Special program plows into Meredith Farm Museum history

MEREDITH – Field plowing, haying, apple-cider pressing and ice harvesting were all common chores in olden days. This month, the Meredith Historical Society will open its historic Farm Museum on Winona Road, where Jim Belcher will present a program about these and other bits of rural history from the museum’s collection.

The program will take place Saturday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Farm Museum located at 61 Winona Road. Admission is free.

After moving from their old Winona Road headquarters to the new museum on Main Street in the 1990s, the society came into possession of a large collection of farming artifacts once owned by CEO of International Harvester John Jacob Glessner, previously housed at The Rocks estate in Bethlehem.

“The estate was given to the Forest Society and subsequently became run down,” notes Meredith Historical Society board member Ceil Andrews. “Some of the buildings burned, and we became the proud owners of the collection. The Rocks landmark is now an educational facility and tourist destination with a permanent staff.”

After retrieving the old farm tools, former MHS President Harold Wyatt enlisted the help of Laconia artist, educator and historian Belcher to help create a display and tell the story of Meredith’s old-time farms and farmers.

Using the vacated space in the society’s previous Winona Road headquarters, originally built in 1801 as the Oak Hill Free Will Baptist Church, Wyatt and Belcher arranged the tools into four seasonal displays, using Belcher’s sketches and display posters to help explain how the various tools were used. Now Belcher returns to retell the story to another generation.

A 1999 book on the Farm Museum written by Wyatt and illustrated by Belcher notes that “Meredith was a successful farming community with up to 23 large farms in operation.” Two survivors of those rustic agricultural days are still in operation today: Picnic Rock Farm on Route 3 and Moulton Farm on Route 25.

Meredith’s Farm Museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

For more information, visit meredithhistoricalsocietynh.org.