Noteable Personalities

Sarah Van Deman - First Airplane Passenger in Americas

Solano County has a very long history of passenger transport on government owned planes with Travis Air Force Base in the county. In fact, Solano County can boost as having the very first woman to fly as a passenger in an aeroplane in the Western Hemisphere. According to an article from the San Francisco Call newspaper dated October 28th, 1909; Mrs. Sarah Van Deman, wife of Captain Ralph Henry Van Deman of the Twenty-First infantry, was the first woman to fly through the air in an aeroplane.

Read the full article about Sarah Van Deman. By Dave Trojan, Aviation HIstorian.

Notable Personalities

Dixon Notable Personalities of the Late 1800's

In the 1870's and 1880's, photography, while still rare, was becoming more available and less expensive. Taking advantage of this fact, a number of photographically-advanced firms published "posters" of prominent personages or persons wishing to exhibit their prominence or advertise their commercial existence. The Dixon area was no exception and Bill Schroeder has collected five such posters which we reproduce here.

On this website, we have gone further than simply reproducing the poster; we have cropped each image from the photographic matrix, photo enhanced the image where possible, added any other information known about the individual and assembled the cropped images into a slideshow.

There is no commonality of purpose or occupation apparent in the selection of notables for each poster, except for Poster #1 which is almost exclusively farmers. The other four posters display a random mix of personalities, from Priests to Grocers.

If you happen to recognize any of these people and are able to provide additional information about them, please contact the Dixon Historical Society at dhs.dixonhistoricalsociety@gmail.com.