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Harry St. John Dixon and the Rebel Roots of Maynard Dixon The name Maynard Dixon is a household word in the world of art. Born in Fresno in 1875, he rose to fame through his paintings, drawings, and sketches. Maynard Dixon's art work now sells for thousands of dollars, and he is considered to be among the greatest artists of the West, on a par with Remington and Russell. The life of Maynard Dixon has been well documented from his birth in Fresno to his death in Tucson, Arizona in 1946, but what is not so well known are his family roots, especially as they relate to his father. Maynard Dixon was the son of Harry St. John Dixon, a Confederate soldier who turned his back on the South during Reconstruction. He left Sycamores, his old plantation and came to Fresno County where he entered politics and practiced law. He was an early County Clerk of Fresno County, the first city attorney of Fresno, the designer of its first seal, and the composer of the first map of Fresno County. For all of his community service, Harry St. John Dixon has been something of an enigma in the history of Fresno County. His public life is well known, but his private thoughts have been hidden for more than a century. Now, however, the real Harry St. John Dixon is about to be revealed by the 8th grade class at Valley Prep Charter School because they have his diary! Harry began writing his diary in 1857 and continued it into the 1880s. It is a veritable mother lode of history, which pulls the covers off of life in the South before the Civil War--during the War--and after the War. Every page drips with bitterness as this diehard Rebel seeks revenge on the enemies of the South, wherever he found them, especially in Fresno County. This then is the true legacy of Harry St. John Dixon: a deep love for the South and deeper regrets at the loss of his old way of life, and this is what he passed on to his son, Maynard Dixon. As Maynard grew up in early Fresno, he heard stories about "Mammy," a slave who tended to his father as a child. Young Maynard listened intently to the stories of plantation life, Southern belles, Yankee invasion, and racial inequality. He absorbed the stories and they became his roots--his "rebel roots." All year long the young historians in Valley Prep's 8th grade class have been pouring over Harry's diary, researching it and preparing it for publication. They have even taken a trip to Harry's Mississippi plantation to broaden their view of the man. By year's end their work will be complete, and their book will be published under the title, "Harry St. John Dixon and the Rebel Roots of Maynard Dixon."
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