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Merrill Bridges farm
My future husband, Merrill Bridges, moved to this farm in 1947, with his parents & 4 sisters. At the time these photos were taken (1963) Merrill, his mother, & younger sister Carolyn resided here, with Merrill farming, Carolyn attending Husson College & then working @ Guilford of Maine, & mother keeping house. In the mid 60's due to the old barn's condition, he made the hard decision to remove the aged structure, replacing it with a free stall barn with a large hay storage area, separate calf barn, & modern 4-stall milking parlor, including overhead grain storage for automatic dispensing to the milking
stalls (dine while being milked), then back to the open barn to munch on hay & drink from the automatic waterers.
The 100 acre lot was purchased in 1816 from Samuel Parkman of Boston, proprietor of this township., through his land agent
Samuel Pingree by Nathaniel & Penelope Larrabee & their 2 sons. One son was in the Civil War & the other married a neighbor girl. They had 2 daughters. One daughter married Henry Beal in the 1890's, & they continued on the farm, Mr Beal being a dealer in hay & hay "pressing" which he did all around the area. The 3-cornered intersection near the farm was always called "Beal's Turn", even by the SAD 4 bus department today. Oscar Lander purchased the farm next, in turn
selling in turn to Stanley M. & Florence Bridges in the 1940's. We were married in 1966, raised two daughters, Carla & Susan, & a son David M. Bridges. They graduated from Farmington, Bates, & UM Orono. Merrill worked for McKusick Petroleum & Lorene taught in SAD4. We sold the farm & moved to a smaller place a mile down the road on Harlow Pond
in 2002. Merrill served as selectman & chairman many terms, & planning board member & chairman. Lorene was a children's' 4h leader & Vacation Bible School teacher. Both are members of Parkman Grange & Parkman Church.
Our three children grew up on Merrill Bridge's wonderful milk. We bought 4 gallons at a time. The children, Tracy, Patti and Laurie loved to go there and try to play with the kitties that were running around. Thanks for such nice milk. We couldn't do that today, because of codes etc. They grew up very healthy. Dr. Lightbody always said, Edith, I never see your children!!
Wonderful picture and history. Thanks for sharing. 😊