The Hilton Homestead
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| Mary Sue's great-grandparents standing in front of the barn. The young girl may be her Aunt Florence. The dog was in every picture taken on the farm at that time.
The Hilton Homestead, in
Bremen Maine, is the latest guest
blog to join us here on “On Being a Southender.” Mary Sue Hilton Weeks is my
cousin. We hope to bring you some historical material and other facets of the
Homestead in the months to come. Exciting things are about to happen and we are
both excited to bring them to you here.
I am living on a 100-acre farm that has been in my family
through my great-grandmother's side for over 200 years. My great-grandfather
William Bainbridge Hilton bought the farm from his wife Rhoda Little's family,
and from then on it was known as the Hilton Homestead. I live next door to the
family home where I grew up in the one-room school house where I went to school
grades 4 - 8. In 1998 my sister Diane and her husband Lee retired from
Washington, DC and took over the family home. They both passed away last year,
and having no children, I acquired the family home. This blog is about my
progress in trying to deal with it.
Mary Sue now leases the farmland to two farmers. She and
they are currently trying to raise $12,000 to build a much-needed well on the
farm. She details about how you can help below.
The following story, which Mary Sue found at the farm
recently, will show you why The Hilton Homestead needs to be preserved and the
land used as it was intended to be used…as a farm. Carl and Frederica Hilton,
my aunt and uncle, were the last Hiltons to actually work the land. This story
from the Boston Globe shows them at the end of their rein as the resident
farmers at The Homestead. I have given you part of the story as I scanned it so
that you could see the actual story in print. The rest of it I retyped.
  
Here’s the rest of the
story from the Boston
Globe.
Frederica
Hilton is the clerk, and they keep regular office hours here from 9 a.m. to
noon and after 2, ducking away each day for lunch at Moody’s Diner over on
Route 1 because, she said, “If we stayed here, we’d never get a chance to eat.”
Still, she added, they’re flexible, and if they’re home, they conduct
business—everything from automobile registration renewals to accepting tax
payments.
“There
aren’t too many town offices where you can come at 10 or 11 o’clock at night if
you want a fishing license,” Frederica Hilton noted.
Hilton
served two terms in the Maine Legislature in the 1950s and 16 years as a Bremen
selectman. “This is our last year,” Hilton insisted, referring to the couple’s
in-home town jobs. Perhaps. They tried to quit last year “but no one would run
for the offices,” Hilton said. When he’s free of town duties, Hilton added, “that’ll
give me time to do some of these repairs.”
For
Hilton, the farm spells personal freedom as well as heritage. “Look at all this
land you can walk on. You can’t do that when you live on a little house lot.
This land goes clear to the shore. You can go down and dig clams…
“And
the best part of living on a farm is you can be your own boss,” he said, adding
that when he goes to town and sees people working a 9-5 job, it looks to him
“just like the state prison—only they let ‘em out nights.”
As I remember:
The office they are talking about here was at one time a
grocery store which they ran for many years, along with a gas pump. Uncle Carl
was also a justice of the peace and I remember one day when a young couple came
to get married when I was visiting once. He questioned them at length about how
old they were, if their parents knew about the impending marriage, etc. I don’t
think he married them that day, but rather sent them home to get their parents’
permission.
Mary Sue's grandfather is pumping gas here.
He lived with the family too along with Carl and Freda and the girls.
How
You Can Help
Mary
Sue and her young farmers are currently in a fund-raising mode for a new well.
Find out how you can donate to the cause at http://www/indiegogo.com/p/317566.
Pictured
here, Mary Sue and her farmers. Crescent Run Farms and Harvest Moon Pizza are
working together to raise the funds needed to drill a well on our shared
farmland.
Levels
start at $25 and go up to $2,000, with a gift at each level. They currently
have $5,560 of their $12,000 goal with 17 days left to go. Let’s help them get
there, OK?
Become
a Member of Crescent Run Farm
If you would like to
become a member of Crescent Run Farm, see details at:
They also have different
levels of participation. Choose the one that best suits you. Here’s what it
says on the site:
Each week we will
harvest, wash, and pack your produce to be picked up on the scheduled day. The
CSA will run for approximately 17 weeks, between early June and late September,
until the value of your share is met. Factors such as climatic conditions,
season, and pests can influence the value of an individual pick-up, and the
full value of your investment will be met over the course of your membership.
A
Note for the Family: If
you have pictures of the farm to share, especially one of the family reunions,
please email them to me at southendstories@aol.com. Thanks.
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