A piece of Dixon history: Was Lowell Park inspired by Walden Pond?

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.”

These famous words come from Henry David Thoreau’s book, “Walden; or, Life in the Woods.” Now regarded as an American classic, the book traces Thoreau’s two-year experiment of “living simply” in a cabin in the woods, along the serene shores of Walden Pond.

Evidence indicates that Charles Russell Lowell’s 1859 purchase of today’s Lowell Park acreage was inspired by Thoreau’s masterpiece. If true, Dixon’s Lowell Park is even more significant than we thought. Hear me out.

Becoming one with nature

In 1854, when Thoreau published his book, 19-year-old Charles Russell Lowell III had just graduated from college as the valedictorian of Harvard University. Walden Pond was only 12 miles from Harvard, and Thoreau, also a Harvard graduate, published his book in nearby Boston, the hometown of the wealthy Lowell family.

In college, Lowell was known to be “intimately familiar with the classics of literature and philosophy.” After all, Lowell was a nephew and friend of the famed poet James Russell Lowell, who was also a Harvard graduate.

Charles Lowell devoured “Walden” just as he was entering his adult life. In an 1855 letter to a close friend, Lowell even quoted a line from it.

Thoreau and Lowell were both admirers of Ralph Waldo Emerson, another Harvard graduate from Boston. Emerson led the transcendentalist movement, which promoted self reliance and becoming one with nature, which was the central theme of the Walden Pond book.

Discovering the property

Lowell was attracted to “oneness with nature.” In 1857, Lowell wrote of his longing to move somewhere to embrace his “hallowed intercourse with Nature” so that he could “cultivate the vine and the olive, to think none but high thoughts” that would “develop into character.”

In 1858, the single, 23-year-old Charles Lowell secured a job as a railroad executive in Burlington, Iowa, about 110 miles from Dixon. Lowell then discovered the eventual “Lowell Park” property that bordered the storied Hazelwood estate of Alexander Charters, now known as the Walgreen Estate.

Lowell’s interest in the property may have been sparked by fellow transcendentalist Margaret Fuller, who wrote of her visit to Hazelwood in June 1843, or by the poems of William Cullen Bryant, who wrote of his Hazelwood visit in 1841. The beauties of Lowell Park and Hazelwood are one and the same.

Fuller called this wooded property “The Western Eden,” describing it as a place of “singular beauty, a beauty of soft, luxuriant wildness” with its peaceful haven of undisturbed nature accented by spectacular vistas of the Rock River.

John Ames, a Burlington railroad engineer and an 1854 Harvard classmate, recommended the 201 acres to Lowell. Many railroad employees may have known about the acreage, since the Illinois Central Railroad was built in 1855 with wood harvested from its abundant trees, only 800 feet from the railroad tracks.

Investing in the future

So, in 1859, the young 24-year-old Lowell bought the property, which was probably the first major purchase of his life. Think about that. Even though Lowell had traveled extensively throughout Europe and the United States, he chose to purchase these 200 acres along the Rock River.

Lowell had spoken highly of the beauties of this property, noting that he planned to live there. He was undoubtedly enticed by its picturesque half-mile frontage along the river, its majestic bluffs overlooking the flowing waters, and its natural panoply of birds, animals, trees and flowers.

So, my theory is that the young Lowell was deeply attracted to Thoreau’s idea of “Life in the Woods” and of living “deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.” Like Thoreau, his fellow transcendentalist, Lowell could live in a cabin in the woods, near the peaceful waters.

An untimely death

However, in 1860, shortly after buying the Dixon property, he was called to take charge of a factory in Maryland. Retaining the property for future use, he moved back east.

In April 1861, the cannon fire on Fort Sumter interrupted Lowell’s aspirations of developing his Dixon estate. A firm idealist and opponent of slavery, Lowell immediately joined the Union army and was commissioned a captain.

Over the next three years, he served in a cavalry regiment with vigor and gallantry, distinguishing himself in the Union victory at Antietam, eventually rising to the rank of colonel.

In 1863, in a brief break from the war, he married Josephine Shaw in New York City. But the next year, Lowell was felled by a bullet at the Battle of Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia.

Lowell died the next day at age 29 on October 20, 1864. Six weeks later, his only child, Carlotta Russell Lowell, was born.

A gift to the city

Upon his death, responsibility for his Dixon property fell to his widow, Josephine. She later visited Dixon and viewed the property, but it remained untouched for decades. Josephine lived the remainder of her life in New York City, where she became an admired benefactor of charitable causes.

Believing that parks bring great value to cities, Josephine formed a plan to give the land to the city of Dixon in memory of Charles, but she died in 1905. In 1906, her daughter, Carlotta, then carried out her mother’s wish by presenting the land to the city of Dixon for use as a park. The city graciously accepted the gift of Lowell Park, consummating the transaction in 1907.

Thanks to the Lowells’ vision and generosity, we all can now enter the glories of this “Western Eden.” If for only a few hours, we can experience “life in the woods” and “to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.

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