19. Nathan Dixon⁴ Hunt (Horatio Peter³, Nathan Dixon², David¹) (#12) was born in Dixon Station, Greene, Indiana, United States June 21, 1875.⁽⁵²¹⁾ Nathan died September 8, 1949 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, at 74 years of age.⁽⁵²²⁾

He married Estella Simpson in Mount Carmel, Wabash County, Illinois, United States, CA 24 FEB 1896.⁽⁵²³⁾ (Estella Simpson is #13.) Estella was born in Owensville, Gibson County, Indiana, United States June 4, 1872.⁽⁵²⁴⁾ Estella was the daughter of James Monroe Simpson and Laura Fullerton. Estella died July 3, 1939 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, at 67 years of age.⁽⁵²⁵⁾ In 1945, NATHAN DIXON HUNT wrote three letters which were copied by ROOSEVE FERN HUNT. They appeared in her genealogical research. Chicago, Illinois 608 N. Lorel Ave. January 30th, 1945 SPENCER DIXON -- Remembering your expressed wish for family records and history, I am nursing a cold, gratifying a desire to record family data and I hope amusing you in some way. A few facts of the WALKER -- DIXON family side of your family that I have collected and remember -- CHARLES WALKER (your Great-Great-Grandfather) had children born in Kentucky, Indiana and Texas. He migrated from Kentucky to Indiana in the year 1823, and to Texas from Scaffold Prairie neighborhood west of Worthington) in 1939. On the day of his departure his daughter, MARY JANE (age 16, born in Kentucky) married DANIEL GREGG DIXON, whose family had moved to southern Indiana about the same time, through Madison, Indiana. CHARLES WALKER apparently prospered and his descendants in Texas in turn spread to the ocean, leaving a zig-zag migratory trail that started in Northern Ireland, Ulster, and continued the Westward trek from North Carolina, filtering through the Blue Ridge and Cumberland Mountains, probably the Cumberland Gap, into the Ohio Valley. The first part of this is imaginary, more or less, but follows the known trail of the Scotch-Irish. If they entered at a Northern Port, they drifted down the Eastern slopes of the Appalachians, through the Shenandoah Valley into the Carolinas, where they paused to catch their breathes and took a run and jump over and through the mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky. Ports of entry were New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Charleston. The pattern applies to the DIXON clan up the Ohio River; individuals being traceable only from that point. Some branched off in Tennessee. The DIXON's of our and collateral branches, when their feet got hot, stood up in Southern Indiana, facing the sunset, marched straight into it, marking their trail nearly in a straight line to the Western States, leaving unidentified descendants, townships, counties and towns honored by their name. Other branches of the DIXON family buried their dead in various cemeteries and emigrated more completely than the WALKERS. The WALKERS, in Texas, became slave holders and absorbed the Southern view of the political issues of that day. Two brothers of MARY JANE WALKER DIXON enlisted in the Southern Army, were captured and landed in the Indianapolis prison stockade. DANIEL G. DIXON secured their parole and one, JAMES (a younger brother who MARY JANE had never seen) was reconstructed, being perhaps one of the first victims of that period of our history, and enlisted in the Northern Army. He died in 1865, somewhere in Kentucky on his way to the front. His body was shipped to Indianapolis, teamed to Greene County, where he lies beside his sister MARY JANE in the Dixon Cemetery. SAMUEL DIXON, who is buried in Worthington Cemetery, had two sons we know of. DANIEL G., our forbearer, and WILLIAM by a second wife. DANIEL's descendants generally remained in or about and returned to Greene County for their final rest. Other branches of our common ancestors -- the GREGGS -- WRIGHTS and MUMFORDS. Scotch-Irish stock appears to have followed the same general patten in converging on the Ohio crossings in Kentucky. One, the DUVALS, of Louisville, Kentucky, may have been French. Speaking of SAMUEL DIXON's son, WILLIAM; he left one son, MANUEL, who was raised by and with the family of DANIEL G. and died in Linton. WILLIAM was a Forty-Niner, going to California through the Panama Route. He returned with a belt of gold and a sore leg, overland. (I have a three legged cast iron pot brought back by WILLIAM in which he brewed herbs with which he treated his leg.) Later he married an INGERSOLL, cousin of Grandmother HUNT and her brother, J.W. INGERSOLL, and went west of Fort Bridger, west of Cheyenne somewhere, and homesteaded in Oregon, where his descendants are scattered through the North West Pacific States and Montana. Two Grandsons are doctors, practicing somewhere East of the Rockies, as last heard by us. There is unverified record of MARY JANE and DANIEL DIXON residing in Vigo County, Indiana but their first permanent home appears to have been Point Commerce, a defunct village, on the heights across the Eel River from Worthington. (A plague visited the White River Valley in the early fifties, or late forties, and mysteriously wiped out a goodly part of the