J. W. Dixon
J. W. Dixon, an enterprising and well-known citizen of London, and member of the firm of J. W. Dixon & Co., dealers in dry goods, notion, etc., was born in Loudoun County, Va., June 2, 1841. He is a son of W. H. Dixon. a native of and now residing in Maryland. He has been engaged in the milling business through life, and now at the age of sixty-four years has retired from active business on account of feeble health. He married Elizabeth Feller, a native of Loudoun County, Va., and yet living, at the age of sixty-three years. Our subject is the oldest of nine children, seven living, and obtained a good common-school education in his native State. He subsequently attended Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, and in 1867 embarked in the mercantile trade at Lime Kiln, Md., in company with Mr. Grove, and two years later the firm divided stock, Mr. Dixon going to Baltimore. From 1868 to 1871, he traveled for a wholesale house, and in September of the latter year he married Mrs. M. M. Bradfield and soon after engaged again in the mercantile trade in Loudoun County, Va. He remained there two years and after closing out his business went to Denver, Colo. He remained in that city three years. but owing to the ill health of himself and wife returned East, suffering the of his wife in Virginia, March 20, 1876. He soon after went to Philadelphia, and was employed in the well-known house of John Wanamaker for a period of six years. He came to London in September, 1877, and clerked for Dakin & Cowling until June 1878, when he was united in marriage to Miss E. J. Morgan born near Harrisburg, Ohio, and daughter of Mrs. Martha Morgan, whose family is well known throughout Madison County, and closely related to the Fosters, Chenoweths, Pancakes, Johnsons and others. The November following this union, Mr. Dixon engaged in his present business in the Swetland & Dixon Block, on the corner of Main and High streets. In 1881 he erected his present handsome block, and removed his stock there in February 1882. The building is of brick, three stories high, with a stone front. It is 118x22 feet in size, with sixteen-foot ceilings and erected at a cost about $12,000. Mr. Dixon carries a large stock of dry goods, notions and carpets and, although in business here but a short time he has built up very fine trade, employing five Clerks and with sales averaging $30,000 per annum. Mr. Dixon is a member of the Masonic fraternity, American Legion of Honor, is Superintendent of The Methodist Episcopal Sunday School and President of the Madison County Bible Society. Politically, he is a Prohibition-Republican.
From HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY - W. H. Beers [Chicago, 1883]