The Meade Farm

REPORT of the COMMITTEE IN CHARGE OF MEADE FARM

Lincoln County, Dakota Territory

Philadelphia, January 1, 1882

It is one year two months and twenty-eight days since three “Lincoln” boys left Philadelphia for Dakota to establish Meade Farm. They started October 4th, 1880, and arrived on the Farm on the 13th of the same month. During 1881 nine more boys joined them. It was found necessary to have someone of experience to attend to the farming, Mr. Wm. Thorn, who for over twenty years had studied practically the art of cultivating all kinds of grain, vegetables, &c., on a New Jersey farm, was engaged as Head of that department. With his family he arrived on the Farm last May. By this addition the population of Meade Farm was increased to twenty-three persons, of whom two were infants.

The amount of land we have is 640 acres, of this 227 were plowed during the year and 206 planted, as follows :- to wheat, 40 acres; to oats, 19 acres; to flax, 118½ acres; to corn 17 acres; to potatoes, 2 acres; to buckwheat, 2 acres; to truck, 7½ acres.

Owing to the unusually bad season for all kinds of crops, the yield was not anything to compare with the crops of former years in that country. We trust that the ground now being in much better condition than it was, and with better weather which may be reasonably hoped for, the results of this year’s planting will make up for the disappointment of 1881.

The head farmer has cut and stacked 175 tons of hay, of which there was a very abundant crop, and put up 100 tons of ice.

The live stock of the Farm is as follows:- Horses, 9; cows, 7; calves, 7; steers, 3; pigs, 14; sheep, 41; chickens, 104; turkeys, 9; geese, 7.

The farm machinery consists of one threshing machine, one combined mower and reaper, one hay rake, seven ploughs, three harrows, one drill, one hay cutter, one fanning mill, one cultivator, one farmer’s boiler, five wagons, and one sled.

During a severe wind storm on the Fifth of August last, the new house, which was just under roof, with no floors laid, and with neither window sash nor doors, was blown down and completely demolished, Providentially, no one was hurt; but it was a severe loss financially. The season was far advanced.

It was necessary to re-build at once. Very little of the lumber of the demolished structure could be used again. Carpenters had to be hired at high wages. Great expense was thus incurred in order that the family might be properly sheltered before the winter set in. Through the liberality of some of our friends we were enabled to do all this promptly, and but a small amount still remains unpaid, which we hope to be able settle soon.

We now have upon the property a good, warm, comfortable house of twelve rooms, and two smaller houses; a large barn and a cow stable. The authorities of Dakota have erected on a portion of the ground, close to the farm buildings, a public schoolhouse. In another year we expect blacksmith shop in full operation there, as there is plenty of work for it in the neighborhood.

A branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad passes within three miles of Meade Farm, and the Illinois Central Railroad Company are projecting a branch road from Le Mars, Iowa, to Sioux Falls, Dakota, which will probably pass through, or very near to it; and we hear of a third line of railroad which is likely to come also close to us.

The country is remarkably healthy, and its prosperity seems undoubtedly assured in the immediate future. It affords a fine field for all who desire to get prosperity by perseverance and honest industry. Meade Farm is in the centre of a quite thickly populated country, no less than seventeen farms being visible from the farm house. There is no church, nor any religious service (except in the Norwegian language before one small congregation,) for ten miles around. Last summer services were held regularly every Sunday morning in the old school house on Meade Farm, They were well attended by the neighbors, who expressed an earnest desire for the establishment of a house of worship and for regular services. To meet this demand and want, a fund has been started for the erection of a chapel on Meade Farm for the benefit of all the neighborhood. It hoped that an appropriate building, capable of seating about 200 persons, will be built and furnished during the coming summer. This part of Dakota is within the missionary district of Bishop Clarkson.

Commentary: this is the most recent document concerning the Meade Farm that has been found. The farm was abandoned sometime after the report. The last Meade Farm entry found in the annual reports is a payment of back-taxes in the financial accounts of the Lincoln Institution Board of Managers for 1887.

References

1. The Lincoln Institution Annual Report, 1882

Document History

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