Middlebury once primarily agricultural

#Middlebury #Dairying

The Shepardson House and barn were part of Tranquillity Farm, owned and operated by the Whittemore family; William Martin Shepardson (1864-1944) for whom our Community Center is named, lived there with his wife, Olive Gertrude Hamlin (1872-1946) and their two daughters; William was the superintendent of Tranquillity Farm and a dedicated member of the School Committee in town for many years. (Middlebury Historical Society archives)

By NATE DEXTER

From the very origins of our town’s history in 1807, when Middlebury separated from Waterbury and parts of other towns, agriculture was part of Middlebury’s way of life. Throughout the 19th century, agriculture, particularly dairying and growing corn, continued to be at the root of who we were.

In 1860, over 52 percent of Middlebury’s nearly 12,000 acres was cultivated land. Many of the familiar local names we recognize today, such as Fenn (Brookdale Farm), Tyler (Tyler Farm) and Tuttle (Biscoe Farm) were engaged in a booming dairy industry that supplied milk by wagon to nearby industrial hubs such as Naugatuck and Waterbury.

Today, only remnants of that vanished Middlebury remain scattered throughout the town. Rusty Bona, a life-long Middlebury resident with an extensive collection of dairy bottles from these historic farms, estimates the Middlebury area had 33 significant dairy operations in his childhood. None remain.

Perhaps the most recent to leave dairying is Kalenauskas Farm, which straddles the border of Middlebury and Watertown, but is counted as part of Watertown. That farm sold its dairy herd in 1986.

Suburbanization played a large role in the decline of dairying. Over the course of the 20th century, population and development boomed in Connecticut following World War II. Between the 1930 and 1940 censuses, the population of Middlebury increased 50 percent, skyrocketing from 1,449 in 1930 to 2,173 in 1940. It has only continued to increase.

The growing forces and pressures of this burgeoning population claimed a large percentage of Middlebury’s dairy land in the middle to late 20th century. Today, suburbanization and development continue to claim more agricultural acres in Middlebury.

An example is Avalon Farms, the Heritage Development Group-owned subdivision on Christian and Southford Roads. It was once Avalon Dairy Farm, owned by the Whittemore family. That land was subdivided and developed in 2002.

Only a handful of small-scale farming operations remain in Middlebury, most notably Bedlam Hill Farm, a hay farm on South Street. In Connecticut as a whole, only 100 dairy farms remain, totaling approximately 20,000 dairy cows.

In this century’s first decade, more than 180 dairy farms closed their doors, converting to other forms of agriculture or selling their land entirely. The State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection 2019 Report to the State Forester states there are 220 acres of cultivated farmland in Middlebury today, a minute percentage of past times.

Heidi Cerrigione, an employee of the state’s largest dairy, Oakridge Dairy in Ellington, when asked about the significant challenges facing Connecticut’s dairy industry, said, “The low government pricing of milk does not reflect the price to produce that same milk. It is a constant battle to remain viable in a populated state, unlike the Midwest, with its more available land. Furthermore, developers can sell this land for far more money than the farmers can make in production.”

Nonetheless, Cerrigione remains hopeful. “Yet although it is a great challenge, there is still hope, and it seems to be getting better,” she said.

One helpful factor mentioned on the Farmer’s Cow collective’s website (www.thefarmerscow.com) is that state subsidies for dairy farming have kept the situation more stable over the past decade.

Specific to Middlebury, the town’s largest farm, Bedlam Hill, owned and run for generations by the Tuttle and Larkin families, remains active. The farm on South Street just south of the highway overpass continues to produce thousands of bales of hay per year. Next month’s column will focus on this particular farm’s history and future.

Nate Dexter is a sophomore at the Taft School and a summer intern at the Middlebury Historical Society. Bob Rafford is the Middlebury Historical Society president and Middlebury’s municipal historian. To join or contact the society, visit MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or call Bob at 203-206-4717.