Around 1828, Joseph Ogee, a man of mixed French and Native American descent, established a ferry and a cabin along the banks of the Rock River.

John Dixon, the eponymous founder, bought Ogee's Ferry in the spring of 1830 and brought his family to his newly purchased establishment on April 11 of that year.

On September 12, 1885, two young men walked along a county road south of Dixon, one a farm hand named Joseph M. Mosse and the other, Frank C. Thiel, a traveling salesman from Elgin, IL.

The unemployed farmhand told the salesman of a place he could sell his Bibles and proceeded to take him to a farm where he had worked.

As the two men passed a gulch the farmhand struck and killed the salesman with a knife and a walnut baluster he was seen carrying under his arm.

When the sheriff arrived to question the farm hand, since he was seen leaving Dixon with the deceased, he pretended to get a drink while throwing a watch chain taken from the salesman in the bushes.

[7] In April 2012, Dixon Municipal Comptroller Rita Crundwell was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for embezzlement.

She used the embezzled funds to pay for her lavish lifestyle and what became one of the nation's best-known quarter horse-breeding programs, among other things.

Crundwell's crimes, thought to be the most substantial municipal theft in U.S. history,[8][9] impacted Dixon's finances severely.

[10] The city sued the auditors who had failed to detect the embezzlement and the bank at which Crundwell maintained a secret account, and received $40 million in settlements.

[9][12] On May 16, 2018, Matthew Milby, a 19-year-old student, entered Dixon High School and fired shots during graduation practice.

[14] Milby was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder and initially found unfit to stand trial.

His family house is preserved at 816 South Hennepin Avenue, and authorized by Congress to become the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home.

Dixon is a regional employment hub and is part of two fast growing distribution and warehousing and food processing districts: one is I-88 West and the other, the I-39 Logistics Corridor.

The Rock River which runs through the center of Dixon has been designated a National Waterway by the Federal Government.

Dixon residents have supported a variety of large-scale projects that have created several aspects to their rural community.

One aspect of this small town is that an individual can kayak the Rock River to the city's downtown docks and join a public Yoga session on the riverfront.

The Petunia Festival was conceived after Dutch Elm Disease and highway expansion wiped out the trees along the major roads in the late 1950s.

[27] An iconic arch along Galena Avenue, just south of the Rock River, features the word "Dixon" in neon glasswork.

Restored with the dedicated support of the townspeople and Reagan colleagues, the Center is proudly affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.

Tourists from nearby Chicago take advantage of Lee County's recreational opportunities, particularly during summer weekends, adding approximately 20,000 people to the area's population.