Editor's note: Over a period of 12 years beginning in 1983, local historian Ken Munford wrote 561 columns for the Gazette-Times. As part of the city's 150th anniversary, the newspaper will publish a selection of these columns each Saturday. This one was originally printed on Jan. 28, 1985.

On New Year's Day in 1833, Julia Ann Round, 18, of Dearborn County, Indiana, married William Fooks Dixon, 22, who had come from Maryland to farm near her home.

John, their first child, was born in 1834. The couple moved to northeast Missouri and had two more children, James in 1841 and Mary Ann in 1844.

For their cross-country trek to Oregon in 1845, they joined a covered-wagon train led by Dr. Presley Welch and his wife Catherine, "Kitty Ann." The train left Independence, Mo. in May and reached the northern Willamette Valley in October.

On the grassy plain drained by what is now called Dixon Creek, on the west bank of the Willamette River, the Dixons staked out a 640-acre land claim next to that of J.C. Avery. The Dixons' claim stretched from the foot of present Jackson Avenue downstream a mile, west along Grant Avenue and south along Kings Boulevard to Jefferson Avenue. Dixon recorded the claim in Oregon City on April 28, 1846.

Using a tent as their first shelter, the Dixons built a cabin near present Second Street. Julia was the first white woman to reside in what is now Corvallis, and her son Cyrus was the first white child born in the area. Another son, William, was born a few years later.

Dixon started a ferry service across the Willamette and joined Avery in plans to plat the town of Marysville. These enterprises were interrupted when the men heard the call of California's gold rush and left to join the search. Dixon came back with an undisclosed amount of gold dust and set up a factory to make lumber, household furniture and farming equipment.

After Martha Avery and her children joined her husband, the two families worked together on many projects. The Averys platted 24 blocks for Marysville between A Street and Jackson Avenue, with numbered streets running parallel to the river and cross streets named for U.S. presidents. The Dixons laid out two additions totaling 19 blocks of 12 lots each in the area between the riverfront and Sixth Street.

The two couples transferred title to 40 acres of their properties to Benton County to be sold to raise money to build a court house. The Dixons donated lots at Second and Van Buren to the Methodists as a building site for their first church in Marysville/Corvallis. Both families took an active part in starting and developing Corvallis College.

Avery served in many city, county and state offices, but Dixon always refused to let his name be put in nomination. His wife took part in many community activities.

After the Civil War, the U.S. Department of the Interior split the Coast Reservation for Native Americans and opened the Yaquina Valley for homesteading. Enthusiasm arose in Corvallis for building a wagon road and then a railroad over the Coast Range to "The Bay." The Dixons were among those who built cabins at the coast.

In his "History of Benton County," D.D. Fagan tells of Julia Dixon's last days: "On Sunday, October 13, 1867, William F. Dixon, his wife and two sons, James, 26, and Cyrus, 20, left Corvallis in a hack for their home on Yaquina Bay, the father and mother staying for the night at the residence of Benjamin Tharp, while the younger ones went home, to return the next morning. On Monday Mr. and Mrs. Dixon concluded to go on. When the summit of the hill was gained, a short distance from Mr. Tharp's upon a narrow grade, one of the horses fell and thus precipitated the hack and its occupants, down a steep embankment, Mrs. Dixon receiving injuries that proved fatal in about three hours. This esteemable lady was much esteemed by the community in which she dwelt and was noted for her kindly disposition and true Christian spirit."

The Dixons' daughter Mary Ann went on with her plans to marry N.R. Barber later that month. Son William R., 15, was attending Corvallis College about that time. The father a few years later married a widow, Martha A. Elgin, who died in 1883.

Dixon survived her and was in good health, working in his garden the day before he died on Aug. 30, 1899, six months after his 88th birthday.