Our Past Is Present May 9, 2017

May 9, 2017

You are listening to “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.  Today’s story is about a teacher, Miss Anna Dixon, who in May of 1945 retired after completing 39 years in the Junction City School system. She closed out her year and went to the Dixon farm to spend the summer with her three sisters as she had done for the previous 41 years, but that year was different, because she was ending her teaching career.  Miss Dixon was born in a small log cabin on the Military View Farm northwest of Junction City on old Highway 77.  Locally known as the Dixon Place, Anna’s parents raised 11 children on that farm. The Dixon home had always been a meeting place for young people from Junction City as well as those in the rural community.  In the early days there were no fences and the wagon trail ran directly across the military reservation to the Dixon home.  Miss Dixon completed two years at Junction City High School before accepting a position as a rural teacher beginning at Seven Mile School before going to Ogden and then Leonardville.  In January 1905, she entered the Junction City school system and taught there for 39 years.  It was said that she “Built the characters, the ideals, the hopes and aspirations of a small army of Junction City people.”