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History · Dix

Dix’s post office opened in 1865

Most of Dix was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: maps from 1933 on and the census since 1880.

1865first post office
0on the National Register
8%homes built before 1940
2famous people
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Quick answers

How Dix began

When was Dix founded?

1865

The Dix post office opened in 1865, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Rome (1852), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 153 in 18802020 census: 469161 years
Founding year: the first Dix post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Dix’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Dix are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1940 and 1970, then more than doubled.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Dix’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Dix’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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People over time

Dix, census by census

010020030040050018801900192019401960198020002020246 in 1940Low: 167

Lost a third of its people between 1940 and 1970, then more than doubled.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Dix’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Dix came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Dix.

Read it all →

Among the first settlers around Dix were two brothers named Andrews (Arba and Nelson?), who came from Rome, New York, around 1830. One of them established a post office called "Jordan's Prairie", the name already given to the grassland to the south. Later he platted out a village, which he called "Rome", after his home town in New York. The post office was moved into the village in 1852, and the name changed.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Dix in 1909

Passages that mention Dix, cut from the printed page as they were published.

The post-office at other towns in the county have had some of the same experiences as Mount Veriion. Dix, Woodlawn, Waltonville, Bonnie, Ina, Belle Rive, Opdyke, Bluford, Marlow and Emmerson City, all have well conducted post-offices, most of them operating rural routes. Most of the cross roads pos…
Wall's history of Jefferson County, Illinois1909 · page 245Read the page →
Read the text

The post-office at other towns in the county have had some of the same experiences as Mount Veriion. Dix, Woodlawn, Waltonville, Bonnie, Ina, Belle Rive, Opdyke, Bluford, Marlow and Emmerson City, all have well conducted post-offices, most of them operating rural routes. Most of the cross roads post-offices have given away to those rural routes, which serve all the people better than did the offices. The one thing needed to perfect this mail service in Jefferson county, is good roads, so that none of the routes may he

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
county on the north. Its surface is partly prairie and partly timber and its soil is quite productive. It is traversed by a branch of the Big Muddy and its principal prairie is Jordan's Prairie and the town of Rome (since the railroad came, it is called Dix) is in the
Wall's history of Jefferson County, Illinois1909 · page 189Read the page →
Read the text

county on the north. Its surface is partly prairie and partly timber and its soil is quite productive. It is traversed by a branch of the Big Muddy and its principal prairie is Jordan's Prairie and the town of Rome (since the railroad came, it is called Dix) is in the

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Dix, 1851 to 2000

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1851Born hereEphraim S. Claybourn is born here
  3. 1852Post officeThe Rome post office opens
  4. 1865Post officeThe Rome post office closes
  5. 1865Post officeThe Dix post office opens
  6. 20th century
  7. 1908Born hereGeorge Corbett is born here
  8. 1933On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  9. 21st century
  10. 2000CensusPopulation peaks at 494
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Dix on the map, 1933 to 1978

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dix. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Dix on the 1933 USGS mapDix on the 1940 USGS mapDix on the 1965 USGS mapDix on the 1978 USGS map1933Mount Vernon sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Dix.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Dix

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
G
George CorbettAmerican football player · b. 1908
E
Ephraim S. Claybournb. 1851
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Dix’s post office has been open since 1865. Another post office, Rome, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Rome
1852–1865
Dix
1865–today
18501940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Dix’s history

What year was Dix founded?

The Dix post office opened in 1865, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.