BIO: JOB DIXON. A visit to the home of this gentleman would well repay anyone who appreciates thrift and industry and desires to see something of thorough and practical farming. Nowhere in the entire State can a farm he found where everything is utilized to better advantage, and the motto, "Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well," carried out more thoroughly than on section 6, Perry Township, Pike County. The buildings on this farm are of the most substantial and practical kind, as will be proved by the view of the place on another page; the land which is under the plow is thoroughly tilled and everything that will contribute to the enriching of the soil and the improvement of stock and crops is carefully done. Mr. Dixon raises a large amount of stock and feeds them so as to produce the best results, the grain being ground, feed cut and wood sawed by a large wind-mill, with adequate machinery in the barn. He employs every method calculated to improve the condition of his land and if there is any man in the limits of the county who hauls more loads of manure per acre on his land than Mr. Dixon the latter would like to see the man and talk with him.
Mr. Dixon and his wife, formerly Ann Stephenson, are natives of Lincolnshire, England, born June 11, 1828. and December 6, 1834, respectively. Their parents were poor but respectable and the only capital the young couple had with which to begin their wedded life was the habits in which they had been reared, their indomitable energy and their desire to promote each others interests. The day after they were married they set sail for the United States and after crossing from Liverpool to New York continued their journey westward to Adams County, this State. They reached here burdened by a debt of $105 for their passage and man and wife worked for $11 per month during the first winter, 1860-61.
Mr. Dixon was afterward able to obtain higher wages and by good management they soon saved enough to purchase some land in Pike County. Securing the title to one hundred and twenty acres in Perry Township they worked on with unremitting energy, surrounding themselves with more and more of comfort and increasing their landed estate until they now own four hundred acres of fine land in Pike and Brown Counties.
The dwelling of Mr. Dixon is one of the best farmhouses in the county, his barns are modern in arrangement and altogether his home place is a model of attractiveness. lie never succumbs to misfortune but seems rather to be incited to fresh efforts by any catastrophe which overtakes him. A few years since he erected a fine residence at a cost of 83,000 and a few months later the building was burned to the ground. A still better structure soon reared its walls on the same foundation and no signs of the disaster were left on the place. The most of the land owned by Mr. Dixon is under cultivation and in addition to raising good crops he makes a specialty of Shropshire-down sheep, Short-horn cattle and good horses and swine. lie keeps the best strains of the respective breeds, makes a study of his business and has an unexcelled record as a farmer and stockman.
Mr. and Mrs. Dixon have a large family of smart children who are doing credit to the advantages they have received. Two sons and two daughters have been removed from them by death. The living are Thomas, who assists his father on the home farm; Anna, wife of Perry Zimmerman a farmer in Elkhorn Township, Brown County; Emma, wife of Henry Smith a farmer in Northwestern Kansas; William who is unmarried and farming in the same section; Samuel who labors on the home farm; Ellen, Job and Albert who also linger around the parental fireside. Mr. Dixon is independent in polities, casting his vote according to his judgment regarding the special need of the time. He and his wife are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and highly respected members of the community.
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM OF PIKE AND CALHOUN COUNTIES, ILLINOIS, 1894 COPYRIGHT EXPIRED.