Rev. Patrick W Dixon1

#33286, (8 December 1846 - 3 December 1928)
"DIXON, PATRICK WILLIAM, Catholic parish priest, Newcastle, 1871-1928; b. parish of Dunmore, Co. Galway, Ireland, 8 Dec 1846, s/o William Dixon and Nora Byrnes; ordained 1870; d. Chatham, 3 Dec 1928.

"Patrick W. Dixon was educated at St Jarleth's College in Tuam, Ireland, and came to Chatham in 1865 as a teacher of Greek and Latin at St Michael's male academy, while preparing for the priesthood under the tutelage of Bishop James Rogers. He finished his theological training at the Grand Seminary in Montreal in 1870. After a brief assignment in Boston he was appointed priest at Newcastle in 1871, as successor to the parish administrator, Father Joseph-Auguste Babineau. Earlier events during his tenure at Newcastle included the dedication of the first St Mary's Church in 1875 and the construction of the rectory in 1884. He continued as the parish priest of St Mary's for a total of fifty-seven years.

"Dixon was a scholarly man whose classical library was "unsurpassed in the province." For many years he acted as supervisor of studies for St Mary's Academy and taught Latin to the high school grades. His learning and certain features of his mind and personality are revealed in letters which he wrote to the Miramichi Advance in 1896, when he was at the center of a political dispute involving the Hon. Lemuel J. Tweedie, Bishop Rogers, and others, and in another lengthy letter which he sent to the Union Advocate in 1911 in reply to an attack made by the Rev. Frederick C. Simpson, the Presbyterian minister at Douglastown, on a Catholic marriage decree. In his response to Simpson he defended Catholic doctrine on marriage but would appear to have been less incensed by the minister's opposition to the decree than by his reference to Canada as "a Protestant country."

"Father Benedict J. Murdoch, who was Dixon's curate in 1915-16, described him as "a short, somewhat slight man with a florid face, clear sparkling blue eyes, [and] shining pink bald head, with a fringe of snow-white hair almost encircling it." He was "kind, generous, punctilious, and quick-tempered."

"Dixon resigned from his duties as parish priest in June 1928 due to failing health. He died six months later at the Hotel Dieu Hospital, five days before his eighty-second birthday."

Sources: [b/d] Advocate 5 Dec 1928 / Advance 1 Jul 1896ff; Advocate 26 Jul 1911; Hutchison's, 1865-66; MacAllister; Murdoch.1 
Birth*8 December 1846He was born on 8 December 1846 at Dunmore, Co. Galway, IrelandG.1 
Marriage24 June 1901He witnessed the marriage of Mary A Holohan and Thomas W Butler on 24 June 1901 at St. Mary's Church, Newcastle (now part of Miramichi), Northumberland Co., New BrunswickG.2 
Death24 December 1914He reported the death of Thomas W Butler on 24 December 1914 at Chaplin Island Road, Northumberland Co., New BrunswickG.3 
Death*3 December 1928He died on 3 December 1928 at Hotel Dieu Hospital, Newcastle (now part of Miramichi), Northumberland Co., New BrunswickG, at age 81.1 

Citations

  1. [S2804] Dictionary of Miramichi Biography, online archives.gnb.ca, p.. 268.
  2. [S2278] New Brunswick Provincial Marriages 1789-1950, online FamilySearch.org, PANB film no. F15596, img. 606/1265. No. 1302. Thomas W Butler, age 32, barrister-at-law, res. New Castle, b. Westmorland Co. NB, son of Thomas Butler and Catherine Sweeney; and Mary A Hoolihan, age 31, b. and res. Chaplin Island Road, dau. of Edward Hoolihan and Margaret Baile; both Catholic, marr. St. Mary's Catholic Church, New Castle 24 [reverse side has 25] Jun 1921 by Patrick W Dixon, priest, witn. T J Desmond and Alexes Hoolihan. Signed: T W Butler and M A Holohan.
  3. [S2805] Northumberland County, New Brunswick, Registration Division, Deaths (Sch. C.), Return of Clergymen, Occupier or Other Person, No. 1429. Thomas W Butler, barrister-at-law and agriculturist, b. Melrose, Westmorland Co. NB, res. Chaplin Island Road, d. 24 Dec 1913, age 45, diabetes; inf. Patrick W Dixon, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick.