Archive 2008 - 2019

Martha DeWolf

Total: 39

Hard Cider

by Martha DeWolf 10/4/2013

In the nineteenth century “hard” cider was a familiar libation. Unlike what we know as “cider” today, it was a fermented alcoholic beverage made from fruit juice, most commonly and traditionally apple juice,

2

Continue

Porch & Pigs in the Cellar: Continued

by Martha DeWolf 7/14/2013

I have republished and created Privy on the Porch & Pigs in the Cellar as a series.  Parts 1 & 2 were part of the original version.  Parts Three and Four continue the story. 

Continue

The Bullard Farm Orchard and Cider Mill

by Martha DeWolf 4/6/2013

Henry Bullard noted in his journal on May 17th 1848 that a building was raised on the farm in Holliston.  He did not specify what the building was for, but on May 30th, 1848, three days later, Henry noted that he “moved cider mill & c.”      Horsepower; from the Ames Plow Company Catalog. The Ames Company had factories in Worcester and Ayer, Massachusetts; the company had stores in Boston's Quincy Market Hall as well as in New York City.

Continue

Privy on the Porch and Pigs in the Cellar

by Martha DeWolf 9/30/2012

Privy on the Porch and Pigs in the Cellar examines the lives of two neighboring 19th century families; one from Holliston and the other from East Medway (now Millis), Massachusetts and places them in the larger context of American history.

Continue

Mercy and Abijah Richardson

by Martha DeWolf 3/7/2012

Alice Bullard's mother, Bethia Wheeler’s ancestral lines, both male and female, like those of her husband Henry’s Bullard family, trace to the "great migration" that populated the Massachusetts Bay Colony beginning in the 1630s, concurrent with the Bullards.

1

Continue

Letters From The Attic

by Martha DeWolf 2/29/2012

Henry Bullard and his daughter Alice are central to this story.

2

Continue

Letters from the Attic

by Martha DeWolf 2/24/2012

This is a chronicle of one particular family whose ancestors were among the 20,000 English immigrants who sailed to America between 1629 and 1641. (http://www.farmerbrownsplowshop.net)

Continue

Cultural Resource Survey of Bullard Farm Planting Fields

by Martha DeWolf 2/18/2012

A piece of the puzzle... I am writing again regarding the proposed development of the planting fields on Bullard Memorial Farm Association property.  Phase 1 Intensive archeological testing for a Cultural Resource Survey of the Bullard Farm was done in 1989 in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 in order to prove to the Algonquin Pipeline project that the route through the Bullard farm would do irreparable damage to the land.

3

Continue

The Settlement at The Farms: The Stone Fort and King Philip's War (part 2)

by Martha DeWolf 2/15/2012

Eight years later, Benjamin Bullard and his neighbors were reprimanded by name in the town bylaws.  In 1659 the town of Medfield declared that the settlers at "The Farms” were prohibited from taking any more wood without permission from the town of Medfield because they had wasted it in “maintaining” their bridge.  It appears that they complied.     Lesser bridges figured prominently in the settlement of the wilderness, too.  In 1665 George Fairbanks' daughter, Mary, married Joseph Daniell and settled with him just a mile or so away from her father, but on the other  (south) side of Bogastow Brook.

1

Continue

The Settlement at The Farms; The Stone Fort and King Philip's War (Part1)

by Martha DeWolf 2/7/2012

Two years after the Pequot War, Ann Martyn Bullard was widowed in 1639 when her husband Robert succumbed at age 40 to an un-named illness.  His was one of the earliest deaths recorded in Watertown. This article should have appeared before Martha's piece Benjamin Bullard and the Quit Claim Deed.

Continue

Benjamin Bullard and the Quitclaim Deed

by Martha DeWolf 2/5/2012

Following the 1675-76 war, the Colonial Government began to put pressure on all settlers to be sure they had complied with Colonial Law by obtaining legal land deeds from the sachems in the areas they settled.

1

Continue

Arrival in the New World

by Martha DeWolf 1/31/2012

(photo from Wikipedia) The history of a place and the attitude of the people inhabiting it are entangled and inseparable. The Bullards were the direct descendant of a yeoman farming family of Barnham, northwestern Suffolk County, England.  Four brothers from that family came to New England in the early 1630’s.

2

Continue

Letters from the Attic

by Martha DeWolf 1/25/2012

Much has been written about nineteenth century presidents, artists and adventurers.  Thin and few are the threads that remain to deepen our understanding of an ordinary 19th century home life in rural New England.  (John Anson Bullard and his horse) The story of the Bullard family who farmed in Holliston, Massachusetts, can enlarge and enrich that appreciation.

2

Continue

Preserve the Bullard Farm Artifacts

by Martha DeWolf 1/23/2012

As a descendant of Henry Bullard, former member of the BMFA, former farm manager for the BMFA and current biographer of the nineteenth century Bullard farm, I know the property very well.   In 1991 the  Bullard Memorial Farm Association, (BMFA) argued that the land itself was an irreplaceable archeological resource due to the presence of some 300 prehistoric artifacts and was the possible site for future archeological research.

2

Continue

Letters Home to the Bullard Farm

by Martha DeWolf 12/30/2011

I never go to Holliston without meeting some new flame...

2

Continue

Letters Home to the Bullard Farm (part 2)

by Martha DeWolf 7/26/2011

Continue

Letters Home to the Bullard Farm (part 1)

by Martha DeWolf 7/21/2011

Daily Life: Plowing Ahead (previously published, June, 2008)  

Continue

Letters Home to Bullard Farm

by Martha DeWolf 8/28/2010

More Letters from the Bullard Farm (two years ago on HR)

Continue

Letters Home to the Bullard Farm

by Martha DeWolf 6/17/2010

Letters Home to the Bullard Farm "...a case of cutting off the top of the thighbone of a boy was somewhat unpleasant".    (originally published June 17, 2009)

Continue

Letters to the Bullard Farm

by Martha DeWolf 12/3/2009

Letters to the Bullard Farm (originally published December 3, 2008) I thought they were all so cheap you could make use of them in your large family...  

Continue