Around 1900 several older residents, using "pen names", wrote a series of articles in the local newspaper sharing their memories of earlier days. "Reminiscent" wrote a good description of the 1836 hall:
"It stood where the present Town House stands, but the gable ends were east and west, instead of north and south at present.
"In the front, facing south, were the two entrances; one near the west end, leading into an entry way, from which one could pass directly into a room used for the primary school, and by a stairway to a room above, which served for the high school and the town meetings. Near the east corner was another door, leading into the intermediate schoolroom. The primary and intermediate rooms were on the first floor, while the other room took the whole of the upper floor. The desks and seats in the high and primary rooms were of the rude old-fashioned sort that were the best known fifty years ago; while in the intermediate room the desks were the same, the seats were common chairs, like the ordinary house chair.
"The building was plain, having all its ornamentation confined to a belfry on the center of the roof."
Another article to the newspaper, by "One of the Boys", remembers that:
"Just south of the (Unitarian) church we school children had our playground. Today (1900) we see some large elms with far-spreading branches. We can recall the time when they were set out ....and remember when they were like hop poles, and we school boys, yes and some girls, used to climb to the top and bend them over to the ground just to see them flip up again. Oh! yes, I see Uncle Amos (Abbott) coming and all the kids vanish into the schoolhouse." Amos Abbott lived just north of the church and was on the lookout to protect the trees.
The town meeting held in this building, on March 17, 1856, was one of the most extraordinary events ever to occur in Dexter. The article by "Reminiscent" quoted above continues with a description of this event:
"It was in the middle of the proceedings of the meeting, that, without warning, the floor of the hall began to settle, and before anyone could escape it went down, -- or about three-quarters of it -- carrying with it a large portion of the people assembled. When the weight of the heavy flooring struck the floor below, that also gave way, and the men, with all the debris, were precipitated into the cellar."
Stanley Plummer tells us, in his "History of Dexter", that although over three hundred voters were dumped into the cellar no one was seriously hurt. He continues:
"I, then a mere stripling, was trying to make an honest penny by selling homemade molasses candy. I had sold out one platter full and had gone to my home, [where the Bangor Savings Bank now stands] to replenish my stock, and was just walking…up toward the hall when I met my father, [Daniel Plummer] hatless, excited and covered with dust and ashes, running down the street looking for me...He said he had succeeded in extricating himself from the pile of men above him and crawled out of the cellar window...I got sight of the hall... in time to see Squire McClellan, a very large and heavy man, jump plump into a snow drift from the roof of the little outside entry which he had reached through one of the windows of the hall above it...where he stuck so fast that it was with difficulty the rescuers could pull him out.
"While confined in the mass of men and wreckage some grey haired sinners, who had not called upon the Supreme Being since they lisped his name at their mother's knee, were moved to call upon Him for help. Others swore like troopers at those whose bodies pinned them down. The Methodist parson prayed with such fervor that Brother Glass responded with a hearty "Amen".
"Jethro Goodwin [the deputy sheriff] who happened to go down astride the hot barrel stove ... had his taxes abated the following year on account of his enforced detention from sedentary labor while his burns were healing."
"Reminiscent" missed the event because he "had been refused admission to the hall. Boys were not supposed to be in the meeting, except on business, and the only business there for boys ... was the selling of popcorn, molasses candy or apples. Charles Bryant was always on hand as a vendor of apples, his father owning a large orchard in the vicinity. Charley went down with the rest, and upon crawling out was heard to say, "Oh, where are my apples?" ... I well remember going to view the ruins and climbing a ladder to look down into the building from the second story window. The appearance was very much like a mill hopper, it looked as though the victims must have been piled down pretty closely together at the bottom ... When the town decided to build a new house, I think it was sold at auction - at any rate it was bought by Amos Abbott & Co., and is now used by them for offices. The exterior is very like it used to be, but the belfry has been removed."
The building was moved and turned so that the two doors now face north, towards the rest of the mill complex. At some time, after 1880, a double warehouse door was added on the east end facing Church Street.The upper floor was then used for storage, with the offices on the ground floor. By that time the roadway had been built up so much that this second floor, on the Church Street end, had become level with the road.
