Perkins Homestead and Dennis Farm Fields

Perkins Homestead and Dennis Farm Fields. . , You have reached the Dennis Farm's Upper Tier., The Dennis Farm has two distinct tiers, the Lower Tier and the Upper Tier. The Lower Tier, including the plateau where the Farmhouse and Barn Complex are located, is where the Dennis Family lived. The Upper Tier consists of the farm's original seventy acres first settled by the Dennis Family's ancestors, the Perkins Family., Today acres of the Dennis Farm have been reclaimed by nature and are covered in trees. When you look at these pictures of the farm's open fields, though, you can view the Dennis Farm's fields as they looked when first the Perkins Family and then their descendants, the Dennis Family, actively farmed their land., The Perkins Family first cleared and cultivated the land, carving it out of the wilderness. Following Prince Perkins' death, in 1839, his son William Perkins continued to develop and farm the land. Following the death of William Perkins in 1858, his son-in-law Henry W. Dennis purchased 100 additional acres and, with his three sons, further cultivated the land. When Henry W. Dennis passed away in 1882, his oldest son, Perkins William "Will" Dennis (1853-1918), farmed the land until shortly before he passed away., Cultivating farmland on this hillside was not easy. In 2006, an octogenarian neighbor whose grandfather had once worked with the family on the Dennis Farm told Denise Dennis that his grandfather said, "Working on the Dennis Farm was like working on a rooftop under the hot sun.", To learn more about The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust or to make a donation please visit us at www.thedennisfarm.org