John Alden Dix (1860-1928) [Section 41, Lot 11]
38th Governor of New York State, State Democratic Chairman, established NYS Conservation Commission, Chairman of the Washington County Democratic Committee
John Alden Dix was born on December 25, 1860, in Glens Falls, N.Y., the son of James Lawton Dix and Laura Stevens. His father was a businessman serving as a partner in Hopkins, Dix & Company, a foundry and machine shop, and a quarry which dealt with black marble. He also owned a business that did general repairs for the mills located along the Hudson River. Due to the prominence of the family within the city, Dix Avenue is named in their honor. Dix attended the district school on Ridge Street and later Glen Fall Academy. he attended Cornell University for college, graduating in 1883.
After college he worked for his father’s business but left in 1887 to work for for the Iroquois Pulp & Paper factory, a lumber and pulp company. The factory was located in Thomson, 15 miles southeast of Glens Falls along the Hudson River just north of the confluence of the Battenkill River in the Town of Greenwich. Named in honor of the company owner Lemon Thomson, Dix married his daughter, Gertrude, becoming a partner in at the company. When Thomson passed away in 1897, Dix bought out the company shares becoming sole owner and renamed it Thomson & Dix.
Dix became successfully within the business and opened up more companies in Washington County; Blandy Paper Company, Standard Wall Paper Company, and the American Wood Board Company. He expanded the business to northern Herkimer County with the establishment of the Moose River Lumber Company and McKeever River Lumber Company, thanks in part to Dix’s friend William Seward Webb who established the Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railroad.
Dix established a one-for-one rule, with a replanting program for every tree that was cut down. Planning for the potential demise of his lumber company’s resources, Dix is viewed as an early ecologist.
As an Episcopalian, Dix served as the churchwarden for St. Stephen’s Church in Schuylerville, and a member of the standing committee for the Albany Diocese. In 1908 he was a delegate to the Pan-Anglican Congress in London. This event which had 17,000 in attendance marked a transition for the church’s mission, most notably interlinking churches who use in Anglican Communication, as well as recognizing cultural diversity and organizational autonomy.
He served on several boards: vice president, First National Bank of Albany; director, Albany Trust Company; director, Glens Falls Trust Company; director, National Bank of Schuylerville; and treasurer, American Wood Board Company.
Dix was also politically active and served as the Chairman of the Washington County Democratic Committee, being a delegate to the 1904 Democratic National Convention. Democrats in the state saw his potential for statewide office and put his name forward as a candidate for governor 1908, but he declined, though he did run for Lieutenant Governor which was unsuccessful. Two years later, as Chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, he ran for governor and won. Despite the similarity in names, he is of no relation to former New York Governor John Adams Dix.
Dix served from Jan 1, 1911 – December 1913. During his time as governor, he established the State Conservation Commission, a precursor to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. He approved legislation that improved state highways and authorized direct primary elections.
During his time in office, two major fires occurred in the state. On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire which killed 146 workers, 123 women, and 23 men. This fire was the deadliest industrial disaster in U.S. history. Only one of the four elevators was functional, and the exit doors either open inward or was locked from the outside to prevent employee theft. Four days later on March 29, 1911, the New York State Capitol caught on fire, which nearly destroyed the State Library. These two fires led to the establishment of the State Fire Marshal’s Office and stricter fire and safety regulation as well as building codes.
His administration passed the “one-day-of-rest-in-seven” law which reduced the workweek to 54 hours and improved conditions for women and children working in factories. Additionally, the New York State Factory Commission was established to investigate factories and authorized 32 safety worker laws. Despite all of the agencies and reforms Dix achieved as governor, he did not receive the Democratic nomination for reelection in 1912. He left office with a surplus of $4,000,000 (over $100,000,000 in 2019). However, his families finances did not do so well.
Dix retired from political life and moved to Santa Barbara, California with his wife the following year. Dix died on April 9, 1928, in New York City battling Coronary Thrombosis. He and Gertrude are interred in Lemon Thompson family plot at Albany Rural Cemetery.