The Abbott brothers, Amos and Jeremiah, came to Dexter from Andover, MA in 1820. Their family was already involved in textile manufacturing. The brothers bought a sawmill and carding mill from Jonathan Farrar. The mills were situated at the first dam on the stream that flows from Lake Wassookeag. The sawmill operated until 1881. By 1836 the carding mill had come to include the whole operation of producing woolen cloth.
The woolen mill business kept growing and so did the various buildings in which the cloth was produced. The first wooden building gained several additions, in 1843, 1860, 1881 and 1891 until it spanned the whole dam with three stories above ground and a bell tower. In 1898 the first section of the three story brick building which parallels the mill pond was built, with additions in 1940 and in the 1950s. There were also many outbuildings, to store the raw wool and the finished cloth, picker houses, dye houses to color the cloth. There were tenter frames, for stretching and drying the cloth in the open air, up by Church Street. Although run by water power for many years, there were eventually steam boilers. Power from the mill also charged the dynamos that ran the Dexter Electric Light Co. for several years in the 1880s.
In the old town hall that had become the office building, the owners and clerks labored to coordinate all the many parts of the operation. Raw wool had to be bought, as well as many chemicals and dyes for the processing. Some of the dyes used connected Dexter to the exotic orient; indigo (blue) from India, logwood (brown) and fustic (yellow) from tropical trees in South America or Malaysia. The finished cloth had to be marketed and shipped. Transportation was by team and wagon to Bangor and then by boat to Portland or Boston until the railroad was built in 1868. The workers had to be hired, and laid off when times were slow, and paid. The procedures used by the office workers changed over the years, from invoices written in ink by hand on small pieces of blue paper and entered in bound ledger books, through printed letterhead forms and correspondence typed by manual and later electric typewriters. The clerks also changed from an entirely male staff to a primarily female one.
One of the distinguishing features of the Abbott business was the close involvement of the family, over several generations, and their commitment to a style of management known as "conservative caution" which enabled them to survive periods of boom and bust that defeated other mills. Not only were they the active heads of the operation, they lived literally across the street. Nor were they involved only in the financial and physical aspects of the business, they also designed some of the many patterns of the cloth. Their woolens became known as "Abbott grays" and wore like iron. They were at first marketed to retailers who sold the cloth to individuals who made up their own garments at home. Later most of the cloth was marketed to manufacturers of ready-to-wear garments.
It took many employees doing a variety of jobs calling for both skill and knowledge to make the mill successful. Some early employees were probably local farmer's sons and daughters, joined by newcomers from England and Scotland who had experience in woolen mills, such as William and son Frank Tait. Later many French-Canadians joined the workforce. In 1941 the Abbott Mill had 210 employees; 40 were women and about 80 were of French-Canadian heritage.
In 1955 the office building was remodeled, as the Eastern Gazette reported:
"A modern suite of offices has been created on the upper floor, with a new entrance on Church St. The old offices …opening into the mill yard will be used for storage.
"A new porch with iron railing leads to a reception lobby. Directly adjoining is the main office, separated from which by a partition with large windows is the private office of President Henry J. Atwood. Next to this is a spacious director's room.
" The transformation includes the installation of oak paneled walls, new windows, indirect lighting, tiled floors. Roland Atwater had charge of the reconstruction."
And thus it remained until the closing of the Amos Abbott & Company in 1975. After twenty-five years the building is about to take on new life again, as a museum where Dexterites can see many aspects of life in Dexter for the last 200 years and visitors from around the world can learn why we love our town.
The upper floor also offers a tourist information center that doubles as gallery space for area artists in winter.
The Holsapple Genealogy and Research Center holds many resources for research into Dexter families as well as all other areas of Dexter history. The Lancaster Reading Room provides comfortable space to peruse these materials.
The Crawford Conference Room, a handicap bathroom and staff office complete the finished areas on the upper floor.
