Not every community can pinpoint exactly when it got started.

Well, Dixon can.

It was April 11, 1830, when John and Rebecca Dixon and their young family arrived and took over the ferry crossing on the Rock River that became known as Dixon’s Ferry, and later grew to become the city of Dixon.

Those were frontier days in the Rock River Valley, 188 years ago; it was still 2 years before the Black Hawk War would force Native Americans from the region.

It took a special type of leader to make a go of it on the frontier, and later when civilization took hold, to found a city. “Father” John Dixon was such a person.

Succeeding generations of the Dixon family have done their share to provide leadership to the city, region and beyond.

The life of one of those descendants, Sherwood Dixon, will be discussed at Wednesday’s annual Founders Day program.

It will begin at 7 p.m. at the Northwest Territory Historic Center, 205 W. Fifth St. in Dixon, and admission is free.

Sponsors are Dixon Chamber & Main Street and the Lee County Historical and Genealogical Society.

Younger members of the community might not know that Sherwood Dixon (1896-1973), a Democrat, came close to being elected governor of Illinois in 1952.

He served as lieutenant  governor from January 1949 until January 1953 under Gov. Adlai Stevenson II, who won the Democratic nomination for president in 1952 and spent considerable time out of state while campaigning, leaving Dixon to serve as acting governor.

Dixon, an attorney, later served as a federal judge in the Bankruptcy Court for Northern Illinois. He also served in the Army in both World Wars and rose to a high rank. The program will be presented by several of his children.

Not every community has descendants of its founders still close at hand who are able and willing to share stories of the past.

We encourage the public to turn out for this year’s Founders Day program and learn more about a key leader from the past.