|
Dixmont is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,181 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Bangor Metropolitan Statistical Area. ==History== Dixmont was originally granted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (of which Maine was then a part) to Bowdoin College, which sold the first settlers their land. For that reason it was initially called "Collegetown". The first settlement was made in 1799. One of the largest purchasers of land in Collegetown was Dr. Elijah Dix of Boston, who never lived there but took an interest in its settlement. When the town was incorporated in 1807, it named itself after Dix. A "malignant fever" broke out among the settlers that same year, killing many of them. Still, the population grew in the decade 1800-1810 from 59 to 337, a rate of increase never repeated. Dr. Dix also died in Dixmont on a trip there in 1809, and was buried in the Dixmont Corner Cemetery. Dix was the grandfather of reformer Dorothea Dix, who was born in nearby Hampden. Her father was probably the family's land agent, overseeing settlement in Dixmont. Dixfield, Maine, in Oxford County, is also named after Dr. Dix. Dixmont was on the main stage-coach route between Bangor and Augusta, and given that it had the highest elevation along that road, it became a natural rest-stop for tired horses. Wrote William Lloyd Garrison in 1832: "The Dixmont Hills are famous and formidable along this route . . . they are piled upon my memory in all their massive mobility."〔''The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: I Will Be Heard, 1822-1835'', p. 184〕 By the 1850s the population of the town had peaked at over 1,600, which is over 400 more than it has today. It had three sawmills, a shingle mill, two flour and grist mills, and many productive farms. In the 1870s there were two small corporations in Dixmont making cheese, one owned by L.P. Toothacker, and the other by Benjamin Bussey. In 1880 Dixmont had two hotels and one physician. Sheep farming was popular, probably because of the hilly landscape. In 1880, Dixmont had more sheep than any town in Penobscot County.〔''Lewiston Evening Journal'', April 28, 1880, p. 2〕 A rare earthquake shook North Dixmont (and Unity, Albion, Plymouth, and Weeks Mills) in 1895 but no damage was reported.〔''Lewiston Evening Journal'', Frb. 14, 1895, p. 4〕 By 1900, the population of Dixmont was down to 843. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dixmont, Maine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|