Bement Hill looking west toward Ripley from lower Main Street. The farm on the right at the top of the hill, purchased by Walter Bement in 1824 from Joshua Berry (the fiddler, as he was known), was called the Bement farm in the 1800s. The hill for many years was known for its rows of magnificent elm trees, planted in 1830 by Walter H.P. Bement, who dug the young trees up in the woods and transplanted them on the hill. During the summer of 1923, George Maxim (a former U.S. Army pilot and veteran of World War I) was in Dexter giving flying demonstrations and rides, using a field on Bement Hill to land and take off from. Kenneth Stafford remembered his first plane ride in Maxim's Curtis biplane: "The cockpits were all open to the air and there were no seatbelts. I was sixteen and was seated with "Tink" Parsons behind Mr. Maxim. "Tink" was older than I, probably in his mid-twneties, and as we took off I waved to the crowd on the ground and the slipstream caught my arm and wrenched it back. When we were in the air, "Tink" pulled out a bottle of bootleg liquor and we passed it around the plane, with each of us taking two or three swallows, including Captain Maxim. The ride lasted for ten minutes and cost each of us $10.00, a lot of money in those days."

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