July 1884 was windy in Lawrence County. Brief, loud summer storms raked the fields, watering the earth but bending and damaging corn stalks throughout the area. And on the 30th, in the midst of that stormy summer, one of the most influential men in the community of Appleton breathed his last.

News of the passing reached Lawrenceburg by special messenger the next morning, and a local minister set out from his home on Pulaski Street to fulfill his last promise to an old friend.

Colonel Alexander G. Dobbins was 68 years old when he took his last breath. He died of cancer, no doubt surrounded by family in the midst of his massive and prosperous farm. He certainly had plenty of family left to carry on his name; his first two wives had given him five children each before dying, leaving his third and final wife–a woman eighteen years his junior–a number of stepsons to help maintain her estate.

An expert in livestock, Colonel Dobbins built a successful business empire despite his limited education. At the time of his death, he owned three mercantile houses and at least 4/5 of a square mile of land in Lawrence County’s third district. He was generous and well-liked, and very active in his masonic lodge.

Years before, Colonel Dobbins had asked his old friend W.T. Nixon to preach his funeral. And so it was, when word of the Colonel’s passing reached Lawrenceburg early the next morning, Nixon saddled his horse Old Nell and rode south to fulfill his promise.

About eight miles south of Lawrenceburg, Nixon and Old Nell were caught in a sudden violent storm and had to take shelter at the home of Rice Wilburn. When the storm let up, Wilburn joined him and they arrived at Colonel Dobbins’s home around 2:30 that afternoon.

Nixon kept his word to his old friend. He was sure to remark on the fact that Colonel Dobbins “had never taken a chew of tobacco, had never smoked a pipe, never drank a drink of whiskey and had never sworn an oath.” He was buried with full masonic honors after the sermon.

His vow completed, Nixon started back to Lawrenceburg at 5:30 and finally arrived home at 11:30 that night, the 18-mile journey taking him six hours over a very “rough road.”