population. This caused the abandonment of Point Commerce and the making of Worthington. Perhaps the plague only contributed temporarily to the depopulation of Point Commerce, but Worthington was being developed as a shipping point on the canal being built from Terre Haute south.) The next permanent record we have is the Old Dixon homestead west of the extinct Dixon Station and south of the Newsom home of your Grandmother. The alleged DIXON physical and character traits are largely, in my opinion, WALKER. (My late Aunt MAT GECKLER would catch me up short on this.) The high forehead and width between the WALKER ears,is modified in the children, by the broad wrinkled and benign forehead of DANIEL G., forming a new pattern in which all of their children are molded and later descendants to the fourth generation, are unmistakably marked by this mold. MARY JANE WALKER DIXON was a modern matriarch, ruling her family to her last active days. During an illness she required the presence of my mother, ANNA DIXON HUNT. The Pennsylvania Railroad called out a section crew with a hand pump car and issued orders for them to run from Switz City to Dixon and return, after midnight, carrying my Mother. I was also a passenger. This was done perhaps to mollify her for the killing of a cow, which the Railroad would not pay for, claiming the cow trespassed. The family skeleton has whispered that she at one time greased the rails of the Dixon Hill in retaliation. Grandmother was the country Doctor of her time and was widely consulted. She physicked the adult generation of Fairplay Township, then brought their offsprings into this world and repeated on them. It is of record she was the first licensed woman doctor in Indiana. DANIEL was a good provider, engaged in flatboating down Lattas Creek, White, Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. A canalboat Captain between Terre Haute and Evansville on the Canal, crossing the White River at Newberry. He also engaged in teaming supplies in the that country, hauling iron for the first iron bridge across White River, located a mile north of the present steel bridge, East of Bloomfield. The family must have been Methodist as your Grandfather was named CHARLES WESLEY. He was the reckless, handsome and daring Beau Brummel of his time and a superior mechanic. He had many admirable qualities. (Without prejudice or exact information, I express the opinion that his WALKER mother (MARY JANE), of a slave holding family, prevented him from enlisting in the Northern Army, as it was the great adventure of his age and would be a natural for his type.) There is no record of the DIXONS holding slaves after they left Kentucky. This in general is half of your background, if you at any time want to further back you can at the expenditure of decades of time and fortunes of money, do so, but remember eight generations back, you have one hundred and twenty eight antecedents and I would recall to you the experience of the parents of Midshipman, Jack Easy, who in erecting a family tree for him, found an ancestor hanging in it. Wishing you a successful trip and a return to your family within the allotted time, I remain, Yours truly NATHAN DIXON HUNT (MARY JANE and DANIEL G. DIXON had fifteen children, including a set of twins, eight of which reached the age of maturity, your Grandfather and his brothers and sisters.) <1> February 12, 1945 SPENCER DIXON Enroute Hawaii P.S. to my letter of January 30th. DANIEL G., my grandfather, died in 1874, leaving a well equipped home and farm, and investments in Indianapolis vacancies. The estate was administered by ZACK NICHOLS, a son-in-law. Under his administration the Indianapolis lots disappeared and the home and farm estate diminished to a small triangular piece of ground east of the railroad in Dixon Station, where my first and only recollection of Grandmother (MARY JANE DIXON) started in about 1880. She occupied a small house, one of two on the land; the other was occupied for awhile by your grandparents. DAN DIXON was born there. She also owned some vacant lots on the west side of the railroad, some small residences and a store building. In this building she had a small general stock of goods, was Post Mistress and practiced medicine in her home. She had NELSON GASKINS, who married KATE AMODINE, as a helper. WALKER GASKINS was born there as well as myself. WALKER began his railroad career there early, attending a switch light, I have heard. As related by DEBBIE INGERSOLL MILLER, I also had my first railroad experience there. When her mother brought her to see me, one month old, and was allowed to hold me, a train whistle sounded the approach of a train and she suddenly jumped up and ran out to "see the train," with my head dangling over her arm. she said that was the reason for my gangling neck. Part of the ground occupied by grandmother was tilled and part was an unfenced pasture used by her cows, and hogs, her neighbor's stock too; few fenced their stock. Her hogs strayed further often but her calling was equal to any distance up to two miles. She had a strong carrying voice and I believe would have taken a prize in a modern radio hog