DIXFIELD — “I think it’s important to save history to try to make it accessible to school children. We have a lot of tours when kids come in,” said Donna Towle, Dixfield Historical Society president, referring to the house built in 1899 and purchased by the DHS in 1997.

The organization began setting up their historical displays in the first-floor rooms and in the fall of 2016 they expanded to the upstairs floor. “A lot of this stuff (children) will never see unless they come to something like this. And (the museum) is a resource center for people to leave something safely. We try to clean everything and take care of it so that it’s protected.”

“We collect only what is pertinent to Dixfield, that’s our scope. We especially hope that people will let us look at any old records, deeds, family journals and scrapbooks, and any old photos. If they’ll just let us look at it before they throw it out, that’s our goal,” she said.

The public is invited to attend an open house at the museum at 59 Main St. from 2 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 8. Some interesting items to be seen are:

An exhibit room showcasing many mementos from the Dixfield Common School; Dixfield’s 1958 State Championship hockey team trophy; the Dr. Dexter Elsemore exhibit (Elsemore was a prominent doctor in the area from the 1940s to 1970); a photo of Dr. James Sturtevant, who practiced in the 1920s and 1930s, standing near his vehicle with skis on the front of the vehicle; various items from Dixfield businesses from the years 1876 to 2008; and items from organizations such as the Odd Fellows, the Rebekahs, the Boy and Girl Scouts and the Dixfield band.

In the adult’s bedroom are numerous handmade scrap quilts, personal items such as men’s handkerchiefs, women’s combs, gloves, linen stockings and lace collars from the 1800s, and vintage fans and watches.

Also in the bedroom are a black skirt and top once worn in the 1920s by former 59 Main St. homeowner, Melissa L. Brackett. Brackett was the Dixfield town clerk in the 1920s and she was president of the Rebekahs in 1941.

On the bedroom wall hangs an 1800s funeral wreath, which is “a very rare woman’s hair wreath. During the 1800s women would comb their hair and put their hair in a little jar and they would braid them all their life. it’s called a funeral wreath because it was finished when they died,” Towle said.

In the kitchen downstairs are tall wooden cupboards with kitchen utensils and gadgets from all eras and a wooden cabbage slicer, which was patented in 1850 by a Dixfield resident. Cabbage and other produce were often preserved in vinegar, Towle said.

A Queen Atlantic wood-burning stove patented in 1922 and used until the 1970s is first seen upon entering the upstairs kitchen. The stove was donated from the Holman house on the Common and DHS member Terry Holman took it apart and restored it, Towle said.

In the children’s room are baptismal dresses and other clothing, old dolls, a rocking chair made before 1900, a girl’s circa 1900 Campfire dress, and two chamber pots and a potty chair, among other items.

In the laundry day display room are a wooden ironing board and iron, a hand agitator clothes washing machine patented in 1870 in East Dixfield and washboards to scrub clothing. Also seen in the room are large wooden laundry forks that were used to move clothing around in the wash basin and a wooden rolling pin to squeeze the water out from the clothing.

The parlor room has a display titled “The War Years” and it includes uniforms and other items from the Civil War, World War II, and Vietnam. Also in the room are a pump organ and an Edison Cylinder tabletop phonograph circa 1916, and a typewriter given to the museum by Lucy Howard Callender, whose father owned Howard’s Department Store, once a prominent Dixfield store.

The office room has many documents from the 1800s, including an 1878 handwritten newspaper and numerous records, deeds, family journals and scrapbooks.

The tool room contains over a thousand woodworking tools and includes a Chelor plane tool made from 1753 to 1784. Ninety percent of the tools are from John L. Towle’s collection, Donna Towle’s father-in-law. The family has had five generations of businesses in Dixfield.

The original homeowners were the J. J. Towle Jr. family, followed by Claus and Melissa Brackett and Verdell and Pat Macomber Sargent, Towle said.

“We’re very proud of the historical society and we’re proud to showcase Dixfield artifacts, The war years, and the way (people) used to live compared to the conveniences we have today,” said DHS Director Charlotte Collins.

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