My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL NIXON, who resides in the vicinity of Mansfield Valley, is a native of this county, born in 1811, the youngest of the six children of Thomas and Jane (Lee) Nixon. Thomas Nixon was a native of New Jersey, and when a boy came with his mother to this county. Early in life he learned the blacksmith’s trade, which he followed for some time, but later engaged in farming. He married Jane Lee, born in 1774, and daughter of Maj. William Lee; she was the first white child born in Chartiers valley. Thomas Nixon died in 1813, aged forty years; his widow in 1859, aged eighty-five years. The subject of this sketch, the only surviving member of this family, was but two years old when his father died, and he was reared in a log cabin on a farm. He was a natural mechanic, having been in his day ready at carpentering and all kinds of work in wood. He married, in 1839, Jane, daughter of Thomas G. and Elizabeth (Russell) Steel, and granddaughter of Capt. David Steel, who was an officer in the Revolution for six years, serving his country with distinction and honor. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Nixon, of whom three sons and five daughters are now living, viz.: Thomas S., William W., S. Smith, D. Ada Nixon, Harriet Holland, Jane Silk, Maria Carnahan and Lizzie Oliver. Mr. Nixon has resided in his present home for thirty-four years. He has always been a hardworking man, and has acquired his possessions by his own exertions. He is a devout and faithful Christian, a member of the M. E. Church, in which he has held the office of trustee and steward for forty years. In politics he was first a federalist, then a whig and anti-mason, and lastly a republican.