calling contest. All of this has disappeared from the scene now; even the hill on which the railroad tracks were said to have greased by her, had been graded out of existence. A strong and useful character; her type and kind have also disappeared. A history of Greene County, published in 1884, mentions the first physicians in the county -- quote, "and old Mrs. DIXON, who in her way was a superior nurse. She knew how to use all the roots and herbs possessing medical properties, which grew in the woods and on the prairie and always kept a supply on hand. She presided at the entry into the world of many of the children of the township." I have put in writing many incidents and recollections with copies for all that may be uninteresting to many, but they are mostly for my immediate family. N.D. HUNT March 7, 1945 608 N. Lorel Ave. Chicago 44 Ill WICK MILLER P.O. Box 411 Oswego, Oregon Dear WICK: -- As I have a distinct recollection of you in your parents (O.P. MILLER and DEBORAH INGERSOLL) home, I will introduce myself as the son of ROACH HUNT, and try to comply with your request to WALKER, who forwarded it an one of his own for the same information. I have at different times in my life collected family data and your letter reawakened this interest. With the help of my daughter, ROOSEVE, I have delved into the past again and she has arranged the form, which I enclose, with some recollections and incidents and persons relating to the DIXON-HUNT-INGERSOLL family, which I will inflict upon you whether or not. All will be impartially treated as to that part and I am in hopes that we will be able to trade you information for information of the WINES-INGERSOLL family. If you have any please forward. My first effort was to trace the ownership of the INGERSOLL homestead, in Old Fairplay, Greene County. Greene County's records show the quarter section was entered or purchased at a Public Land sale by W.C. Field, who in 1841 transferred it to J.W. WINES, at which point the records hump to PETER INGERSOLL, your Great Grandfather. There is record of your Grandfather purchasing the shares of the heirs of PETER. Your Grandfather improved buildings and farm and upon his death it was a well equipped and kept homestead farm. I enclose a snap taken of it in 1940, a sad reminder to me of the home and farm as I remember it. My first recollection was your Grandfather's (J. WICKLIFF INGERSOLL) funeral, held in the large parlor in the left side, or West end of the house, as shown in the picture, with my Grandmother (MARY INGERSOLL), his sister. I recall as the services progressed the mourning became audible, then louder and louder until I, a small boy, became affected in the same manner when my Grandmother pinched me and shut me up. Pinching must have been on both sides of the family as my Mother (SARAH ANNE GREGG DIXON) used the same method of discipline. This same Grandmother later, once caught me at the Linton Fair attending a striking machine (one of those that you got three strikes with a maul on a lever for a nickel and if you rang the bell at the top of the shaft you got a cigar). She elbowed through the crowd, nipped me by the ear and led me through the crowd away from such hellish business. (One really got a nickel's worth in swinging the maul and grunting). Later in the day I engaged in selling red synthetic lemonade from a rain barrel which she did not object to although the customers were all cheated. Your Grandfather died in Hot Springs, in case you do not know, and left the home and farmland of a well to do farmer, equipped with the best the period afforded toproduce a comfortable living. The house shown in the snap was two stories both main and rear el, with a hall through the main building from the front to the rear porch. Large old fashioned fire places were built in each of the two large downstairs rooms -- living and parlor. In the fenced yard was a large tree with an extended limb for a chain swing, smoke house, wash house and a deep well. The well was covered by a large flag stone and the opening was housed in from the roof of which was suspended on a pulley, two "old oaken buckets," which hung in the well. To the West, left in the snap, was large orchard on a hill sloping to the East and South. On the West side of the hill was Indian burial mound built up of sand although the hill was of clay under the top soil. It was perhaps seventy five feet above the surrounding land when TIP and I played around an old excavation on the top. My Father when a boy visiting his Grandfather (PETER INGERSOLL, JR.), remembered that the mound was wooded and that human bones had been taken out. A skull, he remembered, was wired to snap its jaw and jokes were played on visitors by placing it in a closet, operating the jaw with a string. In about 1890 your Grandmother bought in Worthington, several Texas ponies and helped to introduce this dwarf breed into Greene County stock. Among them were two colts, one of which became TIP's riding pony, TIP was equipped with a suitable cowboy outfit and rode herd on the three or four old bossies, running them to the barn at milking time, whooping and cracking a long