The Dix Ancestry.

To the Editor of the New York Times:

Statements have appeared in print alleging that John A. Dix, the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, is of the family of the late Gen. John A. Dix, ex-Governor of New York. The latest statement that I have seen was in yesterday's TIMES, and was to the effect that his father, James Lawton Dix, was a first cousin of the General. This I believe is an error. I have before me a chart of the descendants of Anthony Dix, who landed at Plymouth, Mass., in 1623, and from whom Gen. John A. Dix was descended. It was prepared in 1882 by the late Frank Bolles, Secretary of Harvard University and a nephew of Gen. Dix. A search of the chart fails to disclose the name of James Lawton Dix, and shows, moreover, that the late Gen. Dix had no first cousins on the paternal side, as his father, Lieut. Col. Timothy Dix, had but one brother, Josiah B., who died an infant. I also have a letter from John A. Dix written to me in 1900, in which he states that his father was James Lawton Dix and his grandfather Samuel Dix.

Although the name of Dix is not very common, there are four families dating back to the early settlement of the country, and I am of the impression that John A. Dix is a descendant of Leonard Dix, who settled at Wethersfield, Conn. The statement of relationship to Gen. Dix suggests a similar case during the civil war, when he had become such a prominent figure through his famous message when Secretary of the Treasury.

Miss Dorothea Lynde Dix, the celebrated philanthropist, who was Superintendent of Nurses during the war, was almost universally spoken of as a sister of the General, and was addressed by him in letters as "Dear Sister," although there was no known relationship between them. (See Tiffany's "Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix.") Miss Dix was a descendant, as is the writer, of Edward Dix, one of the first settlers and proprietors of Watertown, Mass., who, it has been supposed, was a brother of Leonard of Wethersfield. WARREN R. DIX.

Elizabeth, N.J., Sept. 24, 1908.