Galen J. Dixon

Galen J. Dixon died at the family home in Sunland last Friday morning, aged 57 years, 3 months, 21 days.  He was a 
victim of typhoid, with which he had been ill for about three weeks.

He was born at Shopier, Wisconsin, June 9, 1863.  When he was about two years old the family moved to Cedar Falls, 
Iowa, which was his home during his early manhood.

He graduated from the Iowa State Normal School in 1882.  After teaching for two terms he took a business course in 
Iowa City, then engaged in office work for several years in Topeka and Manhattan, Kansas.  He then began attending 
a college at Cornell, Iowa, but before completing the course decided to study law, entering Boston Law School for 
that purpose.  It was while he was in that school that he was called to Bishop by the last illness of his father; 
this, we understand, was about 1891.  He decided to remain here, and located on a tract of land under the then 
newly built Owens river canal, of which company he was an officer.

He went back to his former home for a short time, and on March 12, 1893, he was married to Sarah Glanville, who 
had been his playmate and school friend almost from infancy.  His wife and their two children, Mary and John, 
survive him in the home which they have made here.  His mother, Mrs. Mary Dixon, his two sisters, Mrs. H. H. DuBois, 
of Portland, and Mrs. Marion Hogle, of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and two brothers, W. G. Dixon, of Big Pine, and Capt. 
H. B. Dixon, of Storrs, Conn., are the living members of his parental family.

While the family mourns the loss of a devoted son and husband and one whose personal life was in accord with his 
religious professions, the community has its own direct share in that loss.  From the inception of the Los Angeles 
water troubles he took a watchful interest in the phases of that controversy.  During the period he served as 
Register of the Independence land office, and in that capacity many matters came to his knowledge which he could 
without violation of official duty bear in mind as the case progressed.  His collection of documentary exhibits of 
the irregular things that were done was extensive, and his knowledge of the whole subject was more complete than 
that of any other person.  His selection as one of the representatives of the water interests of the valley, to 
attend the hearings on important bills before Congress, was a natural consequence, and the favorable amendments 
that were incorporated in those bills were largely his work.  In fact, but for his constant attention to the 
subject those measures unamended would have become laws without objection from ere, for it was he who in each case 
saw and impressed on this public the importance of some such action as was finally taken on behalf of the valley's 
welfare.

The funeral was conducted Saturday afternoon by Rev. S. S. Patterson, in the absence of Rev. Hodges, from the 
Methodist church, to which the deceased had belonged since boyhood.

The Inyo Register, Bishop, Inyo County, California
Thursday, October 7, 1920 - Front Page
Transcribed by Denise S. Flynn