TAMPICO TORNADO
Thursday, July 13, 1876

FAther John Dixon, the founder of the city of Dixon and one of the oldest pioneers of the West who were living on the Centennial Fourth of July, died, at that place this morning, aged 92 years. He was a native of Westchester County, N. Y.  and came to Illinois in 1820. In 1830 he settled with his family at the point where the city of Dixon now stands, establishing there what was then called Dixon's Ferry on the Rock river. He made the original plat of what is now the city of Dixon in 1835. Of his own immediate family he is the last survivor, his wife and their ten children having proceeded him down the "dark valley." He has now living thirty descendents - grandchildren and great grand-children. Father Dixon was a remarkable man in other respects than his longevity. He was a strictly moral and religious man, and of unusual practical sense. He was held in affectionate veneration by all who knew him. - [Chicago Journal, July 6]