Part 4: The Louisville Years

(Click Pictures to Enlarge Each)  

  After four years of appealing to the U.S. government, family and friends, the Dixons were able to secure passage aboard the S.S. Cedric back to the U.S.

 Here’s a picture of a July 1926 passenger list, with their names listed:

  Upon their return, they lived for a short period with Gardner Dixon’s parents in West Virginia, and worked as high school teachers before moving to Louisville in the 1930’s for better teaching opportunities afforded to African Americans. Their move to Louisville was during the Great Depression and wide-spread discrimination.

   My grandfather was a Woodwork Instructor at Jackson Street Jr. High and Davis Trade School in Louisville. He retired as a carpenter from Fort Knox Kentucky.
    The carpentry degree Gardner Dixon earned in 1920 encompassed far more than what we would consider carpentry today. Engineering was also part of the coursework.
   With an emphasis placed on self-sufficiency, Booker T. Washington put a curriculum in place for students to leave Tuskegee with the ability to teach, grow and sell their own food and build things. Gardner and Edessa Dixon did all of that and more.

   Aunt Lois writes, “My parents felt that God lead them to Louisville.  Always aware of His love and protection, they found a Sabbath keeping church as promised. Elder Mallory studied with them, baptized them, and they became dedicated Seventh-day Adventist Christians. I recall as a little girl asking my mother, ‘Mom, why do you love Jesus so much?’ She smiled at me and said, ‘because He has done so much for me.’  Now, after all these years, I understand what she meant.”
 

 My grandfather, “Papa Love,” as he was called, built two income generating properties to support his family. The first, located at 1041 South 34th Street in Louisville, was a large house that contained five apartments that they rented.
 
   He also built an apartment above their garage for the family. They lived in the garage apartment so that the Dixon children could attend church school during the school year.

  Gardner also built a second home, made of bricks, in nearby Eastwood, Kentucky. The Dixons used the ample land on this country property to build a tennis court, as well as grow and can their own food. They also had an orchard on the property.




   My grandfather taught his sons as they assisted him in the building of each house, he also taught them how to make home repairs, repair cars and to play the violin, as he did.

 After the birth of their second child, Relyea, Mother Dixon ended her public teaching career to care for their growing family. She continued as a Sabbath School teacher for many years while also providing a child care service in her home for working mothers.
    My grandmother also drew upon her Tuskegee training to provide sewing and crochet lessons to people in the community.
  Aunt Lois says that her clothes were made by her mother for many years.


(Extra material not included in the Oct. 8, 2016 presentation):
   Aunt Lois recalls, “My parents held several church offices as Sabbath School Superintendent, Sabbath School teacher, etc., but for many, many years they were church treasurers. Each Sabbath after sunset, they and the deacons would remain at the church and count the incoming money for that Sabbath. My father, “Papa Love,” as we called him, would carry the money in the bag and safely place it in the car. My mother faithfully sat beside him as he drove them home.

   

This was a serious undertaking, for this is "God's money." Carefully and prayerfully they would make their way home.  

One Saturday night my father stopped at a drug store. He left my mother alone in the locked car with the church's money.
      As he came out of the drug store a strange man followed, pulled out a gun and demanded the money. I know they were praying as their guardian angels kept them calm in this stressful situation. Strangely the money had disappeared as they looked every place in the car.
      The stranger appeared defeated and returned inside the drug store. My parents thanked God for His protection as they drove home.  The mystery money re-appeared. With Jesus’ protection and guidance, the money had slipped under the seat of the car where no one could have possibly found it. God protected the money and their lives.
      They never forgot His goodness.”