|
Dixmont
DESCRIPTION
THE BEGINNINGS
THE PIONEERS, & OTHERS
ERECTION OF THE TOWN
SOME RECORD OF GROWTH
SOME HISTORIC NOTES
OTHER BUSINESS NOTES
THE SOCIETIES
TOWN OFFICERS IN 1880
SETTLEMENT NOTES
DESCRIPTION.
Dixmont enjoys an honor similar to Dexter,
occupying a location at an extreme corner of the county -- the
southwest. It is not, however, directly south of Dexter, the break
in the west line of the county bringing Troy, a town in Waldo, about
three miles under the south line of Plymouth, and upon territory which
would seem to belong to Penobscot. Dixmont is thus bounded on the
west by the said Troy; on the north by Plymouth and Etna; on the east by
Newburg; on on the south by Jackson and Monroe, in Waldo county.
Its form is rectangular, but made slightly trapezoidal by the gentle
divergence of the south line of the county from exact parallelism with
the range lines to the northward. the east line of the town is but
five and a half miles long; the west one-half mile longer, or the
regular township length. The north and south boundaries are of
nearly equal length -- about five and a half miles. the town
is just twelve miles from Bangor, by measurement on the extension of its
north line to the south line of the latter place. The Penobscot
river approaches a little nearer, however, at one or two points in
Hampden. It is on the old stage-route from Bangor to Unity and
Augusta, which runs through it.
The leading wagon-roads of Dixmont naturally
come in from the direction of Bangor. The northernmost, crossing
into Newburg at the corner of Hampden, completely traverses that town
and Dixmont, in the latter town at a general distance of about
two-thirds of a mile from the north line. It passes the hamlet
formerly known as Northeast Dixmont Post-office, one and a half miles
from the east town line. This place is a little more than a mile
from the east line of the town. Not quite two miles due west, the
road passes the foot of Skinner Pond; and midway between that and the
west town line, nearly one and a half miles distant from each, is the
North Dixmont village and post-office. the road thence runs west
of south into Troy. Schools No. 8 and 10, the latter near North
Dixmont, and another near the foot of Skinner Pond, are on this
road. From this neighborhood two roads, one on each side of the
outlet, run northward -- one into Plymouth and one into Etna, with a
short link connecting them across the outlet.
|
|
From School No.
8, at Northeast Dixmont, a short route northwestward intersects a north
and south road at the Etna line, which latter road ends at the main
highway half a mile southeast of the old post-office.
Through North Dixmont passes another high-road, with
a general north and south direction, cutting the town throughout, from
Plymouth to Jackson. three miles due south of North Dixmont is
another important cross-road, where is situated Dixmont village, also
having a post-office. Half a mile below North Dixmont is a
school-house, from which a road runs a mile east and half a mile north,
when it joins the highway first mentioned. A Union church and
cemetery, with a school on the same large lot, are situated a little off
this road at Dixmont, another school a mile and a half below, and still
another a mile west of this, hard upon the east town line. On this
line a road, with two short branches, runs for some distance and then
strikes into the interior to Dixmont post-office. a brief
neighborhood road also runs back from each of the two school-houses last
indicated.
The east and west road through Dixmont comes in
from the Bangor way, but by a diagonal course across the central part of
Newburg, and a nearly due west path across Dixmont with Ripley.
Nearly three miles in the interior, at the crossing of a north and south
road running very nearly across the town, is the Dixmont Centre
post-office, with a rather thick settlement stretching each way from its
former road. Not quite half a mile west of the post-office, where
another south road comes in from Jackson, is a school-house, and a
little way beyond it the Town House; half a mile beyond that and near
Dixmont village, a cemetery. east of Dixmont Centre the road
passes on the north shore of a small lake fro about two-thirds of a
mile, and a school-house half a mile beyond its eastern end.
The road from the Etna town line to Northeast
Dixmont is continued with a slight break at that place, southward a
little more than a mile to another dense settlement, where another east
and west road is crossed and where a school and union church (and
formerly a post-office) are situated, and a little to the southwest,
upon a mile and a half road connecting this through Dixmont Center, is a
cemetery. Nearly a mile and a half further the road from Northeast
Dixmont crosses the Dixmont Center route near the head of the little
lake, and thence runs southeastward and southward, with two short
breaks, to east Dixmont village and post-office, which is almost a
Masonic hall, a cemetery, a church, and a school; nearly one and
one-half miles west is School No. 4.
|
|
Other schools and
churches, with mills and shops, probably sufficient for its present
needs, are scattered through the town.
The only water of size in Dixmont is Skinner's Pond
in the central north part of the town, lying from north to south, one
and one-half miles long by nearly one-half mile at its greatest breadth,
with an island almost exactly in the middle. Ten of the streams of
the town, none of them large, but including the headwaters and the
outlet of the pond at Dixmont Centre, discharge their waters into this
sheet. Its own outlet runs west of north into Plymouth, with a
course of two-thirds of a mile in Dixmont. In the southeastern
part of the town head three brooks that run into Waldo county; in the
southwestern part one that traverses nearly the whole western side of
the town and flows into Plymouth near the outlet of Skinner Pond; near
the mill-pond it forms at North Dixmont another creek running to
Plymouth has its source; one little stream running into Etna rises in
the northeast angle; and nearly two miles down the east line and a
little in the interior heads one of the Newburgh waters, and another
close to the Winn line, more than a mile below. Martin's Stream
runs through the northwest part of the town. Butman's Pond, in
this town, named from the old settler, covers about forty acres.
Its outlet to the pond in Plymouth is called Butman's Stream.
The mountainous character of at least some part
(the south) of Dixmont is hinted by the latter half of its name.
Harris Mountain, in this town, is eleven hundred and sixty feet above
the level of the sea. An observatory was erected in 1854 upon its
summit, under the direction of Professor A. D. Bache, superintendent of
the Coast Survey. Peak's Mountain, in the eastern part of the
town, is on the summit or divide between the Penobscot and Kennebec
Rivers.
The eastern half of Dixmont is more densely
settled than almost any other part of Penobscot county, away from
Bangor. Few tracts of size remain unoccupied. The
settlements are naturally most numerous about Dixmont Centre, East
Dixmont, Northeast Dixmont, and Simpson's Corner. The western
half, which contains Dixmont and North Dixmont villages, may also be
considered as tolerably well settled. By the last census the whole
town had 1,132 people. Return
to:
The Seasons of Dixmont, Maine
|