blacksnake whip, driving your Grandmother to distraction and the cows to withholding their output. The other was broke to the family buckboard, but never was trusted like old Doc, ageing family horse who for a generation was noted for his gentleness and cleanliness -- he slept on one side of his stall and used the opposite for all other purposes. I had the honor of being kicked on same day by TIP's pony, named Barney, and by the alleged family driving horse, Billy. The first by Barney was an entirely unprovoked assault, but in the case of Billy he was probably aggrieved by my endeavors to hitch him to the buckboard. It seems the HUNT, INGERSOLL AND DIXON families were confusedly mixed. My late brother-in-law, ED KNEPPER used to refer to that "damn HUNT-DIXON" family. Your Grandfather's cousin, RACHEL, daughter of PETER's brother, DANIEL, married Grandfather DIXON's (DANIEL GREGG DIXON) half brother, mentioned elsewhere. My Grandfather HUNT's name was NATHAN DIXON HUNT, but I can't identify what DIXON. We find record of two PETER INGERSOLLS, one mentioned as a Major in the Revolutionary War and one as a Captain in the War of 1812. They migrated from New York State and PETER JR. and PETER SR. were enumerated in the Census of 1820 and 1830 in Greene County. Can you identify them from you Mother's (DEBORAH INGERSOLL-MILLER) records? There were four brothers in the WINES family, apparently of Scotch-Irish stock moving into Southern Indiana with the vast stream flowing westward from Northern Ireland, but the first record we find of them is their arrival in Greene County from Kentucky in 1820. They could have been of other stock and their line of migration from the headwaters of the Ohio to Kentucky. My Father regarded the WINES family highly, The original four settlers (brothers), were educated and successful men in all their undertakings and leaders in their communities. They are credited with the founding of the town of Linton, being perhaps early real estate promoters, as it is of record one of them donated the ground for the Methodist Church. Their descendants numbering many hundred produced professional men, congressmen, judges, etc. I only recall one of them though he was an educated drunk. You mention DALLAS. His Mother's people laid out Switz City. The family was English, the first in Indiana being T.J. EAST, North Carolina born, moving to Monroe County Indiana, then to Greene County. One son, THOMAS, was the Father of NETTIE, Mother of DALLAS. TIP's (HARRISON C. INGERSOLL) otherchild, by the WARD girl, lives in Elgin, just west of here. I do not know her name, but my niece, ANNA BARBARA KNEPPER, has visited her. This reference reminds to mention that you have relatives on you Father's (O.P. MILLER) side, whose sister married the son of old HENRY SWITZ, part of whose farm was laid out as Switz City. You had one cousin, JOHN, now dead, but he left a family. The INGERSOLLS were unmistakable Whigs and Republicans, as evidenced by the number of given name of HARRISON, starting with your Grandfather's brother, TIP, a political given name honoring the first HARRISON President, shortened to Tip or Tippy as used by your Mother and Grandmother, an abbreviation of Tippecanoe, where Old General HARRISON made a good Indian out of Tecumseh's brother and made himself President. The political rallying cry of that campaign was "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." The given name WICKLIFF was also a favorite for your family, as you know that it started with WICKLIFF WINES, brother of LEONARD WINES. The SPENCERDIXON, to whom I have addressed a letter about the DIXONS, copy of which is enclosed, is the son of CARL (DIXON), the deceased son of CHARLES WESLEY (DIXON), son of DANIEL and MARY JANE (DIXON). The three mentioned seem to have inherited brains and ability from DANIEL and MARY, but SPENCER is the only one that has capitalised the common inheritance. The incident you mention of my Father is typical. If you had pursued your request farther and asked him what was good, he probably would have told you that cold pie and navy beans contain all elements the body needs and who can say? He lived to be 72 years old on a very restricted diet, which doubtless did not include onions. It is likely I have mentioned many incidents and individuals that have nothing to do with a family tree and may be boring, but you will pardon my desire to set down for my family, the events and characteristics of the participants, of the first and second generation before your time. I will add some current information that might as well be recorded as of this date, of the living remnants of our common ancestry. There are four children of CHARLES W. alive -- Mrs. MAMIE CLAYWELL of Chicago. Mrs. KOCK of Colorado Springs. WALKER GASKINS and REED DIXON, Uncle Nate's boy. REED started life with an education and an inheritance just before the depression which wrecked his business and family life, from which he never recovered. I have an Aunt Nick, Mrs. HANNAH NEWMAN, age 83, living in Linton. Of the DIXON-INGERSOLLS, I can recall only your Mother's family, TIP's and the writer's. Yours very truly, NATHAN DIXON HUNT

