Later Years and Death
In 1883, Dixon returned to civilian life and built a home near the Adobe Walls site. He was postmaster there for 20 years and also was the first sheriff of the newly formed Hutchinson County, Texas. He served as state land commissioner and a justice of the peace.
In 1894, he married Olive King Dixon of Virginia, who for nearly three years was the only woman in Hutchinson County. They had seven children. In 1902, the family moved to Plemons for schooling for their children. In 1906, they moved to Oklahoma.
Dixon died from pneumonia at his Cimarron County homestead in 1913 and was buried in Texline. On his deathbed he told Olive his complete life story which she penned and later published. In 1929, his body was reinterred at Adobe Walls near where he stood when he first saw the Indians riding up the valley.
Dixon Creek in southern Hutchinson County was named for him, as is the Billy Dixon Masonic Lodge in Fritch. A plaque commemorating his Medal of Honor was formally dedicated in 1992. The Historical Breechloading Smallarms Association of Lancashire, England holds a shooting competition to commemorate his incredible long distance shot. Known as the Vintage Rifle Open Long Range Championships, it is shot at a distance of 1000 yards using black powder cartridge rifles of that era, and is strongly contested from shooters all over the United Kingdom.
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Famous quotes containing the words years and/or death:
“It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.”
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