York Town News
For love of family and farm
By Melissa Wood
Editor's note: this is the first report in a two-part special series on York's Blaisdell Farm.
Members of the Blaisdell family take a short break from busy schedules of full-time jobs and farm chores. From left to right are Henry Blaisdell, Charlotte Blaisdell Proctor, Cherie Blaisdell Conlon, Doris Hennesey Blaisdell, Tom Blaisdell and Mike Blaisdell. Also pictured are members of their family from years ago and scenes from the farm in the recent past in the accompanying courtesy photos. For well over two centuries, the family has owned and run the historic farm along the York River on Southside Road in York.
Photo by Melissa Wood
YORK - Every June Tom Blaisdell takes several weeks off from his job as a project engineer for Sensata in Standish to mow the hay in the fields on the family farm on Southside Road.
He spends his days of this so-called "vacation" in the sun from morning until dark, cutting and then compressing the hay into square bales, which will be fed over the winter to the 50 cows who reside on the farm.
He stores the bales in the loft of the white barn, one of two barns on the farm that has been in Tom's family since 1772 when his ancestor, Elijah Blaisdell, bought the property from Ralph Farnam.
Since that time, both the number of Blaisdells and the size of the farm have grown. Buildings have been added and taken away, operations have changed as the family has tried new strategies to keep the family farm thriving - from a full-scale dairy operation with pasteurizer and delivery trucks, an ice house that provided ice to summer hotels until the 1950s, to a retail meat business where grass-fed cows are slaughtered and sold.
Another change that the farm has seen is an explosion in York's population and the arrival of zoning laws that label the operation as "non-conforming" for having breeding animals in an area of town east of Route 1.
But throughout the years, one thing remains constant - a family that works together to maintain a way of life they have kept for 235 years.
"My grandfather ran the farm, and he lived off the farm," said Charlotte Blaisdell Proctor, Tom's aunt, who taught second grade at Village Elementary School for 22 years and now works in her daughter's preschool, Strawberry Patch, on nearby Woodside Meadow Road. "They had to diversify; that's the way they survived."
No longer able to simply live off the farm, all the Blaisdell family members hold full-time jobs and run their own businesses. Tom's sister, Cherie Blaisdell, Conlon has worked at an optometrist's office in Kittery for almost 20 years; his wife, Doris Hennesey Blaisdell, has worked as an accountant for the Stage Neck Inn for 22 years, cousin Doug owns Blaisdell Yard Care and organizes the flea markets held at St. Aspinquid Lodge every Saturday while cousin Mike owns Atlantic Adjustors, a public insurance adjustment company for which he travels all around Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, allowing him to see how other similarly sized family farms are able to survive in the rapidly growing region.
Their fathers, Henry Blaisdell and the late James Blaisdell, who died in 2000, brothers to Charlotte, not only ran the dairy operation until 1968 when they changed to beef cattle, but also worked full time at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard until retiring. Henry is retired in name only, as he now works full time on the farm and manages the business end with son Tom.
A little bit of family history
Throughout the 1800s farming was a way of life for most families in York. Back then, the Blaisdell farm was not unlike most others where the family subsisted on the farm and sold livestock, grains and vegetables and harvested timber.
Mike said although the family members now work full-time jobs in addition to maintaining the farm, things are definitely easier now then they were for those who had to survive solely by the farm.
"They had a lot harder life," he said.
Charlotte said she remembers a great grandmother who sold eggs and butter "to buy a new hat and buy a train ticket to go down to Philadelphia" where she had relatives to visit.
Her father, James Blaisdell, and his brother Edward began Blaisdell Brothers Farm after their father, George Blaisdell, died early in 1920, in an effort to diversify and expand operations in order to keep the family farm intact.
The family business included an ice pond, from which the brothers housed and delivered ice to families and businesses, including summer hotels, such as the Marshall House in York Harbor. The dairy operation grew when they purchased the delivery routes and pasteurizing equipment from Goodale's Farm and began daily deliveries of milk to families, businesses and the town schools.
During the tough years of the Great Depression, Charlotte said her father would let people wait to pay until they could.
Brothers James and Edward continued to expand the business when they built a slaughter room and smokehouse. Between the farmhouse and the white barn, which was built in the early 1900s, an L-shaped addition housed a small family grocery store, selling meats, dairy and vegetables.
James's children, Charlotte, and the next generation of Blaisdell Brothers, James and Henry, grew up working on the farm. In addition to their full-time jobs, Charlotte worked at the grocery store for nine years, and James and Henry managed the dairy and milk delivery.
James and Henry adapted the family business again when they discontinued dairy operations in 1968 and switched to beef cattle, which the families continue to raise to this day to sell to local families for freezer beef.
Growing up on the farm
The next generation of Blaisdells, Henry's children, Tom and Cherie, and James' children, David, Doug, Michael and Matthew, grew up in houses along both sides of Southside Road, which Cherie jokingly called the "Blaisdell commune."
"We used to get teased at school for living in the Blaisdell commune," said Cherie. But, she added, with an older brother and cousins to watch out for her she didn't feel too threatened. "I felt very safe."
It was hard to get away with much with family members all around looking out for you.
"There were more sets of eyes," remembers Cherie.
The cousins also grew up working on the farm where chores are performed morning and night without question.
"We still wake up with the sun no matter what," said Cherie.
Although most people might think that spending their days off from work mowing hay would be a sacrifice of well-earned leisure time, Tom clearly enjoys his work outdoors on the farm. His employer even allows him to come into work on rainy day during those weeks of vacation and take a different day off when it's sunny out again.
Tom's wife Doris said when she first started dating Tom she made the mistake of taking the same weeks off from work as he did, in hopes that they would be able to spend more time together.
"I never saw him," she said.
Next week, read about what it takes to own and run a family farm in York today.
