A Good Read from the April/May 1991 Newsletter

A Bicentennial Farm

The Fenton farm has been designated one of 17 “Bicentennial Farms” in Vermont. The farm, named Spa-Whit-Ton for Spalding, Whitmore and Fenton, dates back to the early days of the village. Joseph Spalding came to the area probably in 1781 when he was about 37. In 1784 he surveyed and determined the boundaries of the town and named it “Middletown.” He borrowed the name from Middletown, Conn., where he came from. He considered it an appropriate name since the town was created from portions of the four surrounding towns.

According to Barnes Frisbie’s History of Middletown, Vermont, Captain Spalding first settled on what later was known as the Micah Vail Farm, but soon moved to land on Spruce Knob Road (formerly Spalding Road) where his family and descendants continued to live. According to Anna Fenton, Joseph Spalding built his home at a place south of Ritchies’ on the east side of the road. Two large maple trees and a gap in the stone wall mark what was the entrance to his farm. Anna believes he surveyed the Ritchie and Fenton farms around 1786.

Joseph Spalding was born in 1744 in Connecticut and died in 1840 at the age of 96. His first wife was Huldah Hubbard, whom he married in Connecticut. She died in 1822. His second wife was Thankful Mehurin of Middletown. Frisbie reports that Spalding was in the Revolutionary War from about the time of its beginning until he came to Middletown. He was the first captain of the militia in town. Joseph Spalding had taught school in Connecticut and taught the first school in Middletown. He continued to teach until he was over 75 years old.

Joseph Spalding’s son, Joseph Jr. (1767–1846), was 14 when he moved from Connecticut to Middletown with his parents. Joseph Jr. married Polly Loomis and they had 10 children: Joseph, Reuben, Horace, Asahel, Polly, Maria, Calista, Harley, Julius and Alvah. Two of these sons remained on Spalding Road.

Harley built what is now the Ritchie House. Asahel settled at the Fenton farm location. Harley’s branch of the family began to spell their name Spaulding, perhaps to avoid confusion between the two families living on the road.

Asahel Spalding (born 1802) married Abigail Gardner and they had two children, Loomis Charles (born 1833) and William Bailey (born 1842). Abigail Spalding died in 1850 and Asahel later married Hannah-Emeline Wood.

Anna Fenton says that Asahel built what is now the Fenton farmhouse in 1844 when his son William was two years old. It originally was a two-family house—Asahel’s parents (Joseph and Polly Spalding) lived in half of the house and Asahel and his family lived in the other half.

Asahel’s son Loomis moved to Poultney. At the time, Anna tells, everything on the farm was divided evenly. Half of all the equipment and tools went with Loomis when he set up his own dairy farm.

Asahel’s son William remained on the family farm. He married Martha Mehurin; they had no children of their own but adopted John Page Whitmore.

John Whitmore married Ada Mae Brown and had two daughters, Abbie, who died at the age of 18, and Anna. Anna went to high school in Rutland and then to Normal School in Keene, New Hampshire, after which she returned to help at the farm. She also worked two summers for the county 4-H Department.

As a youngster Anna recalls listening to her grandparents’ and parents’ stories. According to one story, part of their farm is “blood land.” Sometime after the Revolutionary War a Tory spy was hiding behind a big tree up the hill at the northwest edge of the village, picking off people with his rifle and terrorizing the community. The U.S. Government offered 50 acres to whoever would do away with him. What happened is unclear, but 25 new acres came to be part of the Fenton farm and 25 acres on the other side of the wall became part of the Copeland Farm.

The Fenton Farm includes what are now known as the high potato fields, off Spruce Knob Road to the north and east. At one time, Anna says, there were 40 houses up there and a blacksmith shop. Although this settlement was before her time, Anna remembers that an old lady, Mrs. Germon, who had lived there as a child came back to visit Anna’s grandparents, the William Spaldings. 

Anna Whitmore married Paul Fenton in 1933, and Paul joined the family farm operation. For many years they operated a large dairy business. Paul also was a commercial potato farmer, one year producing more than 22,000 bushels of potatoes. Paul died in 1989, and the operation of the farm was transferred to son Page and his wife Ardith. Although it is no longer a dairy farm (the milking cattle were sold in 1990) beef cattle and heifers are still raised.

The Fentons continue to operate a maple business. Sugaring has long been an important activity on this farm, and Anna Fenton is well known for her maple candy. Anna recalls that in the old days the sap was taken to the sugarhouse up the hill at the Wallace Spaulding’s.

Paul Fenton put up the “old” sugar house in the pasture north of the farmhouse in the early 1950’s. In more recent years the Fentons set up sugaring equipment in a barn on the Poultney Road. A new sugar house was finished this year across from the Fenton farmhouse, conveniently close to the road. The Fentons buy sap from two other maple growers as well as tapping themselves. The operation produces between 300 and 800 gallons of syrup a year, depending on the sap run.