Small number of papers and early portraits from the Isaac Dixon family of Santa Clara County.

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.

.25 linear feet

Available for reproduction and publication by request

Open to researchers by appointment.