Dixmont, Maine Vital Records
- Author: Linda A. Strauss and Richard E. Spinney
- SKU: 2062
- ISBN: 0897255046
- Our Price:
$32.50
-
Description:
Dixmont, Maine Vital Records, Maine Genealogical Society Special Publication No. 41 by Linda A. Strauss and Richard E. Spinney. 192pp, 4,646 entry Every Name Index. 2003. Smythe sewn and hard cover. 248pp. #2062 $32.50
The town of Dixmont is located about 20 miles southwesterly from Bangor, Maine, the seat of government for Penobscot County. Dixmont is one of the five townships, each six miles square, that were granted to the trustees of Bowdoin College by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by an act of June 24, 1794. It was shown as Number 3, Range 1, North of the Waldo Patent on the original survey made by Ephriam Ballard and Samuel Weston in 1792. Until February 16, 1816, when Penobscot County was formed, Dixmont was located in Hancock County.
Being owned by Bowdoin College, the area was first known as Collegetown and later Height-of-Land. Collegetown was first settled in 1799 and by the next year the population had swelled to 59. On July 12, 1801, Dr. Elijah Dix of Boston purchased 20,040 acres for $21,431. The area continued to attract settlers and Dixmont, which was briefly called Dixmount, was incorporated as Maine’s 169th town on February 28, 1807. The town was named for the proprietor, Dr. Dix, and the mountains in the town. The town continued to prosper as by 1835, there were seven school districts in the town having a total of 285 scholars.
At least three of the early settlers had fought in the Revolutionary War: Benjamin Butman, Noah Edminster and Moses Littlefield, whose daughter married David Simpson. Simpson’s Corner is named for his family. Among the first settlers was Elihu Alden, a descendant from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.
The vital records in this book have been recorded verbatim, down to the last detail including misspellings and strikeovers, making no corrections to any obvious errors. The order of entries in each section has remained intact to allow the researcher to view adjacent entries that may relate to each other. In many cases in the original records for both births and deaths the mother’s maiden name and sometimes her given name was added in a different hand at a later date. Also, dates or other information was sometimes added to the record in a different hand. To distinguish these later additions from the original earlier records this information has been entered in italics and positioned where the record was intended by the scribe. This way researchers will be better able to understand which part of the record was made by the original scribe and which part was added many years later.
Although the town was not incorporated until 1807, records of birth will be found as early as the 1760s for the parents recorded in the family registers of the book of births and in the 1810s for the children. In separate books of record, marriages were recorded beginning in 1858 and deaths in the very early 1800s.
Linda Strauss and Richard Spinney have each provided a valuable resource tool for researchers seeking ancestors in the town of Dixmont.
