Dixons Mills is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Marengo County,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States. The community was named for a group of mills operated by Joel B. Dixon in the 19th century.Marengo County Heritage Book Committee: ''The Heritage of Marengo County, Alabama'', pages 177-178. Clanton, Alabama: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000. Dixons Mills has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

utilizing the 36736 ZIP code.

Demographics

Dixon Mills appeared on the 1870 U.S. Census, having 120 residents. Of that 120, 80 were black and 40 were white. This was the only time the community appeared on census rolls.

History

Beginning in the late 1820s, Joel B. Dixon, Sr. operated a water-powered

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

at a dam that he and his sons built on Mill Creek along the old Linden-to- Choctaw Corner Road. The modern U.S. Route 43 bridge over Mill Creek now stands at the location. Dixon (January 11, 1777 – December 23, 1861), a native of

Edgecombe County, North Carolina Edgecombe County ( or )Talk Like a Tarheel
, from the North Caro ...

, was one of the early settlers of Marengo County. His business grew and eventually included a

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

-driven

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

and two steam-powered

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

s. The mills remained in use into the first years of the 20th century. They were still standing in 1923, when they were demolished during the construction of Route 43.

Geography

Dixons Mills is located at and has an elevation of .

School

Dixons Mills' only school is Marengo High School. It is part of the Marengo County School District.

References

{{Short description, Unincorporated community in Alabama, United States Unincorporated communities in Alabama Unincorporated communities in Marengo County, Alabama