a marble shaft, overshadowed by a 75 - years old boxwood tree. On the shaft is the following inscription:
DOWD'S GEORGE
"In memory of Dowd's George. Dec'd 1858. George was an excellent hat maker."
And therein lies a story, Samuel Dowd married Hannah Roubottom, a sister of Simon, the famous gunsmith. Their parents were Thomas Roubottom and Phebe Dixon, daughter of Pioneer George and granddaughter of Immigrant William. Samuel Dowd was an administrator of estates. In the early days, this was a distinct profession. A man skilled in this sort of litigation would travel from one end of the country to another, taking depostions, quit-claims, notices, and the like, in the closing of estates. Samuel's son, and his grandson, were also administrators of estates. It was his grandson, then an old man, who made one of the latest burials at Napton.
Samuel Dowd was also a manufacturer of Quaker hats. These old head-pieces were made of a felt made from maograted sheep's wool. They were of such masterfully manufacture that some of the Dowd Hats are still in circulation. Harvey Newlin has one of them, and still wears it to Quaker Meeting. It is more than 75 years old, and has been used in many a prairie fire and backwoods fistfight. The Dowd Hat could be thrown into a tub of water, and it would, sponge-like, absorb several quarts. When saturated with water it would make an excellent fire-fighting weapon. When rolled up into a solid roll it could be used as a weapon of defense against the bodily persecutions sometime inflicted upon the peace-loving Quakers by the more boisterous hoodlums of the Scotch-Irish element.
Samuel Dowd had an old Negro slave name George, especially skilled in the manufacture of Dowd Hats. He was such a clever artisan that Samuel made prevision for him in his will, that he be taken care of by the estate. When Samuel died, however, the heirs were not interested in hat-making or good old darky slaves. All they wanted was to get their fingers on the several hundred dollars that George was worth, so they advertized him for sale.
NOTICE
"Will be held on Monday, the 3rd of January, next, at the late residence of Samuel Dowd, a Negro man belonging to said estate. Persons desirous of purchasing such property will do well to attend, as George is an excellent hatter and otherwise a valuable slave, Terms made known on the day of sale. December 6th, 1852"
Thomas N. Dowd - executor
Aaron Harmon - executor
But on the day of the sale, nobody would purchase George. The neighbors all knew his value. They know, too, the provision of old Samuel's will that George be provided for. And every one was afraid of buying property to which a flawless title could not be given. Time after time was George offered for sale, but never was he sold. At length the Highest Bidder of All Sales took George, and he went to sleep the long sleep in the Dowd Plot at Napton. While now, almost hid by the 75 - year old boxwood tree, the little marble shaft declares to posterity that "Dowd's George was an excellent hat maker."
And when for a little while the writers were Harvey Newlin's Dowd Hat, fashioned the better part of a century before by the deft and cunning fingers of the faithful George, he felt indeed that he was in the presence of some Holy of Holies.
GEORGE NIXON
Another George, who no doubt lies at Napton, but whose grave has not yet been located, was George Dixon, born 1706, the youngest son of Immigrant William. He married Ann Chandler, and they followed the other Dixons to North Carolina in 1767.
On the evening of our visit to Napton and the Dixon lands on Tick Ridge, Prof.. E. P. Dixon brought me an old paper, saying as he handed it to me: "I have had this paper for quite a while. It means more to you than to anyone else I know. So I am going to give it to you." The paper reads:
"This indenture made the fourteenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty seven, between Harmon Gregg of Christiana Hundred in the County of Newcastle upon Delaware, Yeoman, and Mary his wife, of the one part, and George Dixon, late of the County and Hundred aforesaid (but now of Orange County in the Province of North Carolina)" -- and proceeds to describe and convey title to George Dixon of 300 acres of land on Tick Creek which had formerly belonged to the Earl of Granville.
This proved to be the original purchase of Dixon Land on Tick Creek. Later on Joseph Dixon, Samuel,. Nathan, Caleb, Joshua and other Dixons purchased land along the ridge, until Dixon acreage stretched up the creek and ridge for several miles. It was in the middle of this land that the Napton Burying Ground was laid off. On the creek moreover was an eleven-acre mill site, where one of the Dixons built a saw and grist mill. It was operated until 1879 (since which time it has fallen into ruin), when the last owner was accidentally killed by his own buzz saw. Wear by on the same Dixon tract, was on Old Tory Fort of Revolutionary times -- a relic which now, if I am correctly informed belongs to the estate of John J. Hackob.
THE REGULATOR: CALEB AND JOSHUA DIXON
George Dixon had five children: Enoch, Caleb, Phebe, Joshua, and George. Of these, Caleb and Joshua were leaders in the Regulator Movement. Caleb managed to retain his standing in the Quaker Community. But Joshua, with a number of other rabid Regulators, was kicked out of the Quaker Meeting.
