The Martha A. Maupin Farm which I now own has been approved as a Sesquicentennial Farm, having been in the family for 150 years. In fact it reached the 150-year mark in 2018. Martha purchased the farm in 1868. But this year I finally went through the process of applying for the Sesquicentennial status through the Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Program.
The families approved this year will be honored at a ceremony at the Oregon State Fair this month on Saturday, August 24 at 11 am in the Columbia Hall on the staged area. Fourteen families have been approved for Century status and two for Sesquicentennial status for 2024. Photo highlights for each award winner will be presented at the ceremony with a desert reception afterward.
The photo above shows Martha and her family in their early years on the farm in front of the house she had built soon after her 1868 purchase. That’s Martha standing on the front porch, her eldest son Cap on the horse. Cap became part owner with his brother Tom when their mother sold it to them in 1886. Then Cap became sole owner when he bought his brother’s share in 1894. From Cap it went to my father Eugene Fisher, Cap’s great-nephew, and my mother Marian in 1934, then to my sister Nancy and I, and finally to me when I bought my sister’s share in 2008.
Part of the application involved finding the documents to verify all those transitions, which can be a challenge. I had obtained some documents, like Martha’s original purchase, when I researched my book about her, A Place of Her Own.
But I was missing some of the documents, which took me back to the Douglas County, Oregon, County Clerk’s office to find the missing links.
The application also required a two- or three-page narrative of family history, including the transfers from one generation to another. My research for the book helped on the early part of that history. Memory served on later events, but I had to scour some local histories and the newfound documents to bring in the middle. The local histories had also helped with my book research.
Martha’s place has been a Century Farm since the 1960s, and I have been pleased to know that this was one of the few Century Farms in Oregon named for a woman, which seemed especially sweet since I’m the second woman to be its sole owner. Now it’s an Oregon Sesquicentennial Farm named for a woman.
I do love history, so it was an intriguing process, and I have a clearer view now of the farm’s history.
The sample of Martha’s purchase document shows the flowery writing one has to pore through in order to glean what you want to know.
In addition to the legal documents and narrative, the application required maps, and requested photos. I also sent a copy of my book about Martha, which the Program Coordinator said they would be very happy to have.
I’m excited to honor my great-great-grandmother Martha for her historic achievement of founding this treasure when it wasn’t easy for a woman to do such a thing.
Below are a couple of photos from the farm, our new hazelnut orchard and the old 1930s barn that still stands on the hillside, looking down to the river bottom. For more on those hazelnuts, see the story here.
