Wilmot “Bill” Lewis, 82, rose from his kitchen chair on Monday to feed wood into a black cook stove. Life and comfort inside the farmhouse his father bought 80 years ago is still good for Lewis and his wife, Ethel.

From their kitchen, they view cattle in a pasture across Long Plains Road from their home. They enjoy the scene that has changed for many other residents in Buxton. “Forty-eight dairy farms when I was a kid,” said Lewis, a retired dairy farmer. “Things have changed awful.”

Lewis has seen houses sprout on many neighboring fields where he once mowed hay. Agriculture has declined in recent years in Buxton, as some landowners reap from new residents seeking the good life.

Buxton’s population has risen to an estimated 9,000 from 7,452 in the Census five years ago. In the past five years, the number of new, conventionally built homes jumped from 40 in 2000 to 70 in 2004, but a realtor said there are not enough listings to sell in Buxton to meet the demand.

Bill and Ethel are not interested in selling their 40 acres, which stayed in production after he sold his cows. Their fields have continued to produce hay, and the couple has raised gladiolas as a cash crop. But following his heart attack last fall, this year marks the first in the past 30 years that the couple won’t have gladiolas to sell at their farm.

“It’s just too much for us,” Ethel said.

Their taxes are now $200 a month, and they say taxes are worrisome, as the increase in population has driven up the need for services in the town. “People are building, and taxes go up,” he said.

Lewis, a former selectman, has witnessed the change from dirt roads to pavement. He recalls driving a horse and wagon to town meeting in Buxton Center and wagon wheels sinking up to the hubs in the mud on what is now Route 22. The selectmen form of government is still the same in Buxton, although the mode of transportation has changed.

Selectman Bob Libby, 79, also a Buxton native, said that the form of government hasn’t changed in 200 years. “It’s close to the people,” Libby said.

Libby said Buxton attracts new residents because it has retained the old town flavor but has good roads and a nice police department, besides a new fire station and town hall. He also said the tax rate at $12.40 per thousand, below the Maine average of $17, is very inviting.

“Buxton is as nice as any small town anywhere,” Libby said.

Behind the Lewis farm, there are 24 houses in Tall Pines where he once pastured heifers. Lewis said Buxton has a need for businesses to help lift the tax burden from homeowners.

“We don’t have any business. They don’t want it,” he said. “There’s a need for business not just houses.”

Houses are eating up the farmland. Buxton once had an abundance of market gardening, poultry, beef cattle and apple orchards besides dairying. Buxton was once noted for its cattle, and Lewis said Henry Emery once had 100 head of cattle on Long Plains Road.

Now, Lewis said only two dairy farms are left in Buxton. As an example, he pointed to Erlon Knight’s farm that was cut up for housing, and Lewis once cut hay where Living Waters Church now stands at the intersection of routes 22 and 112.

Lewis bought his farm from his mother after his dad died. When he married Ethel, the couple, which later became 4-H leaders, moved back to the farm in 1948. “When we came here, every house on the road had a cow,” Ethel said. “It’s a different world.”

With Buxton’s prime location, farmland is now a valuable commodity for housing. Laura Szafranski of Agency 1 Real Estate on Narragansett Trail in Buxton said there’s an influx from Scarborough and Portland. She said many first time homebuyers couldn’t afford land in neighboring towns.

Szarfranski, who has lived in Buxton for nine years, said Buxton is popular with out of state retirees and Buxton land values are rising. A five-acre lot in Buxton is going for about $85,000, “if you can find one,” she said.

Libby said the town is mostly zoned for five-acre lots, which helps maintain its rural look and habitat for wildlife. Preserving that rural character of Buxton is what influenced Harry Weymouth to buy in Buxton.

Weymouth, a Buxton native who graduated from Bonny Eagle High School in 1990, bought a 100-year-old house on several acres seven years ago on Long Plains Road. Weymouth snapped it up when a for sale sign went up on it.

Now, developers are knocking on the door. He didn’t buy it to sell because he wanted a “chunk” of open land and keeps a couple of ponies at the farm. “I love this town,” he said.

The Multiple Listing Service last week showed six properties available in Buxton between $185,000 and $235,000, and two of those hadn’t been built yet. Each of the six realtors at Agency 1 has three or four customers waiting to buy in Buxton, according to Szafranski.

The demand is there, but there aren’t enough properties to sell. “There’s not enough listings to go around,” she said. “Everyone is looking for space.”

Many people thought of Buxton as the boonies four or five years ago. But, “We’ve become a suburb of Portland,” she said.

Buxton Code Officer Fred Farnham said the average new home in Buxton costs $250,000 to build. The typical home has three bedrooms, a playroom, two and a half bathrooms and a two-car garage. The town has no public water, no sewer, no growth cap and no impact fee.

Buxton is about 15 minutes to the Maine Mall in South Portland, contributing to its appeal. Farnham said Buxton is popular for buyers because of its great location. He said it’s near the job market with the ocean only 20 minutes away, and it’s close to the mountains for skiing and hiking.

In other times, Buxton people had fun at home. Bill and Ethel Lewis recalled the good old days of farming and neighborhood corn huskings. “If you found a red ear, you could kiss the girls,” Bill said about the huskings of his youth.

“The olden days were a lot better,” Bill Lewis said.

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