Mrs. Augusta Dixon, Mother of H. L. Dixon

OBITUARY

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The death of Mrs. Augusta Dixon, at her home in Pittsburgh, Pa., on February 16 marked the passing of one of the best known members of a pioneer Pittsburgh family. In 1857 the late James B. Lyon, of the O'Hara Glass Co., needing skilled workmen for this plant, induced a number of the employees of the New England Works at Cambridge, Mass., to go to Pittsburgh. Among them were William S. Dixon, Col. Daniel Ashworth, and Daniel Ripley. Col. Ashworth is the only surviving member of the party. Mrs. Dixon, widow of William S., was a sister of Thomas and Ira Coffin, who established a glass pot manufacturing plant in Pittsburgh in 1860, with which Mr. Dixon and his sons, William R. and H. L., became identified in 1880 upon the death of Thomas Coffin. In those days Mr. Dixon was the recognized authority on glass furnace construction and glass pot manufacture, and from him his sons, William R., of the old Dixon-Woods Co.; H. L., of the H. L. Dixon Co.; Walter D., of the Woods-Lloyd Co.; and Frank S., of the American Bottle Co., acquired their expert knowledge of the furnace and clay business. William R. Dixon died in 1893 while a member of the original Dixon-Woods Co., and William S. Dixon died in July of the same year. The death of the mother of these well-known glass men of the earlier period will recall to many of the older glass manufacturers the struggles and hardships of that formative time. Four sons survive — H. L., W. D., F. S., and C. E. Dixon