Archives West Finding Aid

Joseph Moore "Joe" Dixon was born in Snow Camp, North Carolina, in 1867 to Hugh Woody Dixon and Flora Adaline Murchison. He moved to Missoula, Montana, in 1891 and was admitted to the Montana bar in 1892. Joseph Dixon married Caroline Worden of Missoula in March of 1896. Dixon was elected to the Montana legislature as a Republican in 1900 and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1902 and 1904. In 1906 he was elected to U.S. Senate. In 1912, he headed Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party and was defeated in his bid for reelection to the U.S. Senate. In 1900, he acquired a controlling interest in the Missoulian, Missoula's Republican newspaper, which he owned until 1917. After 1917, Dixon retired from politics and business and spent most of his time on his farming interests (he owned a dairy near Polson, Montana, and a farm near Ronan, Montana). In 1919 he was elected governor of Montana and served one term. He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Interior in 1929, and served in that position until 1933. Joseph Dixon died in May 1934.

Caroline Melissa "Carrie" Worden was born in 1867 in Missoula to Lucretia Miller and Francis "Frank" Lyman Worden, a co-founder of Missoula. She was the third of seven children. Caroline and Joseph had seven children: Mary Virginia, Florence, Dorothy, Mary Joe, Betty, Caroline, and Frank. Frank died shortly after birth. Caroline died in Missoula on April 6, 1946.

Mary Virginia "Dick" Dixon was born on 14 December 1896 in Missoula. She attended both the Potomac and Miss Madeira's Schools in Washington, D.C. before attending Vassar College from 1912 to 1916. She received an advanced degree in Economics from Columbia University in 1919 and worked as an economics instructor at Mt. Holyoke College from 1919-1920. She worked in New York City for some time afterwards. In 1924, Virginia and a cousin, Barbara Sterling, sailed to Manila to visit her sister, Florence. Virginia's 1924 travels also included other parts of the Far East, the Middle East and Europe. In 1929 she married Alexander Dean and they resided in New Haven, Connecticut where Mr. Dean was head of the Yale Drama School. Alexander died from hypertension in 1939. Virginia Dixon Dean remained active and close to her extended family until her death in January, 1974, in New Haven.

Florence Worden Dixon was born in Missoula 20 March 1899. Between 1903 and 1913 the Dixons lived in Washington, D.C., but travelled back to Missoula frequently. Florence graduated from Missoula County High School in 1916, and attended the University of Montana from 1916 to 1920. During her time at the university she was a member of the Beta Phi Chapter of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, served as president of the Women's Self Government Association, and was vice-president of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM). Following graduation, Florence studied bacteriology at Johns Hopkins. While at Hopkins, Florence met Charles Nelson Leach (1884-1971), a Vermont physician and World War I veteran who had been sent to Hopkins by his employer, the Rockefeller Foundation, to get a degree in Public Health. They were married in Hong Kong on September 22, 1922, and spent the next few years in Manila where Charles was engaged in public health work for the Foundation. Later assignments took them to Montgomery, Alabama, New York, Prague, Vienna, Peking, London, and Paris. Ultimately they retired to Newfane, Vermont. Charles and Florence Leach had three children: Carolyn, Nancy, and Charles Nelson, Jr (who was known to family as Nelson). Charles Nelson Leach died in 1971. Florence Leach died in 1991.

Dorothy Veronica Dixon was born in Missoula on 26 July 1902. She married William Allen of Lolo, Montana in 1927. They had two daughters. Dorothy died on 28 November 1943 in Seattle, Washington.

Mary Joe Dixon was born 7 August 1906. She attended Helena High School and graduated from the University of Montana in 1927. She married Ralph Gorman Hills on 11 August 1928 and they lived in Baltimore, Maryland. Gorman was a graduate of Princeton and had won a bronze medal in the 1924 Olympics in shot put and javelin. He was a family doctor and on the clinical faculty at Hopkins. They had two sons: J. Dixon and Warren. Mary Joe was active in civic affairs and participated in local dramatics. She died on 19 March 1998.

Elizabeth "Betty" Dixon was born in about 1910. She was a Radcliffe graduate and was married to Marshall Stearns, an English professor and renowned jazz expert. Betty was a professional artist, working in oils and acrylic. They had one daughter, Elizabeth. She and Marshall were divorced and thereafter Betty spent some years in Florence, Italy. She suffered from bipolar disorder and was hospitalized several times. Her sisters, especially Virginia and Florence, looked out for her and assisted as best they could during her illness. Betty died around the year 2000.

Caroline "Peggy" Worden Dixon was born 28 December 1914 in Missoula. She attended Radcliffe College (her widowed mother took an apartment in Boston during this time.) She married John G. Dorsey, a Harvard Law graduate, in Seattle on 15 August 1940. They lived in New York, and in Washington during World War II, and then in Minneapolis where Dorsey became an attorney. John Dorsey committed suicide. After a few years Peggy married "Race" Crane and they lived in California. She was musical and an artist and served as an art docent. She suffered from dementia in her last few years and died in San Diego on 15 August 1996. She had no children.