Dixon, James

Born: 1814-08-05 Enfield, Connecticut

Died: 1873-03-27 Hartford, Connecticut

Dixon completed preparatory studies and graduated from Williams College in 1834. He studied law and earned admittance to the bar in 1834 and started a law practice in Enfield, Connecticut. Dixon won election to the Connecticut House of Representatives, serving from 1837-1838, and again in 1844. He served as speaker in 1837. He moved to Hartford in 1839 and continued his legal practice . He married Elizabeth Lord Cogswell in 1840, they had four children. 1844, Dixon won election, as a Whig, to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1845-1849. He returned to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1854. He declined a nomination for governor of Connecticut in 1854. Dixon lost election to the U.S. Senate in 1854, however, he won election to the Senate, as a Republican, in 1856. He won re-election in 1863, and served until 1869.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1961 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1961), 815; Gravestone, Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, CT; Robert D. Parmet, "Dixon, James," American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 6:646-47.