My Genealogy Hound

Dr. Joel Westwood Nixon was born in Loudoun County, Va., on the 13th of May, 1849, the son of Jonathan Westwood and Mary Nixon, the former of Scotch origin, born in Loudoun County, Va., on the 19th of December, 1807, and deceased in 1874. He (Jonathan Westwood Nixon) lived the greater portion of his life on his farm, containing 350 acres, seven miles north of the famous battle fields of Manassas, and ten miles south of Leesburg, the county seat. He was a man very retiring in his nature, quiet and unsophisticated; was often solicited to become a candidate for office, but preferred the quiet life of a farmer. He was a member of the order of Freemasonry, and a member of the Missionary Baptist Church. He was a brother of Lorenzo D. Nixon, who was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the son of Joel Nixon, who lived in Loudoun County, Va., for many years, and deceased in 1856. He came to Virginia when a small boy, from near the city of Philadelphia, with his parents. The wife of Jonathan W. Nixon, whom he married in Washington, D. C., was of Spanish origin, born in 1810, and deceased in 1864, the daughter of Edmond Castile, who owned a tract of land east of the Capitol building which made him a handsome fortune. Our subject, the only son of a family of twelve children, was educated at Dover Institute, in Loudoun County, Va., and graduated in 1866. He became a teacher at twenty years of age, and spent seven years in that work in Prince William County, and his native county. In 1875 he came to Monticello, Mo., and commenced the study of medicine and surgery, under the tutorship of Dr. R. J. Christie. In March, 1878, he graduated from the medical department of the State University of Maryland. He then commenced practice in his native county, in Virginia. He located in Monticello, Mo., January 1, 1880. In February, 1881, he married Bettie, a daughter of Jeptha D. Million. She was born May 3, 1856. Dudley Westwood, their only child, was born July 15, 1882. Our subject is the only resident physician in Monticello except Dr. J. B. Marchand. He has a fine reputation for many miles adjacent to Monticello. He is a Democrat, and first voted for Horace Greeley. He has been secretary of the Lewis County Medical Society for four years, and is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, while his wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church South.