DIXON, WILLIAM (1850-1913).
William (Billy) Dixon, scout, plainsman, buffalo hunter, and Indian
fighter, was born in Ohio County, West Virginia, on September
25, 1850. He was orphaned at twelve and lived with his uncle Thomas
Dixon in Ray County, Missouri, until the fall of 1864, when he
worked in woodcutters' camps along the Missouri River until he
secured employment from government freight contractors in Kansas
as a bullwhacker and muleskinner. Except for a year (1866) spent
working on the McCall family's farm near Leavenworth, when he
obtained some formal schooling, Dixon followed this occupation
until the fall of 1869. He was a skilled marksman and occasionally
scouted for eastern excursionists brought out by the railroads
for buffalo hunting. In November 1869 he joined a venture in hunting and trapping on
the Saline River northwest of Fort Hays. In 1870 buyers offered
a dollar each for buffalo cow hides and two dollars for bull hides,
and Dixon's marksmanship made hide hunting highly profitable.
He invested in a road-ranch or supply store, a merchandising venture
that was successful until 1871, when, during Dixon's absence,
the store manager, Billy Reynolds, sold out and departed with
the proceeds.
At one time Dixon probably had as many as four or
five skinners in his employ. He had scouted Texas as far south
as the Salt Fork of the Red River when the buffalo hunters moved
into the Texas Panhandle in 1874. He and his group hunted along
the Canadian River and its tributaries in the vicinity of the
new Adobe Walls, the supply post established by businessmen and
buffalo hunters near the South Canadian about a mile and a half
from the remains of the old Adobe Walls trading post, built about
1843 by William Bent. It was said that after the spring migrations
occurred, Dixon could shoot enough buffalo to keep ten skinners
busy, and he found Adobe Walls a convenient place to store his
wagonloads of hides hauled in from the field. He was one of the
twenty-eight men who with one woman participated in the second
battle of Adobe Walls in 1874, fighting from inside James Hanrahan's saloon. The story
of how he became a hero two days into the battle, when a bullet
from his Sharps buffalo rifle knocked an Indian off his horse nearly a mile away, is perhaps
exaggerated. Dixon himself never claimed credit for his "long
shot."
Despite a partnership proposal from Hanrahan, Dixon
did no more hide hunting after the battle. While he was in Dodge
City early in August 1874, Gen. Nelson A. Miles enlisted his services as a scout in the detachment commanded by
Lt. Frank D. Baldwin.qv In September the command was on McClellan Creek when Miles sent
Dixon, Amos Chapman, and four enlisted men with dispatches to carry to Camp Supply.
Near Gageby Creek on the second day out they encountered a large
war party of Comanches and Kiowas, who surrounded them in the
Buffalo Wallow Fight. Dixon was among the five survivors awarded the Medal of Honor
for heroism in that engagement.
He was present at the rescue of the German sisters from the Cheyennes on McClellan Creek on November 8, 1874. He
was with the party that selected the site of Fort Elliott in the
spring of 1875 and was attached to that post for duty when he
guided the Nolan expedition in pursuit of the Comanches in August 1877. His knowledge of the
country saved the command when he led the men to water at Double
Lakes on the Llano Estacado.
Dixon returned to civilian life in 1883, worked on
the Turkey Track Ranch, built a home near the site of the original Adobe Walls, planted
an orchard and thirty acres of alfalfa that he irrigated from
Bent's Creek, and became postmaster at Adobe Walls, a position
he held for twenty years. In 1901 he was elected the first sheriff
of the newly formed Hutchinson County but resigned in disgust
at the political strife aroused in connection with the organization
of the county. In addition, he served as a state land commissioner
and justice of the peace for the area around Hutchinson, Gray,
and Roberts counties. He and S. G. Carter operated a ranch-supply
store at the house. On October 18, 1894, he married Olive King
Dixon of Virginia, who for three years thereafter was the only woman
living in Hutchinson County. They had seven children.
The family moved to Plemons in 1902 to provide schooling
for their children. Small-town life proved irksome to the former
scout, and in 1906 he went to homestead in the open spaces of
Oklahoma. During his last years Dixon reportedly lived near poverty,
and friends tried to obtain a pension for him. On March 9, 1913,
he died of pneumonia at his Cimarron County homestead; he was
buried in the cemetery at Texline by members of his Masonic lodge.
On June 27, 1929, his remains were reinterred at the Adobe Walls
site. Dixon Creek in southern Hutchinson County is named for him,
as is the Billy Dixon Masonic Lodge in Fritch. Personal artifacts
from his scouting days are housed in both the Hutchinson County
Museum in Borger and the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon.
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