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Isacc Marshall Clayton gives his grandchildren, Theodore, Bonnie, and Trudy Mefferd, a ride on the big tractor in the summer of 1945. Grandfather Marshall's mother was a member of the Susquehannock tribe, natives of areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries from the southern part of what is now New York, through Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Susquehanna in Maryland.
Benjamin Mefferd and his wife. They farmed the original "Mefferd Farm" in Cross Keys, Pennyslvania, about ten miles from Shade Gap. (Their grandson, Theodore, met Violet Clayton in Shade Gap, and married her.) "Grandma Mefferd" is holding a butternut squash. Benjamin Mefferd is Andrew Mefferd's great great great grandfather on the paternal side of the family. Ann and Andrew Mefferd are following in the footsteps of their ancestors. Andrew's grandparents farmed in Shade Valley of Shade Gap, PA. The ancestral farm, purchased in 1929 by Andrew’s paternal great, great grandfather, Isacc Marshall Clayton, was 500 acres of hardwood-forested mountain and 200 arable acres. Grandma Violet Mefferd lived in the farmhouse until she passed away, and she was an endless source of information when it came to the old way things were done on the Mefferd land. She drove the mules and rode the binder for her family from the time her feet could reach the pedals until after she was married. Grandma Mefferd was a farm girl through and through.
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Isacc Marshall Clayton and his wife, Sophia Mae Clayton bought the Shade Gap farm in 1928. (They are Andrew Mefferd's great-great grandparents.) The farm became known as the Mefferd Shade Gap Farm. Marshall was a successful farmer and ran a big lumber business during the fall and winter. Isacc and Sophia had worked there as teenagers, and later bought the property. In this 1890s photo, Isacc and Sophia pose with their daughter, Abigail Clayton. Abigail later had a daughter of her own, Violet. Abigail died in a flu epidemic in 1928. Violet, then eight years old and both motherless and fatherless, begged her grandfather to go ahead with the purchase of the farm. Violet was raised by her grandparents as a Clayton. She met Theodore Mefferd circa 1936 and the two married. Violet Mefferd out-lived her husband, and she was able to pass on to her grandson Andrew "an endless source of information when it comes to the old way things were done on the Mefferd land." Violet drove the mules and rode the binder for her family from the time her feet could reach the pedals until after she was married. A farm girl through and through, she continued to live on the farm through 2007.
Black and white aerial photo above was taken in the early 1960s. Ann Mefferd also grew up on a farm. Her family farmed land in Ohio. (We'll add some images and background on the Ohio farm soon.
The present-day chickens of One Drop Farm do their part for history, following in the free-range tradition of past Mefferd farms. These Blue Wheaton bantams have found a warm spot by the rocks for their winter foraging. The location is at the new farm, in Maine. |
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One Drop Farm has a new greenhouse! Andrew's father, Steve Mefferd (right) helped with the construction project.
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