Remembering the Family Farm - February 11, 2025

My father and grandparents in front
of the house in the 1930's

Today was bittersweet. We sold the family farm. My grandfather purchased the property in 1923 to start a chicken farm. At the time he was working as a supervisor in a factory somewhere in Providence. He made good money, but he really wanted to be a farmer.

Originally, the property was more than 40-acres running west along Winthrop Street/Route 44 past the plaza that is now Rehoboth House of Pizza, then south down Fuller's Brook to the Palmer River, then east along the Palmer River to Wilmarth Bridge Road, and then north up Wilmarth Bridge Road back to Route 44.

Family party in the living room
in the 1940's

Over the years most of the property got sold off. The house next to Rehoboth House of Pizza was originally Aunt Helen’s (Memi’s sister). Next door was Uncle Al’s house. Trim Street down by the river got sold off long before I was born. When I was growing up, the Beauvais lived next door on the other side of the field.

My grandfather built the family house in 1923. Uncle Al always talked about how much work it was to dig out the cellar by hand. They also built a large hen house (demolished in the 50’s and the lumber used it build the house in Franklin, NH), the barn with the shed in the back (still there) and the brooder coop for raising chicks (demolished in the 2000’s when the lot in the field was sold).

With my mother in the
driveway in 1962

The house got renovated in the 40’s to turn the front porch into a bedroom, extend the living room and add the columns and portico to the front door. My parents bought the property in 1958 when my grandparents moved to NH. They sold the Machado’s lot and used the money to remodel the kitchen in the early 60’s.

My father spent pretty much his whole life in this house except for a couple of years as newlyweds when my parents lived in the village, and the year that my father took a job in NH and the house got rented to Auntie Jane.

Holding Lady in 1967

When we came back from NH we got involved in 4-H and raised cows, pigs and sheep. My brother never lost the farming bug – just like my grandfather. The house was the gathering place for family parties like birthdays, holidays and summer cookouts.

With my mother’s passing, I haven’t paddled much for the past couple of months. Cleaning out the house to prepare it for sale was a huge task. What do you do with a 100-years’ worth of memories. It broke my heart to clean it all out.

One of many summer cook-outs

One thing that we did find were lots of pictures – like Memi’s album from the 1930’s when my father was small, my mother’s album from the 1950’s when they were first married, and lots of pictures of the cows and all those family gatherings. It's been fun to go through and organize them.

Today, we sold the final piece of the family farm (lot 1). Hopefully the new owners will cherish it as much as we did. The old saying is true – you don’t realize how important something is until you have to part with it.

Links:
My Pictures
Listing on Zillow