William Dixon 1840 - 1924
William French Dixon was born on 1 March 1840 in Posey County, Indiana, USA. He was the son of Samuel Dixon (1805-1876) and Elizabeth Casselberry (1807-1850). He married Mary Jane Barter (1842-1923) on 4 December 1866 in Posey County. They had the following children:
Oscar Samuel Dixon (1869-1923)
Eva Dixon (1870-1965)
Mary Elizabeth Dixon (1873-1904)
Daughter Dixon (1884-1884)
William first showed up by name in the 1850 census in Marrs Township of Posey County. (census image here).
Apparently between 1850 and 1860 William's family moved to Henderson County, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Posey County. All of his older siblings had gotten married by then (or gotten married and then died) except for his sister Hannah, who was still living there. (census image here).
On 19 August 1861 when he enlisted as a private in Company A of the 25th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, William listed his residence place as Posey County.
On 19 November 1863, William was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in Company A of the 10th Indiana Cavalry Regiment at Black Hawk in Miami County, Indiana. The only reference I can find to the "Black Hawk" place name in that county is that it was the former name of Erie Township, but that township was renamed in 1847. Perhaps there was a community within the township that was still known as Black Hawk. In any event, William would have been mustered out of the 25th Infantry either before or on the date of his commission as an officer in the 10th Cavalry. Up to that point it sounds like military life must have been agreeing with him.
Things took a turn for the worse for William on 17 December 1864, when he was captured by Confederate forces in Tennessee and subsequently sent to the infamous Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. Even at that late date in the war (or perhaps especially because of the deteriorating condition of the South) conditions in the camp were quite horrible, although supposedly they were better at that point than they had been earlier in 1864.
Even though some records list the official "liberation" of Andersonville as May 1865, obviously prisoners were being released earlier than that because when the paddle wheel steamer S.S. Sultana stopped in Vicksburg, Mississippi in late April, the ship was rapidly overloaded with Union soldiers trying to get home including a number of POWs who had just been released from Andersonville and other Confederate prison camps. One of those ex-POWs was William Dixon.
The Sultana was only rated to carry 376 people (either passengers or passengers and crew, I am not sure which -- the nominal crew count was 85 people). In any event, when the ship pulled out of Vicksburg, she was carrying around 2,400 people. There was a faulty steam boiler on the vessel that was supposed to be fixed in Vicksburg, but rather than a full repair, which would have taken at least two or three days, a hasty fix was done with a small patch to the boiler. The boiler exploded at 2:00 am on 27 April 1865 when the ship was a few miles north of Memphis, Tennessee.
The explosion and the resulting fire which sank the ship caused the loss of somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of the people who were on board. The official tally of the dead was 1,547 but some later estimates have placed the death toll as high as 1,800 people. Bodies from the incident were found in and on the shores of the Mississippi River for months after the explosion and sinking.
Fortunately for William he survived this ordeal too. But the twin strains of the ordeal of captivity and then the sinking of the Sultana are said to have wrecked his health. It is entirely possible he never fully recovered from what happened to him during and just after the war.
Just to officially wrap up William's military career, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on 1 May 1865, then mustered out of the Army on 15 May 1865. William's father Samuel was discharged from the Army as well in June 1865 so I can imagine there must have been some tearful reunions going on after that.
William married Mary Jane Barter in December 1866. I suspect it would have happened sooner but there was probably some serious nursing back to health involved before he could handle a wedding.
The 1870 census found William, Mary Jane and their son Oscar Samuel in Marrs Township. In addition to the family there was a 17 year old named Theodore Fisher living with them who may have been a hired hand or a boarder, he is not recognizable to me as a relative of either William or Mary Jane. (census image here).
By 1880 (still in Marrs township) two daughters had been added to the family. In addition to the direct relatives, a niece of Mary Jane's, Lizzie Barter, was also staying with them. In addition, there were four people listed as hired hands staying with them, although the Williamses may have also been relatives by marriage of William Dixon: a 23 year old named Joel Williams, a 21 year old named Alvin McIntosh, a 20 year old named James Holliman, and a 14 year old named John Williams. (census image here).
Between 1880 and 1900 William and his family moved to Mount Vernon, Indiana. The three children were all still at home, even though they were in their late twenties and early thirties by now. (census image here).
In 1904 William and Mary's daughter Mary "Mollie" died at the age of 28 and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in Mount Vernon. There were no other changes between then and the 1910 census. (census image here).
The 1920 census found the family still in Mount Vernon. Apparently neither Oscar or Eva ever got married. (census image here).
1923 was a bad year for the family, as Oscar died on the 4th of January and William's wife Mary Jane died on the 9th of July. William himself died the following year on 29 March 1924, and joined his wife and at least two of his children at Bellefontaine Cemetery.
I have not found any evidence that Eva ever married, but she lived until 1965. I would guess that she would have been buried in Bellefontaine also but have not found any evidence that she was.
Other Links
William French Dixon page at Find A Grave
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