Rev. Peabody, the farm's first English owner in the 1720s, taught the Indians animal husbandry and how to be orchardists - they were already successful at agriculture and knew the benefits of cranberries (still grown at the farm in the 1870's) and in fact taught the English how to grow corn, beans and squash, etc. Oliver Bacon, bought the Peabody farm in stages beginning in the 1750s and owned it all with the Bacon house on Eliot St. by around 1800. Pump John Bacon's son Willard lived here until 1880. His brother Ira farmed the community farm from here after the old Peabody House became "haunted" and he moved in with his brother Willard here at 185 Eliot St. in the 1850's.

      After the Peabody House burned in 1867, Ira died in 1873 and Willard died in 1880, the Peabody and Bacon farms went through several owners. But the farms were reunited among a group of six farms by William S. Patten and the Hunnewells in an operation known as Carver Hill Farms that apparently was in business from around 1905 until 1926. Natick Town Directory Ads show the Carver Hill Farms from 1917 to 1923 and the Barr Carnation greenhouses (1931) that succeeded them after 1927.

     These are the basics - we farmers went from apple orchards and vegetable gardens with some farm animals from the 1650s to 1880s; then to dairy farming in the 1890's to 1918; then chickens and poultry from 1918 to about 1926; and finally to florists from 1927 on through the 1950s. The Community Farm still does most of these things and represents a microcosm of the history of farming in Massachusetts.

      The farm is located at 117 Eliot St. in South Natick, MA. Call ahead for information about special events at 508 655-2204.