Imagine Dixon with no buildings, no roads, no people … just trees and native grass. The river has no dam and no bridges … just a free-flowing wide stream with many little islands.

In 1830, John and Rebecca Dixon arrived, living in a cabin near today’s intersection of First Street and Peoria Avenue. They may have been the only “white settlers” in all of northwestern Illinois between Peoria and Galena. John operated a ferry, helping travelers cross the Rock River in an area inhabited by several Native American tribes.

For the next five years, very few others settled in the tiny Dixon village, having been deterred by the Black Hawk War of 1832. But in 1835, after the government started selling land for only $1.25 an acre, others began to arrive.

The physician’s examination

Oliver Everett,

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