"We are simply killing time until we can get back to our farm."
Robert Lincoln, 1916
For centuries, the land we call Hildene Farm has been a place of cultivation, community, and resilience. Long before the Lincoln family arrived, Indigenous peoples and early settlers stewarded this land with care and purpose. By 1902, when Robert Lincoln made his purchase of the land he would later call Hildene, the 200 acres in the dene were home to two active dairy farms. Robert wholeheartedly embraced the role of a gentleman farmer, raising dairy cows and chickens, and producing milk, butter, and eggs. He was so delighted with his foray into farming that he shipped his butter to Chicago by Pullman railcar and sold it for $0.35 per pound to the Chicago Club and his good friend Marshall Field.
THE ICONIC PEGGY BECKWITH EMBRACED INNOVATION IN FARMING
Hildene's farming legacy continued through Robert’s granddaughter, Peggy Beckwith, the last Lincoln to live on the estate. She brought a bold vision to agriculture at Hildene in several ways. In addition to raising sheep, Black Angus cattle, and dairy cows, she was an early adopter of cutting-edge technology. Peggy installed a vacuum pipeline to carry milk through the barn. She then invited local farmers to Hildene to learn how this device was revolutionizing milking across the industry. Peggy not only tapped the estate’s maple trees for syrup, but she was also among the first in Vermont to use tubing to gather the sap. Please visit the Peggy Beckwith exhibit (second floor of the Lincoln family home) to learn more about her life at Hildene.
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