The Four who made the name Dix famous
Other than the name Dix and military service, Dorothea, Richard, Drew and John don’t have much in common -- except the fact
that each has been pinpointed by the public as the person for whom Fort Dix is named.
The raw and rowdy training camp was
ripped from the cornfields of central New Jersey in 1917. It was one of 13 such camps, all dedicated to the training of men
for The Great War. Initially, the camps were given numbers instead of names. That soon changed, however, as the government
sought to honor its heroes -- and tried to avoid having Camp 13 on its books.
For no particular reason discernable in the history books, the rapidly growing site near Wrightstown was named for Maj. Gen. John Adams Dix.
Born in Boscawn, N.H., Dix served in the War of 1812, and returned to study and practice law in Cooperstown, N.Y. He held high state office, and was
elected Democratic U.S. Senator from New York, 1845-89. He ran unsuccessfully for governor on the Free-Soil ticket. President
James Buchanan appointed him secretary of the treasury in 1861, and although his tenure was brief, he kept the system on an
even track through the beginning of the Civil War.
Dix returned to duty during the war, and was later named minister to France. He was also prominent in railroad expansion,
serving as long-time president of the Erie Railroad. Elected -- as a Republican -- governor of New York in 1873, he focused
on financial reform in state government.
Dix died in 1879.
(Click on the various portaits for details about famous people who bear the name Dix.)