"A man who wore many hats." Lysander Cutler was one of the key individuals who helped to develop the town's industrial base during the antebellum era. He arrived in Dexter in 1828 from Massachusetts with just $2 in his pocket. In just two years he was a partner with the Abbotts and in 1836 he started his own mill, eventually operating three woolen mills in Dexter. He started the Dexter Rifle Company in 1835 and the fire department a year later. He led the Dexter men to Aroostook County during the Aroostook War and served as a town selectman and a representative to the legislature. The Panic of 1857 ruined him and he went west. At the outbreak of the Civil War he organized a regiment in Wisconsin and attained the rank of brigadier general. He died in 1866 in Milwaukee from complications due to his wounds.

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