At the Harbor of Grace Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) meeting in Havre de Grace on May 11, 2019, I was pleased to be the recipient of the DAR Historic Preservation Recognition Award. I had been invited to speak about the history of the Mason-Dixon Line, and following the presentation, Chapter Regent Barbara J. Park presented the award to me.
The DAR “Historic Preservation Recognition Award recognizes and honors an individual or group that has done recent remarkable volunteer work at the community level. The award recognizes achievements in all areas of historic preservation.”
Thank you the members and officers for this special recognition. It was a pleasant surprise.
PRESERVATION AWARD NOMINATION
Candidate for DAR Historic Preservation Recognition Award
Reasons for Application
Mike Dixon has spent 40 years as a researcher, historian, writer, public speaker, and archivist who has dedicated himself to preserving the social, regional and local history primarily of Northeastern Maryland, and more recently, of Delaware. His goal has been to keep the knowledge of the past alive by constantly exploring areas long gone, some covered by weeds or water. As he tells you about these places and people, he makes you appreciate what came before and the sacrifices people made in the name of progress.
This past year, I personally sat for his college presentation,”Susquehanna Tales,”which chronicled the geography and settling of the lower Susquehanna River Valley in Maryland and the building of the Conowingo Hydroelectric Dam. This short course involved 2 hours of classroom lecture followed by two hours touring the visitor sites, both above and below the dam. Since historians are constantly on the lookout for items of historic value that have been discarded or hidden away, Mike was able to rescue 8 large photograph albums of hundreds of photos taken before, during, and after the building of the dam. Viewing these photos made Mike’s lecture and tour come alive, showing the work and sacrifices made towards the completion of the dam in 1928.
With the internet, the explosion of data has become available for Mike to use for researching genealogy to help eager students and adults to connect with their family trees. We are lucky that the internet has become a household tool during Mike’s lifetime, making him much more productive.
For further testimony on the worthiness of Mike for our award, I direct you to the letters of support for Mike by Paula Newton, President of The Historical Society of Cecil County, and Dot Schwemmer, a member of our DAR Chapter, who volunteers at the Cecil Society. They both have many decades of personal experience with Mike. Their letters explain why Mike is truly worthy of DAR Historic Preservation Recognition. Also attached are references about Mike from newspapers, newsletters, the internet, and college catalogs; some data from Mike’s own website is included, which lists his lectures available at this time. In summary, Mike Dixon, who has dedicated his life to Historic preservation, is a local treasure and deserves our recognition.
