Hubbell Family Farm Day Celebrates Nearly 180 Years on the Farm

by Robert Brune

     With the sun shining on another perfect weekend in the northern Catskills, Hubbell Family Farm Day this past Saturday could not have been more delightful.

     Arriving at Hubbell Farm, the air was filled with the aroma of fresh barbecue and the warm, welcoming smile of Barbara Hubbell, greeting each person as if family were arriving for a holiday gathering. Barbara claims she does not have an official role on the farm, but her naturally kind and focused demeanor offered an early glimpse into a family operation where everyone seems to find a way to contribute.

     This region of upstate New York is frequently characterized by people generous enough to extend a helping hand to their neighbors. Spending an afternoon around the Hubbell family was a testament to that tradition, with a community reputation seemingly as enduring as the beautiful landscape their family has shaped since the mid-1800s.

     In the early afternoon, Burr Hubbell gathered visitors for a tour of a property holding more stories than could possibly fit into one afternoon. Burr, a sixth-generation Hubbell, and Kevin Hubbell, representing the seventh generation, led visitors through nearly 180 years of family and agricultural history.

     “This farm has been in the family since 1848,” Burr explained as he traced its beginnings to the aftermath of the Anti-Rent War, when changes in New York land laws helped tenant farmers purchase property previously controlled by large landowners. His branch of the Hubbell family had been considering leaving for Ohio before instead purchasing the property that remains in the family today.

      The arrival of the railroad across from the farm in 1870 transformed what had largely been subsistence farming. Produce, lumber, stone and other products could suddenly reach eager New York City markets. Burr explained that the railroad brought prosperity to Catskills farms for roughly 50 years, adding, “That’s where the money came from,” that allowed the family to build and expand much of what visitors see on the property today.

      That entrepreneurial spirit became evident at nearly every stop. A large green building now serving as the farm store was once a machine shop. Burr’s great-uncle purchased a new Maxwell automobile in 1907, and by 1911 the family was selling Maxwells from the farm. “There’s always been some sort of entrepreneurial thing going on here,” Burr said, pointing to a history that extended from farming into automobile sales, gasoline and mechanical work.

     Nearby were Model A “doodlebugs,” homemade tractors created by modifying automobiles during the Depression when farmers often could not afford factory-built tractors. Burr explained that his brothers continue collecting the machines today, preserving yet another reminder of the ingenuity required to keep farms operating through difficult economic times.

      The tour also revealed how much work once went into seemingly simple necessities. A woodshed had to be filled each summer to supply household stoves through winter. Laundry was washed by hand in a washroom and hung outside on copper wires supported by repurposed telephone poles. Water continues to travel from a spring through an extensive gravity-fed system maintained by the family.

      Kevin later took over portions of the tour, explaining how another machine shop began as a wagon repair building designed so an entire team of horses and its wagon could pass through the structure. The building eventually evolved along with the farm, becoming a place for repairing bulldozers, excavators and other heavy machinery.

     The cider mill offered perhaps the clearest example of the Hubbells’ determination to keep old traditions working rather than simply displaying them. Beginning Sept. 26 and continuing on select Saturdays through October, families can make appointments to bring apples for pressing. Apples travel by conveyor to an upstairs grinder before dropping into the press, with the juice eventually bottled downstairs by members of the family.

      The entire operation is powered by a 1915 Fairbanks hit-or-miss gasoline engine. Kevin described the experience of standing inside the working mill as being surrounded by “old machinery working, and old practice being done,” with the vibration and hum of the building carrying visitors back into another era.

      Burr said the cider mill has operated since at least the late 1870s and may be the oldest continuously operated cider mill in the country. For him, working with machinery handled by generations of Hubbells creates a connection that cannot be replicated. Thinking about the possibility that an ancestor once pulled the same lever he operates today, Burr simply said, “You can’t buy that.”

     That connection between generations remains essential to keeping the farm alive. Barbara explained that responsibilities across the property are divided among family members according to their abilities, while outside employment and the family’s construction businesses help cover taxes and expenses. Barbara summed up the operation simply by saying, “It takes the whole family.”

     Maintaining a farm today also requires adapting old traditions to modern realities. Burr recalled maple syrup production during his childhood, when gathering sap required numerous family members moving through the woods with drills, spiles, buckets and other equipment. Today, tubing and modern tools dramatically reduce that workload. Burr acknowledged that practicality is essential to the farm’s survival, explaining, “It’s only by doing less labor that we are able to keep this all going.”

     There was not much leisure time growing up on the farm either, but Burr remembered how the changing seasons kept the work from becoming monotonous. There was always wood to split or another job waiting, but the work itself changed throughout the year. “Most days, there was some kind of work to be done,” Burr said, recalling occasional opportunities to swim in the pond or go fishing before returning to whatever task the season required.

      Kevin completed the tour by leading visitors past the Berkshire pigs and into the pasture, where Scottish Highland cattle rested beneath the trees away from the midday sun. Both had welcomed young approximately three months earlier. Kevin also hopes to eventually add Jacob sheep, an ancient British breed recognizable for its striking piebald coat and multiple horns.

     Family Farm Day ultimately offered something larger than a tour of historic buildings, machinery and livestock. It demonstrated how a farm survives across seven generations through adaptation, ingenuity and a willingness to work together. Nearly 180 years after the Hubbells purchased the property, the machinery still runs, the livestock still graze, the maple sap still flows and the family continues finding ways to make it all work.