The lower floor will be finished in 2005. There will be seven exhibit galleries and a climate-controlled vault to house the society’s extensive archival collection. The galleries will have exhibits concerning many aspects of Dexter history; the woolen industry, the Fay & Scott machinery and foundry, Dexter businesses, veterans of all wars, a Dexter sports hall of fame, and the works of photographer Bert Call.
The museum building originally was Dexter’s first town hall. Built in 1836, it doubled as a school, primary through high school. Acquired by the Amos Abbott Woolen Company in 1857, it was used as offices and warehouse by them until closing in 1975. Donated to the society by their successors, Interface Fabrics, in 2001 the building has been extensively renovated. Many volunteers, students at Tri-County Technical School and area contractors have had a hand in the work. Funding has been provided by donations from area individuals, families, organizations and a grant from Rural Development, totaling over $120,000 to date.
They also installed all the new windows and the new clapboards for the upper story, and constructed the entry ramp. Truman Seamans did electrical work, Galen Chapman began plumbing work and the sprinkler system was revamped. Flooring, lights and other finish materials were bought and will be installed after the foundation work is completed. Five additional rooms were purchased and other donations made for a total of over $67,000 for the project so far. An application has been made for a USDA Rural Development facilities grant to assist with completion of the project.
The historic building was constructed in 1836 for use as the town hall as well as for grammar and high school classes. It was purchased in 1856 by the Abbott brothers and used as offices and warehouse for their woolen mill until it closed in 1975.
The Dexter Historical Society is in the process of restoring the exterior to its appearance in 1898, which featured a double door on Church Street and several twelve over eight-paned windows. In 1955 the offices inside were modernized. The style of the windows and the placement of the door were also changed at that time.
DHS is also reconstructing the interior, to prepare the building for its new life as the Abbott Museum. The Church Street level will house the museum gift shop, a tourist information center, a conference room and handicap accessible bathroom. There will also be a research library, reading room and staff workspace. The lower Grove Street level will house several museum galleries dedicated to permanent exhibits featuring the woolen industry, town businesses, a sports hall of fame, a veterans of all wars memorial and works of photographer Bert Call.
Before restoration work began many hours of volunteer labor were necessary to remove unneeded items stored there as well as ceiling and floor tiles. A separate electrical service was begun and the sprinkler system was revamped. The slate roof was patched by T.C. Roofing of Levant.
Outside work was begun by Robert Miller in the fall of 2002. The Tri-County Technical Center students, under the sponsorship of the Dexter Sunrise Kiwanis and supervision of John Guay, have worked all winter. They have created the new bathroom, with plumbing by Galen Chapman, and installed the new windows which were painted by society volunteers. New pre-stained clapboards are currently beginning to replace old ones. Quotations for the heating system and foundation work are being presented for consideration.
Fundraising for the project has been successful in achieving about half the projected cost to date. Nine rooms have been purchased by donors for $5,000 each.
Individual donations at the $100, $250, $500 and $1,000 level are sought and will be honored on donor boards.
Donations may be sent to;
Dexter Historical Society
P.O. Box 481
Dexter, Me 04930
CLICK HERE to view pictures of then & now.
Volunteers, led by Robert Crawford, included Jim Crawford, Guy Ellms, Tom Tillson, Bob LaRochelle, Dave Pearson, Peter Prescott, Rick and Barb Whitney. They did wainscoting in the front rooms, installed lighting fixtures, did blown-in insulation as well as bats, wall papered in the conference room, painted in others, installed ceiling tiles, and framed windows.
Office furniture was donated by TDC and the Fay & Scott conference table was moved in with help from Dexter Lumber. Donor plaques were engraved by Wyman’s Trophies. A large black and gold Abbott Museum sign and a hanging sign for the gift shop was created and installed by Ritton Signs.
A slate-top conference table from the Fay & Scott Company was purchased for the Crawford Conference Room at the Abbott Museum, which was ready for use in April. The Abbott Mill Gift Shop, in the front room at the Abbott Museum opened for business in August featuring Maine Made items such as soap and candles, balsam pillows, maple syrup and greeting cards. We also offer the work of local crafters on commission.