CUMBERLAND – Aug. 8 marked the 250th birthday of Liberty Metcalf, the locally famous New England farmer who was born the same year as the nation.
At the Historic Metcalf-Franklin Farm on Abbott Run Valley Road, representatives are celebrating the many whose vision and stewardship helped preserve the farm enjoyed by people today.
Liberty began assembling what would become today’s Metcalf-Franklin Farm in the early 1800s and operated the farm until his death in 1853.
“The exceptional care that Liberty and his family gave the land ensured it remained remarkably intact,” say Franklin Farm leaders of today. “In 1857, the property was sold to William Franklin, beginning the next chapter in the farm’s history.”
Because of the dedication of both the Metcalf and Franklin families, the farm survived as one of New England’s rare continuously cultivated historic farms and was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“Today, every volunteer who plants, weeds, harvests, and shares in the work continues that remarkable legacy of caring for the land and serving the community.”
Denise Mudge, of Franklin Farm, says they’re celebrating a man who may not have been sensational in his achievements, but his impact on setting up the farm for a long and flourishing future is worth cheering about.
“He was just a regular Yankee farmer,” she said. Liberty was buried up the street in the Metcalf Cemetery around 304 Abbott Run Valley Road.
Mudge said they haven’t held many festivities yet to celebrate Liberty, but they do expect to celebrate him and his legacy during the Franklin Farm Harvest Festival and Tractor Show on Sept. 26 (rain date, Sept. 27). That’s also when they’ll celebrate the 20th anniversary of the farm in a big way.
Franklin Farm’s barn renovation should be under construction during the harvest festival, said Mudge, and they look forward to welcoming everyone for what’s sure to be a celebration of what Franklin Farm was and has become today. With a grant in hand, Franklin Farm is out to bid on the barn work, she said.
There are no photos of Liberty that she’s aware of, said Mudge, but the picture of who he was and how he lived his simple life is clear from the historical narrative. A found cross-stitch piece shows Liberty Metcalf’s family register.
Franklin Farm has the unique position as the oldest dairy farm in Cumberland, said Mudge, and as far as they know, it remains the only truly still-functioning farm in town.
Franklin Farm has had only two family owners, the Metcalfs and the Franklins. The Metcalf family is one of the oldest families of New England, arriving in 1637 to escape religious persecution. Liberty purchased the farm land in its entirety in 1809 from his father, Ebenezer Metcalf, who had come in 1775. He and his family were subsistence farmers. In 1857, William Franklin purchased and began diversifying the farm by expanding the barn, building a home along Abbott Run Valley Road and maintaining dairy cows. The Franklins farmed the land for more than 165 years, until the grandson of William Franklin, William “Rhodey” Franklin’s, death in 2005.
The historical significance of the property cannot be overlooked, say those who run the farm in its current state as a volunteer-driven place to grow vegetables for those in need.
“The intact fields and meadows, buildings and structures, stone walls, barnyard and house yard, that compose Franklin Farm, have a remarkable degree of integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association.”
