John Dix
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Littleton, Massachusetts, in 1796, John Dix played a significant role in American and state history. As a teenager, he served aboard a privateer during the War of 1812. He was engaged in capturing the English brig Don Cossack, which had left a California port. He soon became a sea captain and was shipwrecked on the island of New Zealand. In 1825 Dix married Mary Eliza Hayes of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and he founded a settlement in Washtenaw County, Michigan, which bears his name. Once his family migrated to Texas, Dix served as a soldier in the Texas Revolution. In October of 1835 he enlisted in the Texian army as a private in the company of Captain James Swisher and served one month at San Antonio de Bexar before being discharged on November 4. In 1849, after fifteen years of farming in the town of independence, the Dix family moved to Nueces County and settled in Corpus Christi where Dix purchased six city lots from the city’s founder, Henry L. Kinney. He was a successful sheep rancher, winning prizes at the lone star fair. Dix was appointed as “surveyor and inspector of the revenue for the port of Corpus Christi” by president Franklin Pierce in 1854 and was later reappointed by president James Buchanan in 1858. The Civil War split the Dix family when members took opposite sides. Dix, a pro-union activist, was indicted in 1864 for treason against the Confederate States of America along with eight others. The war ended before any action could be taken against the men. After the war, Dix was appointed chief justice of Nueces County, a position he held until 1869, the year before his death. (2013)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Massachusetts in 1796, John Dix packed several American lifetimes into one: a teenage privateer in the War of 1812, a shipwrecked sea captain, a Michigan town founder, and a private in the Texian army during the Texas Revolution. Settling at Corpus Christi, he prospered as a sheep rancher and federal revenue inspector before the Civil War split his family — Dix, a staunch Unionist, was indicted for treason against the Confederacy in 1864. After the war he served as chief justice of Nueces County until near his death in 1870.
Why it matters
Dix's roving, conflict-crossed life embodies the restless mobility of 19th-century America and the wrenching divisions the Civil War drove even through frontier families.
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Related people
- · John Dix
- · Mary Eliza Hayes
- · Henry L. Kinney
Related events
- · War of 1812
- · Texas Revolution
- · Civil War
Themes & tags
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