History of Fountain City, (Wayne County) Indiana United States of America

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William Penn Nixon, editor, was born at Fountain City, Ind., March 19, 1833; son of Samuel and Rhoda (Hubbard) Butler Nixon, and grandson of Barnaby Nixon, a Quaker preacher, and a resident of Virginia. His great grandmother on his mother's side was a Cherokee Indian. He was graduated from Farmers college, Ohio, in 1853; taught school in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1853-55, and was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, LL.B., 1859. He practised law in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1859-68; was a Republican representative in the state legislature, 1864-67; president of the Cincinnati Mutual Life Insurance Co., 1866-71, and in 1868, in connection with his brother, Dr. O. W. Nixon, established the Daily Chronicle, of which he was commercial editor and subsequently publisher and general manager. Upon the consolidation of the paper with the Daily Times, in 1872, he sold his interest and became business manager of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, serving until 1875, and as general-manager and editor-in-chief, 1875-97. In 1897 he sold his controlling interest in the Inter-Ocean, but retained his connection with the company of which he was secretary and treasurer. He was appointed a commissioner of Lincoln park in 1896, and its president in 1897; was president of the associated press for several years; was a delegate at large for the state of Illinois to the Republican national convention of 1896, and was appointed collector of U.S. customs of Chicago in December, 1897. He was twice married, first in September, 1861, to Mary, daughter of Hezekiah and Ruth (Ferris) Stites. She died in 1862, and he was married secondly, June 15, 1869, to Elizabeth, daughter of Charles and Sarah E. Duffield of Chicago, Ill.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Fountain City, (Wayne County) Indiana

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