Dixon College or Dixon Business College was a private college in

Dixon, Illinois Dixon is a city in Lee County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The population was 15,274 as of the 2020 census. The city is named after founder John Dixon, who operated a rope ferry service across the Rock River (Mississippi River ...

, USA. It operated together with Northern Illinois Normal School, a teacher training institution, from 1881 until some time after 1914. Northern Illinois Normal School was chartered by the state on April 18, 1872, and for a while operated as the teacher training department of Rock River University.Katharine L. Sharp, "Historical Sketches: Dixon College (31 Dec. 1904)", in ''The University Studies'' (University of Illinois), Volume 2, number 6, December 1907: ''Illinois Libraries Part III''
p. 384
The combined Dixon College and Northern Illinois Normal School was incorporated in 1880 and opened on September 2, 1881, moving the following year to purpose-built buildings on Hancock Street on the west side of Dixon. The first president was John C. Flint and the first principal Jesse B. Dille.Karen Swegle Holt

Genealogy Trails, 2009, retrieved September 27, 2016, citing L. W. Miller, Chapter XIV: "Education History of Lee County Schools" in Frank Everett Stevens, ''History of Lee County, Illinois'', 2 vols, Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1914, , Volume 1, pp. 201–02. The principal was F. E. Rice in 1906, F. B. Virden in 1911 and 1914–15, I. Frank Edwards in 1913. In 1891 enrollment was almost 1,200. On June 3, 1901, it received a charter as Dixon College. Edwards, the former county superintendent of schools, had acquired the college by 1914; at some point after that date, it closed. In 1903 the college advertised that it taught "practically everything". In 1907 in addition to Dixon Business College it was using the names Northern Illinois College of Music, Northern Illinois College of Shorthand, Northern Illinois College of Telegraphy, Northern Illinois College of Art, Northern Illinois College of Law, Dixon School of Oratory, and Dixon Military College, and was one of two examples in an article in the Annual Report of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

of institutions "prostitut ng academic degrees by requiring too little time for a law degree.

Notable alumni

* Davy Jones, Major League baseballer * Noah M. Mason, US Congressman *

Olaf M. Norlie Olaf Morgan Norlie (January 11, 1876 – June 22, 1962), also referred to as O. M. Norlie, was a Lutheran minister, educator and scholar. He was additionally a Lutheran church historian, librarian, editor and statistician. He was also a prolifi ...

, pastor and academic

References

{{Reflist Universities and colleges established in 1880 Defunct private universities and colleges in Illinois Education in Lee County, Illinois Dixon, Illinois 1880 establishments in Illinois