The most of us, in studying colonial history in our school days, did not catch even a glimpse of the Regulator Movement, which was really our first abortive revolution. It was inaugurated by the Quaker community of Orange County, N.C., as a peaceful protest to Governor Tryon against excessive taxes. The Quakers purchased a printing press, and published and circulated far and wide, petition after petition to the Governor against existing ills. One of the first calls for a meeting of peaceful petition was signed by 12 leading Quaker citizens, including Simon Dixon and William Cox.
But what was intended to be a peaceful protest soon became a violent outbreak against the colonial government. The movement began about 1767, and it was wiped out in 1770, when Governor Tryon sent troops against the Regulators. He defeated them in an open battle on the Alamance, May 16, 1770, took a number of prisoners, and hanged seven of the leaders at Hillsboro. The other leaders were indicted by the Crown, but the cases (which by the way are said to be still open cases in the British Courts) were never tried. The indictments were held as a threat against them, many were forced to swear allegiance to the Crown, and the Quaker Meetings had to publish denials against those of their number who would not recant from their position as Regulators.
When the regulator movement got out of control, the older conservative Quakers, who were averse to bloodshed and militarism, disavowed it without waiting to be forced to do so. Simon and other Dixons withdrew. Not so such hotheads as Joshua Dixon, Harmon, Isaac and Samuel Cox, and the later's two boys, Samuel and Isaac Jr. They were all churched at one fell swoop, and became religious as well as political rebels. From that time on, Joshua Dixon had a hard time in the community. Everything seemed to work against him. One day, years later, he heard the Lord speaking to him from the loft of his log house.
"It's no use, Joshua," Jehovah said, "You can never do any more good in this country. You must seek out a new land." So, in 1797, Joshua Dixon left Chatham County, the first of the Quaker Dixons to wander on in search of a better land. Being now a freelance, he needed no letter from his church, so he could go where he pleased. The last heard of him he was in Moore County, further west. But in 1836 old Samuel Dowd wound up his estate, and by the records we see that Joshua's heirs were established in Ross and Hocking Counties, Ohio; in Orange and Parke Counties, Indiana; and in Clarke County, Ill.
ROSS COUNTY PIONEERS
The aftermath of the revolution, and the gathering storm clouds of a great national struggle over the question of human slavery, started a new Quaker migration to the westward. The Quakers would not subscribe to the institution of slavery, and many of them sought homes in the Northwest Territory where slavery was to non-existent.
Shortly after Joshua Dixon left the old stamping grounds, Caleb's three sons, Daniel, George and Jonathan migrated (1800) to Ross County, Ohio. They followed another Chatham Pioneer, Hugh Moffit, who had gone into Ross as early as 1798. He had there spied out the choice lands, had carried the news back to Chatham and had brought his family thither in 1799. The three Dixons took out land in Liberty Township, Daniel built a mill on the Scioto River - - and it is still grinding.
Three years later (1803) three more Dixons came from Chatham to Ross. They were James (?), Samuel and Joseph, sons of Joseph Dixon and Mary Pusey. Joseph, following the Dixon custom of building mills in new country, located a saw and grist mill on Salt Creek, and it played an important part in the development of that country. Anne, the wife of Samuel Dixon, was a daughter of Caleb and a sister of Daniel, George and Jonathan. Samuel and Anne were second cousins, and great-grandchildren of William Dixon and Anne Gregg. My father, Pearly Nicholas Dixon, was a great-grandson of Samuel and Anne.
About 1807 another Dixon came from the Alamance Country. He was William, and he settled in what is now Vinton County, Ohio, leaving there a numerous progeny. There has always seemed to be a vague cousin ship between his family and the other Ross and Chatham Dixons. It was at the instance of "Old Sam" Dixon, William's son, that Samuel Dowd undertook to wind up the affairs of the estate of Joshua Dixon the Regulator. To date, however, this William has not been fitted into the genealogical scheme.
The Quaker migration into Southern Ohio, which was led by Hugh Moffitt and the Dixons, swelled into a veritable tide, and almost threatened to deplete the population of some of the Quaker Meetings of Chatham County. It included pioneers of the staunchest of Ross County families: Cox, Dixon, Graves, Newlins, Redcliff, Ray, Wilkinson, and others.
It is the writer's hope to be able to pick up this group of Ross County Pioneer Families, and trace them out in a genealogical study.
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NOTE: The author is indebted to a variety of sources for information contained in the foregoing
sketch, including, in addition to sources sketch, a group of Dixon and Wilkinson notes collected by
late Simson Wilson Dixon, of Chicago