The Seasons of 
Dixmont, Maine
Dorothea  by Anita M. Racz

Dorothea Dix   1802 - 1887 

      Hampden, Maine, 1812.  A man staggered up the road, waving a Bible over his head, and screaming words that made no sense.  A woman eyed him suspiciously as she hurried past him as quickly as she could.  A small crowd gathered to watch, including Dorothea Dix, a shy 10-year-old girl with thick auburn hair and soulful blue eyes.
     "He's crazy!" one woman said, laughing.
     "He's drunk!" said another.
     "He should be locked up," a young boy said.
     Dorothea's eyes welled up with tears.  "You don't know my father!" she shouted, and ran home.  
     Dorothea found her mother in bed, as usual.
     "Mother?"  Dorothea began.
     Her mother moaned.  "Go away; can't you see I have a bad headache?"
     Dorothea went to the pantry to find something to prepare for supper.  "I wish,"  Dorothea whispered, "I wish my parents were normal people who could truly love and care for me." 
     For as long as Dorothea could remember, it had been up to her to be a mother to her family.   Her parents could barely care for themselves, let alone Dorothea and her two little brothers.  Her father hadn't always been this way.  Before his mind became unstable, he'd been a student at Harvard University.  He taught Dorothea to read when she was very young, and she adored her father for giving her a love of words.  "They don't know him," she insisted to herself.
     Many years passed, and Dorothea now lived with her grandmother in Boston, Massachusetts.  One day in 1841, a minister asked Dorothea if she would teach a Sunday school class for women at the East Cambridge, Massachusetts jail.  At the jail, Dorothea was horrified to find criminals and mentally ill patients housed together in dark pits.  The vulgar smells and bloodcurdling screams of the inmates were almost too much for Dorothea to bear.  Dorothea saw men, women and children chained to each other in these filthy, unheated rooms.  Dorothea was angry and decided that something must be done to end their suffering.  Dorothea traveled around the country and personally investigated every dark corner where the mentally ill were hidden away.  She wrote down every shocking detail:  People living like animals in cages and closets, starved, beaten with heavy rods, bound in metal chains, dressed in rags, and often frozen to death.
     Dorothea reported her findings to each state's government.  At a time when women were thought incapable of engaging in politics or public speaking, Dorothea's passionate pleas convinced the legislators to establish new mental institutions, or asylums, and provide new medical treatments to help the mentally ill regain their sanity.  Dorothea took her crusade around the world, and improved conditions for the mentally ill in every country she visited. In England, her investigations prompted Queen Victoria to create a Royal Commission to deal with the treatment of the mentally ill.  In Italy, she was granted an audience with Pope Pius IX, and convinced him to see for himself that the asylums in Naples and Rome were "a scandal and a disgrace."  The Pope was deeply disturbed by what he found, and ordered a new asylum to be built in Rome, meeting Dorothea again to express his warmest thanks for bringing it to his attention.
     Dorothea Dix opened the door to a new way of thinking about the care and treatment of the mentally ill, and the need to have compassion and understanding for those who cannot help themselves.  She wrote, "If I am cold, they are colder; if I am weary, they are distressed; if I am alone, they are abandoned."

Dorothea Dix Park, Hampden, Maine
Located on Route 1A just south of town, this quiet little park is a great spot to take a break for a picnic lunch and stretch your legs. Picnic tables and hibachi grills are provided along with swings for the children. There is a footpath located in the back of the park leading to a great nature trail in the woods. The park is the birthplace of Dorothea Lynde Dix, 1802-1887. Dorothea Dix dedicated her life to care for sick and wounded soldiers during the Civil War, prison reform, and humane treatment of the insane.  
    The Seasons of Dixmont, Maine