§13 We Remember Mount Ross (1)

The walk from school to our Maple Shade Farm home (now LoNan) often included a stop at a roadside spring for a drink of cold water, and once in awhile a fresh baked 'goodie' from our next door neighbor Mrs. Nettie Ferris (now the Melius-Bentley House). This was around 1924. Roger Burger, who lived in the tenant house across from our place often walked home with me. 1 Earlier, in 1918, we had moved onto the farm. I was three years old. My parents, Nathaniel and Sadie Hedges, bought the farm from the Gifford family. Deeds show that they, the Hedges, held the property from then until l970. In 1918 the farm had no conveniences. We used kerosene lamps, and a 3-holer outhouse in the backyard. A lead pipe directed spring water to a hogshead in the summer kitchen. But we modernized as the time went by, our attention primarily on increasing and improving our dairy herd. However, in the early 20's till the 40's the farm was also used as a summer vacation boardinghouse for hundreds of New York City folks. Dad Hedges made frequent trips to the RR stations in Rhinecliff and Millerton to meet the guests.

I attended the Hannah Bentley Memorial School (District # 6, probably not the original schoolhouse in the area) from 1921 through 1928. The building was a Cadillac of Country Schools with a full basement, a pipeless furnace, and a beautiful marble plaque designating the school as a gift from Henry Bentley in 1861. From the west windows one could look down on the R.R. station and the freight house and across the Roe Jan to the long boarding house which, I believe, was called The Mt. Ross House. Two of our teachers, Bess Cornwall and Alice Odell, boarded at our farm. 2 It was necessary to go to the well at the Smith house (now Popp's) to get a pail of water for the day. En route we stopped at the flagpole and raised the flag. It was always exciting to be chosen for these duties! One highlight of the year was Arbor Day celebrated by planting a small tree or two and then a class walk up the road (Mt. Ross Hill Road and, for a while, the extension called Fitzsimmons Road) toward the current Carvel place. We picked many flowers including the now quite rare Arbutus. Until 1930 the Red Hook mailman traveled this route. Elmer Rockefeller owned a farm up there and his two sons, Earl and Cecil, attended our school.

The Bentley property on the south side of Mt. Ross Road (the house was on the north side) extended east past our place. Another spring with a small building over it was located here. This was where the milk was stored to keep cool. In the morning it was taken by wagon or sleigh to the Borden plant in Pine Plains. The Bentley Farm did not deliver their milk to town, but presumably made butter of it as did most farms in those days. I also can remember that the paths made by the sheep in the 1800's were still visible trailing up the hillside. This section of the narrow, winding road was known as the Dugway because it required so much hard hand labor to build it in the late 1800's.

From the Dugway we could look across the RoeJan creek and see the trestle where the trains crossed. 3 The train was a major activity in Mt. Ross. It existed from 1875 through 1938. In the early 20's the station had a full time agent. There were passengers, freight, and cars of farm material coming and going. I am not sure whether the station housed the post office in my time, but I do have post cards cancelled at 'Mt. Ross' in 1913 and 1921.

I surely remember the railroad side track and the delivery of a 20 ton load of loose lime which I had to help bag and drive by wagon to the farm to be stored for cropland use!

The Hedges Farm was a hard working family business, but we did reach out for modern equipment. In 1924 a Model T replaced the horses for the trip to Town, and a Hinman milking machine was added.

A fortuitous turn of events during the depression years aimed this farm boy toward a most satisfying career. I graduated with the first class from the Pine Plains Central School in l933. I worked for the Ralston Purina Feed Store (located by the West Pine Plains RR siding, now Meiller's butcher shop) as a general handyman earning $15.00 a week and truly earning it. Not only was I expected to be knowledgeable about all the products, wait on customers, and hand pump gasoline, but the 'big job' was mine, too, that of unloading 20 ton (400 100# bags) of merchandise from the freight car on the RR siding next to the store!

The store manager, Ray Moore, as well as another friend, Professor William Pew from Briarcliff Farms, both encouraged me to go to Cornell College of Agriculture. I managed this, following on the heels of the local shoemaker's son, Tony Peppe, who had just completed his first year. And I was also grateful for my family's graduation gift of a 1931 Ford roadster! I graduated in l939 (having returned to the farm for one year to help build a new dairy barn after a fire in '37) and was hired as the first agriculture teacher at Fort Plain High School-- which position still exists. I also taught at the Webutuck School.

In 1944 my wife, Edie, and I became partners in Dad Hedges farm. We raised a family (Melva, Arthur, and their pets}, and expanded the farm business. An Allis Chalmers WC tractor was added to our equipment as well as a Rosenthal corn husker, an A-C PTO combine, and a New Holland 76 hay baler. Also, a Massey Ferguson forage chopper, more modern milking machines, a Jamesway gutter cleaner and an Oliver 89 farm tractor with bucket loader. With this machinery I was able to do custom work for other farmers. A big improvement was the change from milk cans to one 400 gal. milk tank, thus bringing a big milk tank truck to the farm every day. We sold milking equipment and farm machinery, and for many years "Hedges Farm Automation Equip. Inc." distributed pre-engineered metal buildings. We continued to add to our herd of Registered Holsteins that numbered 150 by the end of the 60's. Our acreage had grown to 600+ acres, and we had the best farm manager in John Boadle, Sr. who was gifted in all phases of farming.

Edie and I retired from active farming in 1967, selling our Mt. Ross place to the Vaill family that continues to this day to run a very large and active business, LoNan Farm. We then were able to keep busy with our special interests, teaching agriculture, re-activating the FFA, and working with the Farm Credit Service.

I am so glad that my upbringing on the farm at Mt. Ross and my early work in Pine Plains encouraged me to continue in agriculture. The work was strenuous, but most satisfying, as perhaps only a born farmer can understand. We do miss our friends in Pine Plains and our farming days on Mt. Ross, but we are more than glad to be fully retired now and enjoying our "memory years"!

Notes:

1. << Cort Wright, the current owner of the tenant house, remembers hearing that it probably was a schoolhouse at one time, thus the reason for the two front doors. Old stories also suggest it may have been a stage stop. -Ed.
2. << The daughter of Elisabeth Kelly remembers that her mother taught at the school in 1918, boarded at the McNeil farm and rode her bicycle to school. -Ed.
3. << The sturdy cement abutments can still be seen today as well as the berm-like rail path travelling through the area--the latter being used by fishermen happy to be able to get near the banks of this great trout stream! -Ed.

Mt. Ross in the News	Table of Contents		We Remember Mount Ross (2)
© Copyright 2003, 2014 All Rights Reserved The Little Nine Partners Historical Society P.O. Box 243 Pine Plains, NY 12567 USA		Fri Jul 11 2014 at 11:12:49am File: /V6/13.htm Electronic contacts: Secretary: [email protected] Webmaster: [email protected] Home page: www.L9PHS.org