William Dixon’s
younger years
William Dixon was born in Ohio County, Virginia, September 25th, 1850, to William R. and Nancy Privet Dixon. According to census records, he was the third of seven children. His father was born in 1820 at Jefferson, Ohio, eldest of ten children.
Sometime during the 1850’s the family relocated near Jefferson City, Missouri. About the time young William was twelve, he was sent to live with an Uncle in Ray County, Missouri, about fifty mile from his family’s home.
Census records are clear on William’s family and siblings, and where they were living. What is not clear is the short paragraph of his life history he dictated to his wife Olive. It is a complete paragraph of untruths. He told olive he was orphaned when he was twelve and he and a sister were sent to live with the Uncle. He claimed the sister had died soon after the move. In fact, Billy was one of seven brothers and sisters.
Historians and researchers struggle to reconcile these inaccuracies. In all likelihood, young Billy was of an age when one was expected to work along side grown men, and may have even been indentured to his Uncle. Possibly, Billy was unhappy enough at being sent away, he made up his mind he would become an orphan, cutting all close ties with his family. As far as research can tell, other than telling Olive about the ‘Uncle Tom’ he stayed with for one year, Billy never mentioned his extended family or visited Missouri again.
“While at my Uncles home, I had often met men who had been to the far west, and their marvelous tales of adventure fired my imagination, and filled me with eagerness to do what they had done. My dreams were filled with beautiful pictures of that dim region that lay toward the Rocky Mountains”.
Billy had become friends with an older boy named Dan Keller, who had also left home with a desire to go west. “My uncle would have been greatly opposed to our enterprise had we told him of it, so I went away without telling him goodbye.” Leaving with a sack carrying his only extra shirt and a photograph of his mother, “which I treasured beyond all my other possessions”, Billy and Dan set out to start their new lives.
Being nearby to Kansas City where the Missouri and Kansas rivers come together, Billy lived at the jumping off point for both the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails.
This area was populated with all types of adventurers, trappers, hunters, freighters, and steamboat workers. To a wild eyed thirteen year old boy the tales of adventure from these men lit the fire of adventure and exploration. That fire burned in young Billy Dixon’s heart and soul for the next half century. Only his passing quenched the flames.
They easily found work along the Missouri in the camps of the woodcutter who supplied the steamboats fuel. “The men were rough, but generous and hospitable, and we were welcome at their camps, many of which we reached at nightfall”. Around those campfires at night , they listened to the men’s great stories all about the west, about grizzly bears, buffalo, and wild Indians. The boys were enraptured with these storytelling sessions:
“Many times we sat and listened until midnight, …and then after we had gone to bed we lay looking at the stars and wondering if it would ever be possible for us to lead such a delightful life”.
Billy and Dan hunted and trapped up and down the Missouri river, staying and working in the woodcutters camps until they reached Westport, Missouri, Sunday October 23, 1864. On that day the largest Civil War battle in Missouri was being fought at Westport. They could hear the cannon. He reported they would have joined on the spot, but were too young. They moved on, finding the countryside near the small town of Wyandotte, Kansas full of wild game. There they hired out to a local farmer for a few months, then moved northwest to Leavenworth City.
At Leavenworth city, Kansas, the tired lads had the good fortune to meet Tom Hare, a veteran teamster for a government ox train.
NEXT: FREIGHTER, BULLWHACKER AND MULESKINNER
