New England Farm Life: A Field Trip to Old Sturbridge Village and Photo Dump

A scene from Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) in Sturbridge, MA.

Recently, on a trip home from Connecticut, I stopped at Old Sturbridge Village (OSV). It was well worth it.

Last time I had been was with my husband and young kids, in the early 2000s probably. I wanted to get a feel for nineteenth-century New England farm life: crops, animals, buildings, technology, farmhouses, textiles, all of it.....what a nerd I am! I don't care.

Before I went to OSV, I stopped in Franklin, CT to view the house and land of C.P. and Maria Huntington's wayward son, Benjamin Franklin known as "B.F." His world is part of my latest research for my book, tentatively entitled, The Huntingtons of Norwich, CT: A New England Family.

The latest first draft chapter involves B.F. Huntington (1813-1891) and Maria Louisa Huntington Huntington (1815-1893) and their foray into farming in 1841. Although both had merchant fathers, like most Yankees, would have been somewhat knowledgable about animal husbandry, crops, orchards, and gardens. The home they moved into, in 1841, was already 100+ years old, probably dark but large and sturdy.

"Brook House Farm," October 1893, sketch by Huntington Phelps Meech (1877-1963). Brook House Farm was owned by B.F. and Maria Louisa Huntington. Meech was a grandson of B.F. and Maria Louisa Huntington, Franklin, CT. Maria had just died when this sketch was done from the opposite side of the road near Huntington's cousin's house. Owned by the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.

"Brook House Farm" homestead, November 2024, Franklin, CT.

Benjamin Franklin Huntington (1813-1891). Failed merchant who turned to modest farming and animal husbandry.

Thus, I went to OSV to get a feel for what life was like for B.F. and Maria and their children who lived and worked at Kingsley Farm, later renamed, "Brook House Farm."

Hilly barnyard area at Old Sturbridge Village. This topography is similar to the hilly world of B.F. in Franklin, CT. Note the fruit tree and different types of fencing.

The barn at the Old Sturbridge Village farmstead. Note the hay storage.

Evidence of man-made containers: baskets and buckets.

A typical three-seater "necessary house." Note the smaller hole for tots.

A typical Yankee structure had many add-on rooms connected to the house to avoid harsh winter conditions. Here is a rudimentary plumbing system and indoor sink.

Example of a large buttery with ripening cheese wheels on open-shelving. Most New England women knew how to make cheese. Excess cheese could be sold for profit.

Low-ceilinged kitchen. Note storage cupboards all around the hearth.

By mid-nineteenth century many "wheels" would have been stored in cold attics. The advent of textile mills especially in Connecticut made spinning wheels obsolete.

Beautiful spun and dyed wool from OSV. Ready for knitting!

Sewing implements of the nineteenth-century housewife. Sewing tables were called "work tables." "Work" meaning sewing.

Simple early nineteenth-century New England bedroom with gay wallpaper and quilted coverlet. "Chamber" pots were used in what we call bedrooms--for nighttime use. Chamber is an old English term for bedroom. Underneath washstand.

Broadsides were everywhere in colonial and nineteenth-century America. These clever advertisements were potentially pasted onto mercantile establishments.