Courtesy of Dylan BixbyDylan Bixby, the great-great-grandson of William Bixby, swears he does not wear a pocket watch.
“One girl from my freshman floor was an art student. She said, ‘I saw that picture in the art hall [of Bixby] and I can really see the resemblance.’ I wasn’t sure whether to be complimented or not because I saw the picture and it’s a picture of my great-great-grandfather as this rather rotund, balding man with a pocket watch and an overcoat.”
William Keeney Bixby is the man behind Bixby Hall, one building in a complex of five that makes up the new Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. From being a railroad tycoon to donating rare animals to zoos, Bixby led an interesting life.
Descendants of the namesake of Bixby Hall will be on campus for the rededication of the Mildred Lane Kemper Museum this afternoon. Junior Dylan Bixby and freshman Elise Bixby are the great-great-grandchildren of William Bixby. They will be joined by their parents, Ethan and Trudy, for the opening ceremony.
Born in 1857 in the city of Adrian, Mich., William Bixby got an early start with what would turn out to be a future career in the railroad industry.
His father, Alonzo Bixby, was the prosecuting attorney in Adrian. Before that, he had lived in Texas and fought with the Texas Rangers. He was considered to be a copperhead during the Civil War, and because of his Southern sympathies, Alonzo Bixby developed ties with the governor of Texas.
The governor granted Alonzo’s son William, who was then 16-years-old, a job as a night watchman and baggage man for the International Great Northern Railroad in Palestine, Texas.
Dylan Bixby remains fascinated to this day about his great-great-grandfather’s involvement in the railroad industry.
“There was an old guy who rode the trains late at night when he was a baggage boy, and would always pester him with questions,” said Bixby. “After a year of this, the guy revealed himself to be the head of the company for the railroad. Because he was so impressed with how intelligent he was, he promoted him and kept an eye on his career from there.”
H.M. Hoxy, the old man on the train, was the president of the International Great Northern Railroad. After first promoting [Bixby] to the position of general baggage agent in San Antonio, he continued to help him rise in the company.
When Hoxy became president of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, Bixby and his new wife, Lillian Tuttle, moved with him. This move paid off and proved to be advantageous for Bixby.
“[Bixby] ended up being the president of the American Car and Foundry [Company], which did all of the railroad cars for almost any railroad in the country,” said Bixby.
William Bixby was extremely successful and retired at the age of 48. After retirement, Bixby took up several hobbies, including collecting paintings, autographs and rare books, of which he had multitudes. He owned original copies of Kipling’s “Recessional” and Thoreau’s “Walden,” among others.
Many of these books are currently housed in Olin Library in the rare books collection.
Dylan found it interesting that the scope of his great-great-grandfather’s interest in rare books extended to the Internet.
“The first thing you find on Google when you search ‘William Keeney Bixby’ is a reference to Wash. U.’s rare books selection, which I [think is] kind of amusing,” he said.
In the field of art, Bixby’s collections were also impressive. He owned an original Rembrandt and a portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart.
Beyond these interests, Bixby enjoyed other uncommon pursuits.
“[My great-great-grandfather] did something until he got bored with it and would trade it in for something else. He got involved with the Spirit of St. Louis with Charles Lindbergh and helped to support his flight across the Atlantic. He also did two safaris in Africa,” said Bixby.
“We have a photocopy of an original document [of Bixby’s] that lists all of these rare animals that he bought. [Some of them were] tigers and polar bear cubs and [other] random animals. He donated them to a zoo.”
Bixby was also involved in several educational and charitable organizations, which led him to serve in such roles as vice president of the American Federation of Art, director of the St. Louis Public Library, and director of the National Gallery of Art. At the University, he was a chair on the board of the school, and donated half a million dollars to have Bixby Hall built.
Dylan has not been to the building that the elder Bixby helped to establish recently, but he is interested in discovering more of his grandfather’s legacy.
“I’m actually not an art student, so I don’t go over there. I haven’t actually been in the building since I visited here when I was much younger,” said Bixby. “We were doing a van trip of the Midwest over the summer and we stopped by to peek inside, but I was so young I don’t even remember.”