200 years of Dexter history

1801: Town settled. First settler: Ebenezer Small.

1802: First industry opens: a sawmill.

1806: First fire: a barn owned by Samuel Copeland.

1816: Dexter incorporated as a town.

1820: Abbott Woolen Mill town’s first woolen mill.

1828: Dysentery kills some 50 children.

1829: Universalist church the first to be constructed.

1848: Tornado sweeps through town.

1856: Town hall collapses, injuring many.

1881: Fayscott Landis Machine Corp. opens.

1894: Abbott Memorial Library opens.

1920: Plummer Memorial Hospital opens.

1925: “Nancy,” the town clock in Morrison Building, makes debut.

1957: Dexter Shoe Co. opens.

1975: Abbott Woolen Mill closes.

1980s: Plummer Memorial Hospital closes.

2001: Dexter Shoe Co. closes.

2003: Fayscott Landis Machine Corp. closes.

Source: Dexter Historical Society