David Dixon’s (1816 – 1880) obituary gives the only available history of him. He was a mail carrier in another part of Illinois before settling in Bloomington. In the censuses he was listed as a laborer (1850), a farmer in Gridley (1860) and a cistern builder (1870). During the Civil War David and his son Wilton enlisted with the 149 Ill. Inf. Co. F., which was a short term enlistment at the close of the war. David Dixon and Loretta Battman married in 1844 at the home of David Davis, where she had been living. They had eight children, three of whom were living in Bloomington at the time of Loretta’s death in 1901.

 

               In 1892 Charles Dixon (1858 – 1892), a son of Loretta and David Dixon died of typhoid fever at the age of 34. He was a barber, and his family lived at 621 E Mulberry. He left a young widow, Mary, and two small children, Clarence (1887) and Camilla (1882). Mary’s father died in 1898 and in the 1900 census, Mary was not living with her mother, who lived in Bloomington. In 1910 Mary Dixon was living in Bloomington with Camilla and her husband William Wayne and her son Clarence, who was a plumber. Camilla and Clarence both lived in Peoria in later years and died there. How Mary managed to raise her two children without remarrying will remain a mystery.

 

               Sarah Dixon (1848 – 1928) married Thomas Saul, an Irish immigrant and veteran of the Civil War. Their son George Saul was a boilermaker with the railroad shops. His daughter Eileen Malcom Romans (1916 – 2007) was the only descendant to continue the Dixon family line in McLean County. Attended Trinity High School from 1931 to 1934.

 

               If you are a descendant of Eileen Saul Malcom Romans, you are related to this 1838 pioneering family.