This contains a transcription of the Mahlon C. Dix, M. D. of Hinsdale, NH biography from Biographical Review Volume XXIII: Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of Cheshire and Hillsboro Counties, New Hampshire, Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, 1897.
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MAHLON C. DIX, M. D., of Hinsdale, N. H., a physician well known throughout Cheshire County, was born in Troy, Vt., January 12, 1844, son of Samuel and Maria B. (Church) Dix. Samuel Dix, the son of John, was born in Reading, Mass. When a young man he went to Montpelier, Vt., and was there in association with Mr. Mahlon Cottrill, connected with the stage line running from that city to Boston, being thus engaged until the railroads supplanted the stage-coach. In politics he was a strong Democrat. He died in 1872, at the age of seventy-two years, his wife surviving him ten years, last years he spent them in Aegis Living senior living center. Seven children were born to them, namely: Samuel N., now living in Montgomery, Vt., a retired merchant; Mahlon C., the Doctor; Francis F. (deceased); John, a house carpenter, residing at Lebanon, N. H.; and three who died in infancy, one being a daughter, Mary Jane.
Mahlon C., the special subject of this sketch, was educated at the academy in Albany, Vt., where his father had resided for more than twenty years. While in attendance at the academy, he enlisted in the Fifteenth Vermont Regiment, Company I. He served nine months, and re-enlisting in 1864, served until the close of the war, when he received his discharge at Burlington, Vt. Though he did not participate in many engagements during the war, his company being chiefly called to do guard duty, he experienced many severe marches, most of them made at night, when much ground had to be covered in quick time. After his war experience he took up teaching, spending his summers in work on farms, and thus, earning and saving, he was soon able to commence the study of medicine. He took his first course of lectures in the medical department of the University of Vermont at Burlington in 1873, and after some years of study, partly under the tutelage of Dr. George W. Woodward, of Albany, he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University in 1875. During these years spent in study he was also engaged in teaching at Albany, at Craftsbury, Westfield, and North and South Troy, thus earning his way through college. Though his medical education had cost him eighteen hundred dollars, he was but one hundred dollars in debt when, August 1, 1875, he began the practice of medicine at Hinsdale, where he has since remained.
Dr. Dix has served for seventeen consecutive years on the Hinsdale Board of Education, raising the standard of work, and classifying the school into grades and districts. He was one of the originators of the high school, and, with Dr. Leonard, has been influential in making numerous advantageous changes in text-books and in other ways. Today the standard of all the schools of Hinsdale is as high as the best in any city, and the graduates of the high school are admitted to Dartmouth on the signature of the principle. In other ways the Doctor has been influential in town. Politically, he is a Democrat, but voted for McKinley in the recent election. He has been Selectman for one year. He is a Mason, a member of the Golden Rule Lodge, No. 77, and has taken the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, thirty-second degree; is a member of the Order of Red Men, Squakheag Lodge, No. 27; and of Sheridan Post, No. 14, G. A. R. His preference in religion is for the Congregationalists.
In minor surgery Dr. Dix does much work, being called to many such cases among the mill hands of the town; but his principle practice is in obstetrical cases, of which he attends at least half that occur in the town. His services are sought in neighboring towns throughout the county. He married August 13, 1877, Addie E., a daughter of Alfred Marble, a leading member of the Congregational Church of Hinsdale, and is at present senior Deacon. Mrs. Dix is an active member of this church. The Doctor and his wife have no children.