Miscellaneous, Bush Family Homestead, Bainbridge, NY

Chenango County Homestead
Bush Farm, Bainbridge, NY

H.H. Lyon

 

 

 

One of the old-time farms along the Upper Susquehanna River in Chenango County has been known for many years as the Bush Farm.  It has been occupied by the Bush family and their descendants since 1790, and by someone by that name until recently.  Not many years ago, upon the death of Hon. Joseph Bush, it came into the hands of a nephew, Harrison L. Beatty.  It was not until this ownership that I had ever given the farm much attention.

 

The present farm has 135 acres but I think there was a time when Mr. Bush owned more land, around 250 acres.   Not especially  noteworthy because of size and perhaps not because of its nearly level flat land and naturally productive soil, it has to be well farmed to be really productive.  Mr. Beatty could hardly qualify as a real farmer himself.  He had inherited a very considerable property from his uncle, but he went to studying good farming, asking questions and making good use of what he learned as well as bringing good judgment to bear on the subject.  Unlike many wealthy proprietors he meant to make the business pay.  He kept a good farmer to head the actual farming, did not dictate too much, and on the big barn with the other farm buildings, he had in large letters the words:  "Harmony Farms."  I think he tried to make that real. 

 

I am using the past tense, for Harrison Beatty died a few years ago [died 25 February 1919], although really a young man, and the farm property he willed to another Mr. Beatty with whom I am less acquainted.  Harry, we all called him, used some of the money that came to him to improve conditions and appearances.  This is evidenced by a glance at the picture of the home which he improved.  This was the owner's residence about a half mile from the pleasant little village and a few rods from the farm buildings.  Other uses were made of some of the money for the benefit, in appearance at least, of the town and village in which he took special interest.  And I doubt if the fortune was impaired, for this man had a very good eye for business.  There were good crops grown and 25 years ago only a few farmers headed their herds with purebred sires.  Beatty did, and there his influence did a service to the farming community.  Not infrequently such estates are used in a manner that teaches what not to do.

 

This territory is within the one hundred square miles that the State set apart for "Vermont Sufferers," those who lost when the settlement was reached relinquishing the present State of Vermont from the old claims of New York and Vermont became a separate State.  This area was given to certain individuals and one square mile where the village stands was sold by the recipient at 18 cents an acre.  The land passed through various hands and about a hundred acres of this Bush Farm was bought from a real Vermonter by the name of Stowell.  The first Bush, named Elnathan (wife's name Vashti), came from Massachusetts about 1784, and brought with him four children.  He had been sheriff in Sheffield, Mass., under the king, but his sympathies were American; moreover his son Charles had been a soldier all through the Revolution.

 

The house shown in the picture may be the oldest frame house in the County, certainly in the nearby community.  But the frame barn just back and not shown is still older, it having been built in 1791, while building the house was delayed until about 1800.  Up to that time the family occupied a log house of which nothing remains.  This house that I am emphasizing has been modernized as to the exterior, but most of the interior, frame, shape and size of the rooms, remains without change.  While it is situated a full half mile from the present village, it seems to have been the central point in 1800, and perhaps was thought to be the central site of the coming village.  A large hall was included where exhibitions (they would be movies today) were held and other public uses, although I think no town meetings or places used as a hotel were ever considered here.  But it was a central point for some time.  A store stood near by and a schoolhouse was not far distant.  The coming of the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike Road probably changed most of this to the point now central as the village.