Born in New Castle County, Delaware, in 1832. His father was James Dixon, a prominent man of affairs, His mother was a Heald, prominent Quaker family of Chester County, Pennsylvania, whose ancestors came with and belonged to the colony of William Penn. He received his preliminary education at the public schools, and at the Academy of the noted Milton Durnal at Unionville, Pennsylvania. He taught school one season and then entered the National Law School of Poughkeepsie, New York, where he remained two years and from which he was graduated with honors. He came to Ottumwa in 1855 and began practicing law. In 1856 he married Miss Sarah Ann Vernon, whose ancestors were also Quakers, belonging to the Penn colony. In the first year of the war he was elected State Senator on the Republican ticket. Wapello had been one of the banner Democratic counties of the State, and he was the first Republican elected to the Legislature from that County. He served as Senator in the Ninth and Tenth General Assemblies, and was a leader in both of those bodies. In 1873, from various causes, he had become dissatisfied with the management and some of the policies of the Republican Party in the State, and was nominated and elected on the Independent ticket as the Representative of Wapello County in the House of the Fifteenth General Assembly, which convened on the January 12, 1874. The fact that he was elected by the Independents and Democrats as a candidate for Speaker of the House against John H. Gear, indicates the high estimate placed upon his abilities. In the fall of 1875 he was again nominated and elected to the House of the Sixteenth General Assembly, which convened on January 10, 1876. In both of these Legislatures he had a prominent place on the most important committees, and was a foremost and influential member.
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