Morgan Dix

Morgan Dix (November 1, 1827 in New York City – April 29, 1908) was an American Episcopal Church priest, theologian, and religious author.

Early life

Dix was born on November 1, 1827 in New York City. He was the son of Catherine Morgan, the adopted daughter of Congressman John J. Morgan (1770-1849), and Major General John Adams Dix (1798-1879), U.S. Senator from New York (from 1845–1849), Secretary of the Treasury (from January–March 1861), Governor of New York (from 1873–1874) and Union major general during the Civil War. His father was notable for arresting six members of the pro-Southern Maryland legislature, preventing that divided border state from seceding, and for arranging a system for prisoner exchange via the Dix–Hill Cartel, concluded in partnership with Confederate Major General Daniel Harvey Hill.

Dix was educated at Columbia College and the General Theological Seminary.

Career

For almost fifty-three years, he was identified with Trinity Church, New York, of which he became assistant minister in 1855 and rector in 1862.

As well as being a very active churchman, Dix also wrote widely about the practice of Christianity. Among his major works are ''Commentaries on Romans and on Galatians and Colossians; The Calling of a Christian Woman; The Seven Deadly Sins; The Sacramental System;'' and ''Lectures on the First Prayer-Book of Edward VI''.Louis Harmon Peet.

He objected to the entrance of girls into universities, because it was not "proper for young women to be exposed to the gaze of young men, many of whom were less bent upon learning than upon amusement." He was an hereditary companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

In 1880, he was subject to a sinister hoax that stretched over several months and became the subject of much comment in the New York City newspapers of the time. The arrest of the hoaxer (who was subsequently given a prison sentence) ended the incident.

Personal life

On 3 June 1874 at the residence of the bride's mother, No. 22 West Seventeenth street New York, New York, Rev. Morgan Dix married Emily Wolsey Soutter. Her parents were James Taylor Soutter Sr. and Agnes Gordon Knox formerly of Virginia. The Right Rev. Dr. Potter, Bishop of the Diocese officiated the ceremony.
The New York Times (New York, New York), 4 Jun 1874, Thursday, Page 8.

Together they had the following children:

*John A. Dix, a 1902 graduate of Harvard who married Sophie W. Townsend, the granddaughter of Howard Townsend and Justine Van Rensselaer
*Emily Margaret Gordon Dix, who married Charles Lanier Lawrance (1882–1950) in 1910
*Catherine Morgan Dix, who married William H. Wheelock

On the north side of the Trinity Church is the All Saints’ Chapel, added in 1913 in honor of Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, Rector from 1862-1908. A cenotaph (or memorial) in the likeness of Dix is in the entry to the Chapel.

References

Notes

Bibliography
*
* Swanberg, W. A. (1968) ''The Rector and the Rogue'' New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

External links

Bibliographic Directory on Morgan Dix
at Project Canterbury

Morgan Dix records at Trinity Wall Street Archives

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1827 births
1908 deaths
American Episcopal priests
American religious writers
American Episcopal theologians
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Place of birth missing
General Theological Seminary alumni
19th-century American Episcopalians
19th-century American clergy