Nathan Dixon Hunt and Estella Simpson had the following children:

27 i. Elmae⁵ Hunt (#115) was born in New Albany, Floyd County, Indiana, United States 1897.⁽⁵²⁶⁾ Elmae died 1900 in English, Crawford County, Indiana, United States, at 3 years of age.

28 ii. Lucille Francis Hunt (#116) was born in New Albany, Floyd County, Indiana, United States October 9, 1898.⁽⁵²⁷⁾ She married Sofus F. Andersen December 1919. (Sofus F. Andersen is #117.) (See Sofus F. Andersen for the continuation of this line.)

29 iii. Anna Dixon Hunt (#10) was born in English, Crawford County, Indiana, United States November 10, 1900.⁽⁵²⁸⁾ Anna died January 3, 1932 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, at 31 years of age.⁽⁵²⁹⁾ She married John Robert Nicholas in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, August 1925. (John Robert Nicholas is #9.) John was born in Arlington Heights, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States March 12, 1895. John was the son of John Edward Nicholas and Cora Skillman. John died BEF 1974 in Park Ridge, Cook County, Illinois, United States. (See John Robert Nicholas for the continuation of this line.)

30 iv. Rooseve Fern Hunt (#113) was born in Mount Carmel, Wabash County, Illinois, United States ABT 1901.⁽⁵³⁰⁾ She married Larry Becker. (Larry Becker is #114.)

31 v. Eugenia Hunt (#118) was born 1905.⁽⁵³¹⁾ Eugenia died 1906 at 1 year of age.

Send email to preparer: chaney.genes@galaxycorp.com

Return to Table of Contents or Index

Go to Next Page

Go to Previous Page