Introduction

Phillips Family
(1737-1860)

Miller Family
(1860-c1901)

A.B. Coleman
(c1901-1909)

Leming Family
(1909-c1919)

Cromwell Family
(1920-1948)

Suydam Family
(1948-1962)

Howell Family
(1962-1974)

Mercer County
(1974-present)

Charles Miller owned the farm for at least 36 years, making few changes to the barn but perhaps adding the cupola and the tracks for handling loose hay. During his ownership the pond, ice house, and corn crib were built.

The period 1870-1890 was a time of agricultural depression and many farms deteriorated. In an oral history interview, Wilmer Hunter recounted that he had heard comments in his youth that Miller had mismanaged the farm. At one time he did not provide enough fodder for his horses for the winter. He eventually lost the farm in a Sheriff's sale in 1896 when he failed to make the payments on his mortgage. At the sale, the farm was purchased by Paul M. Tulane, of Trenton , whose family had held the mortgage since 1888. Tulane had no intention to live on the farm but purchased it in order to protect his investment. At this time the farm began a period of absentee ownership and occupation/operation by tenant farmers.

After the death of Charles, his son Benjamin became operator of the farm.  Benjamin apparently had some mental difficulties and the farm may have declined during the three or four years he was responsible for it.  Among other things, Benjamin ran afoul of the law for forgery and spent some time in jail in Trenton before being paroled.

The year before the farm was sold out of the family, a neighbor couple, Amos and Rachel Williamson, moved to the farm as caretakers.  About  1901 the farm was purchased by blacksmith A.B. Coleman of Titusville as an investment.

While the farm appears to have been prosperous under Charles Miller in the mid-19th century, there seems little doubt that the farm deteriorated in the last years of the century and the opening years of the 20th century.

(Back to Top of Page)