A Granddaughter’s Recollection

In the evening of April 15, 2021, the 156th anniversary of the death of President Abraham Lincoln the Arts Club of Washington commemorated his life and legacy with the virtual program, “Lincoln’s Last Breath”.

The program explored Civil War friendship of Mrs. Elizabeth L. C. Dixon, wife of Senator James Dixon of Connecticut and Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln.

Elizabeth Dixon, was my great great grandmother, and she left us a trove of letters and relics that allow us to retrace her foot prints and friendship with the Lincoln‘s from their first days in Washington until their last.

Elizabeth and her junior congressman husband, James Dixon of Connecticut had first come to Washington in November 1845, during the Polk administration. During these years she kept a journal, a diary, that described those first years in Washington. It had been partially transcribed in the 1970s by my great aunt Elsa, before she donated it to the Connecticut Historical Society, where it remained virtually forgotten.

Elizabeth Dixon was my grandfather’s grandmother. She was my great, great grandmother. This diary, she had dedicated to her daughters Bessie and Clementine. Clementine awas my great grandmother, Mrs. Clementine L.D. Welling.

From 2009-2012 I took on the arduous task and transcribed her 50 page handwritten diary and submitted this transcription to the White House Historical Association, who published; The Diary of Elizabeth Dixon in

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/introduction-to-the-transcription-of-the-washington-diary-of-elizabeth-l-c-dixon

During Covid, I have been transcribing another of Elizabeth Dixon‘s diary, the Dixon’s 1840-41 Honeymoon Grand Tour through Europe. Watch for future posts. Until then, Caroline