The Friends have adopted a strategic plan built around sustainability, and to inform our work, some of us have recently been knee-deep in Holcomb Farm history. To that end, we thought a little history quiz might get Drummer readers’ juices flowing. Many thanks to Peggy Lareau’s Holcomb Farm Heritage: Struggles and Successes, ©2017, and all the contributors to it. Next month we will quiz you on more recent goings-on. If you have your own memories, comments, or questions, we’d love to hear from you at info@holcombfarm.org
Tudor and Laura Holcomb were:
a) Husband and wife
b) First cousins
c) Siblings
d) No relation; the name was a coincidence
The answer is c. Tudor and Laura were siblings, the only children of Samuel F. and Lizzie Dewey Holcomb; neither married nor had children. They attended school in the one-room red schoolhouse on the corner of Firetown and Simsbury roads. Over time, and after agricultural schooling, Tudor took over the farm and Laura kept the books. Much success followed.
Holcomb Farm is known to be the first New England Farm that:
a) Had running water
b) Grew corn
c) Held barn dances
d) Had electricity
The answer is d. It is not clear exactly when the Holcombs added electricity to the barn—Granby, itself, was first electrified in 1914—but by the 1920s they had doubled their acreage to 400 and were using an old fire engine system to irrigate fields. Electricity was undoubtedly quite handy.
The farmhouse that still stands at 113 Simsbury Road, today, was built in 1790 by:
a) Nahum Holcomb
b) Lizzy Dewey
c) Joseph Loomis
d) The State of Connecticut
The answer is a. Nahum, son of Reuben, who was born in 1763. He built and resided in the Farmhouse that still stands—and still houses our own Friends of Holcomb Farm farming family, including Joe, Emma, and their two children—at the intersection of Simsbury Road and Day Street South.
The main barn at Holcomb Farm, with its large, beam-free loft, is known as the following style:
a) Wisconsin
b) Swedish
c) German
d) Connecticut
The answer is a. Tudor and Laura’s father’s dairy barn burned in 1931, and Tudor and Laura replaced it with a “modern, gambrel-roofed Wisconsin Dairy Barn, which was built without any rafters in the huge open loft.” It was a place for dances and “political fund raisers.” [Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to use that space for events, today? All it needs is some (very expensive) safety upgrades.]
Tudor and Laura became wealthy growing:
a) Cannabis
b) Shade Tobacco
c) Dahlias
d) Corn
The answer is b. They were successful dairy farmers and potato farmers, amongst other pursuits, but it was the now-famous shade tobacco of the Connecticut River valley that allowed Tudor and Laura to become probably the most significant benefactors to Granby in history. By 1953, when they retired from growing tobacco, their final harvest employed 150 people. For years after, the land continued to be leased for farming, generating income.
In 1976, Tudor and Laura
bequeathed the farm to:
a) The Town of Granby
b) The Friends of Holcomb Farm
c) The “people of West Granby”
d) The University of Connecticut
The answer is d. From the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, town records show the Holcombs gave the Town of Granby: 1) money to acquire the land and build the Town Hall complex; 2) land to build the West Granby Lost Acres Fire Department; 3) land and the old church in the triangle between Hartland Road (Rte. 20), Simsbury Road, and West Granby Road; and 4) a small piece of land and tobacco barn where Barn Door Hills Road crosses Simsbury Road. They also gave the land and funding for the West Granby Methodist Church. Then, they worked with the University of Connecticut to transfer some 350 acres and buildings to the School of Agriculture, fulfilling UConn’s vision of a “campus west of the river.” According to long-time Granby resident Put Brown, who, as a young neighbor, was personal friends with the Holcombs, “this list only begins to scratch the surface of the generosity these people showed Granby and its residents.”
In 1991, ownership of the Farm transitioned to:
a) The Town of Granby
b) The Friends of Holcomb Farm
c) The “people of West Granby”
d) The University of Connecticut
The answer is a. The deed to UConn stipulated that, should UConn ever not use the farm for agricultural education, it should revert to the Town of Granby. Again, according to Put Brown who participated in some of the discussions at the time, “It never occurred to anyone that UConn would really fail to use the property for the educational and agricultural purposes that were envisioned, and that it would ultimately become Granby’s.” But that is just what happened in 1991.
The Town’s Plan of Use for Holcomb Farm calls for it to be for:
a) Education
b) Agriculture
c) Arts
d) Passive recreation
e) All of the above
The answer is e. In 1991 and again in 1993, the Board of Selectmen commissioned study groups to determine the best use of the Farm by the Town of Granby. A Plan of Use was developed and adopted, reflecting the Holcombs’ vision along with what would best serve the people of Granby to whom this gift had ultimately come. Guided by the Plan of Use, the nonprofit Friends of Holcomb Farm was formed, assuming full responsibility for the buildings and acreage, until 2012. At that time, a new relationship between the Town and the Friends allowed for the Town to assume responsibility for the main campus, where it could leverage the Leisure Services and Public Works resources to provide more community programming. The Friends operate the farm, build and maintain the trails, have developed the fledgling Tree Trail, and operate Fresh Access, which provides food grown on the property to people in need. Given all the changes in the past 50 years, we hope Tudor and Laura would be pleased with how their legacy is being stewarded.