Hickson Genealogy

From a Biographical Review containing life sketches of leading citizens, Worcester County, Mass, USA.

Published 1899. Allen Wentworth Hixon Jr has the book.

Adin A. H. Hixon secretary and librarian of the Worcester County Horticultural Society, was born in Boston, March 17, 1843; son of Dwight and Marion (Wentworth) Hixon. He is of French, Scots, and English descent.

His grandfather Hixon, who resided in Walpole, N.H. married a Miss Hale.

Dwight Hixon, the father named above, was born in Walpole in 1810, and died in Boston in 1853. His wife, Marion, whom he married in 1835, was born in Castine, Me., daughter of Paul and Arabella (Rackcliffe) Wentworth.

Eight children were the fruit of their union.

Of these, two sons and two daughters died in infancy, another daughter died at the age of eighteen years, and two sons and one daughter are living. Although left a widow without resources and with several children dependent upon her, Mrs. Marion W. Hixon bravely accepted the responsibility, and refused some advantageous offers of marriage in order to devote her entire time to her task. Being a woman of energy and ability, she, with the assistance of her elder children, managed to keep her family together until all had reached maturity; and that the children are exceedingly proud of their venerable mother is not to be wondered at. Mrs. Hixon, now eighty-three years old, resides with her daughter, Mrs. Willis P. Clark, on Windsor Street, Worcester.

She is bright and interesting and unusually prepossessing in appearance and manner. Her paternal grandfather, Paul Wentworth, Sr, served in the Revolutionary War.

Adin A. H. Hixon attended school in Dedham, Mass., until eleven years old. He then began to serve an apprenticeship at the drug business, giving his meagre wages to his mother. He was ernployed in drug stores in Boston and Charlestown until 1866, when he came to Worcester, and for the suceeding three years worked for Jerome Marble & Co.

He next engaged in the manufacture of brick, following the business for three years, at the expiration of which time he turned his attention to horticulture. To this and kindred matters he has since devoted his attention. He has been an active member of the Worcester County Agricultural Society for twenty years.

He is custodian of the property of the Worcester County Horticultural Society, has served as its librarian for the past eight years, and since the death of Edward Winslow Lincoln he has officiated as its secretary.

Mr. Hixon was married in this city, January 5, 1871, to Mrs. Fannie E. Daniels, widow of Henry Daniels and a daughter of David R. and Sarah N. (Britton) Gates. Mr. Hixon and his wife now reside in the house where she was born. She is a descendant in the eighth generation of Stephen Gates, who came from Norwich, England, on the ship "Diligence" in 1638, first settling in Hingham, and later in Marlboro, Mass. Her great-grandfather, Simon Gates, first, who came from that town to Worcester in 1749, was the original owner of the Gates estate, which has since been divided among his descendants. A portion of the house he occupied is still standing.

Simon Gates, second, her grandfather, who was a minute-man and marched to Lexington in 1775, was born at the homestead, and died here in February, 1849, aged nearly ninety-three years. He married Sarah Edgerton, a native of Nova Scotia, and she died in 1843, aged eighty-five years. They were the parents of eight children, namely: John; Levi; David R.; Horatio; Olive; Roxelana; Sarah; and Mary, who died young. David R. Gates, the father, who was born at the homestead about the year 1800, and was a lifelong resident of Worcester, died in 1872. He was twice married, and by his second wife, Sarah Britton Gates, he had seven children, namely: Levi, who went to Washington Territory in 1850, and died there leaving two sons, one of whom has been Mayor of Portland, Ore.; Horatio, who died in California; Louisa, who married Henry Hoyt, and died in 1888, leaving a daughter, who resides in Boston; Nathan Britton, a prosperous farmer in the State of Washington, having four daughters: Fannie E. who is now Mrs. Adin A. H. Hixon; Ellen Maria, wife of Eben Sanford, of San Francisco, Cal.; and Caroline A, wife of Francois Hixon, a machinist of this city and brother of Adin A.

Mrs. Sarah B. Gates died February 8, 1893, aged eighty-three.

As an example of longevity in the Gates family may be mentioned a cousin of David R., Mrs. Fannie Gates Bradford, who was one hundred years old in September, 1894, and died in the following November. Mrs. Hixon has a portrait of her as a centenarian.

Mr. and Mrs. Adin A H. Hixon have one son, Allyne Wentworth Hixon, who was born November 11, 1874, and is an enthusiastic horticulturist. Mr. Hixon belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and the Patrons of Husbandry.