Among the area’s earliest settlers was
a family of enterprising Irishmen named Dixon who were all born in County Mayo
on the Emerald Isle. Their father was an “above average farmer” and
prominent in his borough. The family, which consisted of parents and nine
children, immigrated to America in 1847 and initially settled in
Virginia. There, sons James, Thomas, Patrick and John took up the
stone-cutter’s trade and worked as bridge builders for the railroads.
This eventually led them Kansas Territory in August of 1854 in the employ of
Col. Ashley, who had contracts to build bridges for the Army at Forts
Leavenworth and Riley.
Here the brothers located claims on land along Three-mile Creek just outside
the boundary of Fort Riley. Then the death of their father called the
brothers back to Illinois. After settling affairs there, they returned to
Kansas with their sisters, wives, and children. Here they camped on their
claim site and commenced to build a suitable dwelling for their clan.
In the meantime the Pawnee Town Company had been organized and a
site was selected in the same area for the new capital city of Kansas. A
few days after their return the Dixons were visited by a detail of soldiers
from Fort Riley who ordered the party to move on, saying the land was already
claimed. The brothers however, being made of substantial material,
maintained their ground and continued to put up their house. A short time
later, Capt. Lowe, Master of Forage at the fort, appeared at the site with
government lumber and crew of carpenters and put up a house on the same claim.
Col. Montgomery, the commanding officer at the post, then notified
the Dixons that they were intruding upon the claim of Mr. Lowe, and must move
off or they would be put off of United States troops. James Dixon
refused, but finally agreed to pay Mr. Lowe $300 to leave, which the latter did.
One day soon after the Dixon house was completed, the brothers
were visited by Judge Ed Johnson. Under the guise of friendship, he urged
the family to leave their claim peaceably as the land was wanted for the
military reserve. In reality, it was wanted by private individuals.
When the Judge could not move the Dixons, he became threatening.
The next move was to send Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, one of the few
abolitionist officers at the fort, to purchase the claim for $1,000, but still
the Dixons refused to leave. A few days later, while the Dixon men were
away grading a steamboat landing at Pawnee, a company of troops commanded by
Capt. Lyon came to the homestead and forcibly ejected the women and children
and then, using oxen and grappling hooks, tore down the house. Upon their
return that night, the Dixon brothers moved back to the same spot and, acting
upon the advice of counsel, put up another house.
A short time later, another officer with a company of troops came
to the site, tore down the second house, and a second time ejected the women
and children in the absence of the men. James Dixon then dug a hole in
the ground and he and his brothers moved into it to guard their claim.
James McClure, an early area settler and lawyer, later shed some
light on what may have motivated Col. Montgomery’s actions where the Dixons’
claim was concerned . He wrote in the Kansas Historical Collections that,
“Governor Reeder had visited Fort Riley and indicated to the town company (of
which both he and Montgomery were shareholders) his intention to make Pawnee
the capital. As one of the conditions for doing this Reeder insisted upon
the company securing for him 160 acres of land adjoining the town site to the
east side, which was where the preemption claim had been made by the Dixon
brothers. Repeated efforts were made to purchase the land, but the Dixons
persistently refused to sell or surrender their right to the claim. When it was
found impossible to induce the Dixons to surrender the 160 acres desired by
Governor Reeder it was determined to force them off by embracing their tract in
the military reservation.”
In the meantime, Capt. Lyon, appalled by what appeared to be gross
misconduct and graft on the part of Montgomery, prepared and preferred charges
against the Major. As a result, he was court-martialed and dismissed from
the Army in December of 1855.
Major Ogden replaced Col. Montgomery and the Dixons found a friend
in this commander. Ogden told them their claim was legitimate and he
encouraged James Dixon to maintain it. With this support, Thomas and
James Dixon walked to Platte City, Missouri, where they laid their case before
General Atchison, then acting Vice President of the United States. The
General reported the problem to Washington, and at the request of President
Franklin Pierce, Generals Churchill and Clark were sent to investigate the
question of the fort’s boundaries.
After this inquiry was completed, they recommended boundaries that
excluded both the city of Pawnee and the Dixon land at Three-mile Creek.
However, Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of war, over-rode this recommendation
and extended the lines to the post to incorporate both Pawnee and the Dixon
claim. The residents at both sites were ordered out and mounted troops
tore done the buildings with grappling hooks.
The Dixons went on to make the most of their bad beginning in this
frontier land. After being booted off their claim, they removed to other
homesteads in the vicinity, and for the most part, were prosperous and
successful.
This picture is of James Dixon
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