Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography/Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Isaac Dixon Papers
Dates: 1865-1908
Collection Number: 1979-854
Creator/Collector:
Extent: .25 linear feet
Online items available
Repository:
History San Jose Research Library
San Jose, California 95112
Abstract: Small number of papers and early portraits from the Isaac Dixon family of Santa Clara County.
Language of Material: English
Access
Open to researchers by appointment.
Publication Rights
Available for reproduction and publication by request
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item]. Isaac Dixon Papers. Collection Number: 1979-854. History San Jose Research Library
Acquisition Information
Donated to the San Jose Historical Museum circa 1979 (or earlier) by an unknown donor.
Biography/Administrative History
Isaac Dixon is one of the biographical entries in J. M. Guinn's 1904 "History of the State of California and Biographical
Record of Coast Counties, California" and several articles on the Dixons are found in the San Jose Mercury News (1904-1908).
Dixon was born to parents John and Mary Dixon in Ontario, Canada, in 1826, and left with his father in 1847 to travel west
through Texas to California, arriving in Los Angeles in 1849, and Santa Clara in 1850. He married German native Catherine
Messing in Santa Clara in 1854. Initially they lived on a farm in Santa Clara; in 1859 they purchased a ranch seven miles
east of San Jose towards Mt. Hamilton where they specialized in grain, hay and stock-raising. After 43 years, the Dixons moved
into San Jose, renting out their land. Catherine Dixon passed away in 1906, and Isaac followed her in 1908.
Scope and Content of Collection
Small number of papers and early portraits from the Isaac Dixon family of Santa Clara County. Of primary interest are two
small accounting books (1858-1908) related to the Dixon household and farm, and a letter from friends Fred and H. Erle written
from San Francisco in April 1865, detailing Erle's new life in the city and the recent memorial procession for Abraham Lincoln.
Included are five gem tintypes and one carte-de-visite of family members, only one of which is identified.
