A piece of Dixon history: The presidents and generals who visited Dixon in 1832

In its first years, the rustic outpost of Dixon’s Ferry attracted a long list of people who later became “cabinet ministers, United States senators, representatives, governors, and soldiers and statesmen without number.” So said historian Frank Stevens.

He was right. In the early 1830s, Dixon’s Ferry offered the only reliable ferry across the Rock River, allowing travelers from the south or the east to get to the thriving city of Galena. For early travelers, no other ferries were then operating in Prophetstown, Sterling, Oregon, Byron or even Rockford.

A busy way station

In 1831, Lt. Jefferson Davis, the future president of the Confederacy, came to Dixon’s Ferry from his post at Fort Winnebago in Wisconsin. According to his biography, Davis found at Dixon’s Ferry a collection of people, wagons and the mail coach all “detained at the river.”

“The History of Dixon and Palmyra” (1880) reported a similar traffic jam. From 1829 to 1835, “five to twenty teams a day” waited to board Dixon’s ferry on their way to and from Galena.

The busy traffic and the slow process of ferrying meant that travelers often spent the night at Dixon’s Ferry. Their hosts were John and Rebecca Dixon, who operated the ferry, a livery, a trading post and a tavern for meals and lodging.

When the Black Hawk War broke out in spring 1832, hundreds of soldiers converged at Dixon’s Ferry, where a fort had been constructed on the north bank to store rations and munitions.

Three future presidents

Here, three future presidents met in 1832: Lt. Col. Zachary Taylor, Lt. Jefferson Davis and Pvt. Abraham Lincoln. In 1995, Dixon artist Fran Swarbrick painted a memorable re-creation of this famous meeting of “Three Future Presidents” at Fort Dixon. You can view this large painting at the Northwest Territory Historic Center in Dixon.

Col. Taylor, then 47, was a career officer who distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 and was elected U.S. president in 1848.

Lt. Davis, 23, was also a career officer. Shortly after the Black Hawk War, Davis married Col. Taylor’s daughter Sarah. He later became U.S. representative (1845-1846) and U.S. senator from Mississippi (1847-1851, 1857-1861), the U.S. Secretary of War (1853-1857), and president of the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865.

Pvt. Lincoln, also 23, was not a career soldier but a volunteer in the Illinois militia. He was later elected as a state representative (1834-1842), a U.S. representative (1847-1849), and U.S. president (1861-1865). His statue now stands in Dixon on the likely site of Fort Dixon.

But these three presidents are not the only Fort Dixonites who later became famous. Several of these soldiers later became generals during the Civil War.

Future generals

Gen. Winfield Scott, who later lost the 1852 presidential election to Franklin Pierce, came to Fort Dixon when he was 45. Scott had been a general since 1814 and later served as commanding general of the U. S. Army from 1841 until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861.

Another Fort Dixonite was Robert Anderson, who later distinguished himself as the “hero” and commanding Union officer defending Fort Sumter, where the Civil War began. President Lincoln later famously reminded Anderson, “You mustered me into the U.S. service as a high private of the Illinois volunteers at Dixon’s Ferry in the Black Hawk War.”

Confederate generals, too

Two of the officers at Fort Dixon later became generals for the Confederate Army. President Jefferson Davis appointed these two, along with Robert E. Lee, to be among the first Confederate generals.

One was Lt. Albert Sidney Johnston, then 29, a career officer who hailed from Texas. In February 1862, while in command of all armies in the western states, Gen. Johnston was killed in battle at Shiloh, Tennessee.

The other was Lt. Joseph E. Johnston, 25, of Virginia, who became the highest ranking officer to leave the U.S. Army for the Confederacy. Ironically, when this Gen. Johnston surrendered in 1865, he faced the 34th Illinois Infantry Regiment that included 100-plus soldiers from Dixon.

Fondly remembered

All these officers, when in Dixon, enjoyed their meals and exchanges with Father Dixon, then 47, who was renowned for his reliability, hospitality and geniality. The names of Jefferson Davis, Robert Anderson, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott all appear in Father Dixon’s account books as those who bought items and services from John Dixon’s trading post.

After the war, many of these notables fondly remembered the generous white-haired gentleman who served as their host during their military service here. For example, in 1860 on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Jefferson Davis spoke highly of John Dixon, calling him “a very honest man” of “liberal spirit” who “was of great service in the first settlement of the country.”

A laughable proposal

In another famous story from 1840, John Dixon attempted what seemed an impossible task. He wanted the federal government to move the United States Land Office from its proud historic location in Galena to his little town on the Rock River.

Such a move would mean that the hoards of settlers purchasing land in northwest Illinois would need to come to Dixon, not Galena. According to historian Frank Stevens, people in Galena laughed at the idea.

“But John Dixon’s tavern,” Stevens said, “was stronger than the politics and commercial prestige of the giant philistine.”

A favor from the president

John Dixon journeyed alone to Washington to take his bold request to the highest power brokers in the land. After connecting with his old friends, Gen. Zachary Taylor and Gen. Winfield Scott, they arranged and accompanied John Dixon to a meeting with President Martin Van Buren.

The president promptly granted John Dixon’s request. Frank Stevens called it “the miracle of the century in Illinois politics,” attributing the feat to “the man’s venerable personality, his charming sweetness of disposition, his rugged honesty, and possibly his little account book.”

Next week, former Dixon Mayor James E. Dixon will tell other fascinating Dixon stories at the annual Founder’s Day address on April 11 at the Northwest Territory Historic Center. I hope you will join me there at 6 p.m.

• Dixon native Tom Wadsworth is a writer, speaker and occasional historian. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament.