2024 52 Ancestors: Taking Care of Business - Lizzie's Roadhouse

Sutton is a small town in Braxton County, smack dab in the center of West Virginia. Home to the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum and the Haunted Haymond House, there's not much else to write home about, but this place was once called home by my mom's side of the family from about 1902 to 1945-ish.

It was also the birthplace of Lizzie's roadhouse! Elizabeth (Rockwell) Dixon was my 2nd great grandmother, and she also happened to be a fine businesswoman. She ran her own gas station and store on the side of the road.

Mrs. Lizzie Dixon roadhouse, Sutton, West Virginia, circa 1930. 

Photo provided by Nancy (Hogg) Jones to Kira D. Foltz.

Dixon roadhouse, Sutton, West Virginia, 18 Nov 1934.

Dixon roadhouse, Sutton, West Virginia, 18 Nov 1934.

And that's right; it wasn't managed by her husband! It was HER name up on that sign:

Mrs. Lizzie Dixon roadhouse sign, Sutton, West Virginia, circa 1930. 

Photo provided by Nancy (Hogg) Jones to Kira D. Foltz.

The exact location of where the roadhouse sat is yet undetermined, however, my best guess is it likely stood where an old, abandoned car wash now resides on S. Stonewall Street at the corner of 2nd St. next to Elk River. This is what that location currently looks like on Google Maps and appears to be a near dead ringer:

Google Maps, 92 County Route, Sutton, West Virginia, July 2009; screenshot May 2024.

Nathan and Elizabeth moved to Sutton from Battelle, Monongalia, West Virginia (on the border of Pennsylvania). Back in Battelle, the 1900 U.S. federal census gives credit to Nathan for running a boarding house. But by all accounts in the family, it was Lizzie that ran the show! She wasn't just the housekeeper, she was the boss of the establishment.

1900 U.S. federal census, Battelle, Monongalia, West Virginia, 27 Jun 1900; Ancestry.com.

Nathan was thought to be lazy when it came to work around the farm. Lizzie wasn't educated, but she was still very smart. She was able to read and write (unlike Nathan, who signed his signatures with an "X"), and she kept abreast of politics and all current events. Her granddaughter, Sheila (Dean) Pendleton, called her "a remarkable woman [that] could do anything and did whenever necessary." 

In addition to bearing 9 children and raising 5 of them, she was also a healer and allegedly one of the first women to be issued a horseless carriage license! (Sheila has the original license in her possession).

Nathan and Lizzie Dixon, Sutton, West Virginia, 1934.

If that wasn't enough, Sheila said Lizzie was also a mortician! Sheila's sister, Frances (Dean) Wise, told Arlene Kuschmider, her niece, that the 3-windowed parlor on the front of the Dixon house was used for funerals or wakes. It would appear that Lizzie was a "Jill of All Trades."

Dixon home, Battelle or Sutton, West Virginia.

When Nathan and Lizzie reached their 90s, they moved in with their daughter Beatrice and son-in-law Chester in Bethlehem, West Virginia. Sheila, who then got to grow up with them in the house, was enamored with her grandparents and loved hearing their life stories. She jotted everything they said down in journals, but tragically lost them all in a house fire. Imagine all the other wild stories that Lizzie was sure to have been a part of had those journals lived to tell the tales.

Jan 2025 Update:

The original location of the roadhouse has officially been revealed! And no, I was not correct with the abandoned car wash up above. It turns out the Dixons were not living in the center of town in Sutton where I had expected to find them.

Instead, their home was about halfway between Sutton and Tesla at what now carries the address of 2819 Old Turnpike Road. A construction company owns what used to be Lizzie's gas station and shop.

Google Maps Streetview, 2819 Old Turnpike Rd., Sutton, West Virginia.

I got kinda lucky in nailing down this location, as the property did not carry an actual address during the years my family resided and worked there. Instead, one could address letters to Lizzie Dixon, Sutton, West Virginia, and that's all it would take for the postman to find the recipient!

But I happened to be paying attention to some interesting posts in a Braxton County, West Virginia Facebook group I'm a member of and noticed that one person had stumbled upon old farm maps of Braxton County with family names on them circa 1911. I asked if any of the maps in his possession reached as far east as Sutton, and he said they did and he'd be posting those images the following week. Sure enough, a few days later when he posted the Sutton maps, I scrambled to find recognizable family names on them.

Sutton, West Virginia farm map shared in Braxon County WV Old Family Photos and History Facebook group

I knew that my Dixons were living in Sutton in 1910, as they had been listed on the U.S. federal census, so they were bound to appear on maps that dated to around 1911. I did find a few names that rang some bells, but no Dixon listed. Then, I compared all of the Dixon's neighboring families on the 1910 census to the map, and found them all clustered south of the town of Sutton! 

And making it easy for me, the map was matching up in order with the families enumerated on the census. Wouldn't you know it, when I got to where the Dixons should have been, the farm map's name was indecipherable and quite small compared to the neighboring farms! I can't read the fine print, but after jumping over to Google Maps, I knew I had found the right spot!

Sutton, West Virginia farm map shared in Braxon County WV Old Family Photos and History Facebook group

That little oddly shaped square-ish piece of land south of the D. Smith farm was where Lizzie's roadhouse sat! From what I can make out, the number farm was 104 (or something similar) and I can't read the letters smudged above it whatsoever. But that was them! It's so satisfying to finally have an address to sync with the Dixon household and a place that I can point to on a map!