“The Woodards were the first to settle this farm,” Forest Spear told me.
He would have known. He had owned that farm from 1912 until 1947 when my dad bought the place. The farm changed hands several times after that and was featured in the final chapter of The Pioneer Homes of Fort Fairfield, Maine, published in 2008.
But something was wrong.
Part of an 1877 atlas showing the farm lots in Fort Fairfield.
The so-called original Weston farmhouse.
It was not the David Weston farm that was depicted in those lovely colored photographs, and the author had described the wrong family. You can tell by looking at the above map that shows where the brook runs along the north side of Lot 42—the lot the Woodards settled. The David Weston family settled Lot 41, on the opposite side of the brook. The author got the lot number right for the Westons. But there are no surviving buildings on the Weston lot and haven't been since at least the 1950s. Instead, the book features photographs of the original house and remaining buildings on Lot 42--the lot cleared and built on by the Woodards in the early 1870s.
Here is a 1900 photograph of the Lot 42 farm with members of the Calvin S. Rich family, who bought the place from the Woodards in 1894:
And here is the view of the same farm as I remembered it from 1957-1982:
Although sympathetic, the book publisher couldn't do anything about a correction unless another edition was printed. That never happened. Last time I checked, the company was no longer in business.
The federal 1870 census recorded New Brunswick natives Benjamin James and Clarissa Wilmot Woodard and their seven children, plus a servant, living near or on Lot 42. Benjamin called himself a shingle weaver, a common profession before shingle mills grew more efficient and took over that industry. He and members of his family cut down the best cedars and made hand-shaved shingles. Northern Maine cedar shingles brought a high price in urban markets like Boston and New York, and in the 1860s they were even used as currency. The Woodards had plenty of currency.
By the 1880 census, Benjamin called himself a farmer and operated a middle-class farm that equaled many of his neighbors. The little town of Fort Fairfield was booming with cheap, virgin land for crops and plenty of trees for lumber. Many new families were settling there.
The deed records at the Houlton District Court building showed that Benjamin was issued a land certificate from the state in 1872 that gave him permission to move onto Lot 42, chop down wood for his use, pay about $73, clear so many acres, work on the road, and in a few years, build “a comfortable dwelling place.” After those duties were finished, Benjamin would be granted the state deed to the lot.
But Benjamin's name was not found on any deed after those settling duties were completed in 1875. Instead, I found this:
The state granted Clarissa the farm, even though Benjamin was still alive and stated as the farm owner on the 1877 atlas map and in the 1880 census. Clarissa continued to solely own the place until her family moved south in 1894. She signed the document selling her "homestead farm” to Calvin Rich, a neighbor.
So why was Clarissa the owner and not her husband? That is still a mystery. But what I came away from this information is this:
Forest Spear was right. “The Woodards” settled the farm featured in the pioneer homes book. The entire family worked hard and deserve credit for what parts of their farm are still evident.
Clarissa was entrusted with the deed to a piece of property that she and Benjamin designed, maintained, and kept in beautiful condition. Benjamin apparently was not put out by her being the owner--a rare thing back in Victorian days.
He probably loved her. And she probably loved him. And together they created a place that several families, after them, enjoyed as a happy, working farm for well over a century.
And that is a curious feat.
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