Fosterfields
Fosterfields, also known as Fosterfields Living Historical Farm, is a farm and open-air museum at the junction of Mendham and Kahdena Roads in Morris Township, New Jersey. The oldest structure on the farm, the Ogden House, was built in 1774. Listed as the Joseph W. Revere House, Fosterfields was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 20, 1973, for its significance in art, architecture, literature, and military history. The museum portrays farm life circa 1920.
United States Navy officer, adventurer and author Joseph Warren Revere, a grandson of Paul Revere, was a significant owner of the property. During Revere's ownership he designed and built an 1854 Carpenter-Gothic mansion titled "The Willows."
In 1881 Charles Grant Foster, a New York commodities broker, purchased the property and developed it into a Jersey cattle farm entitled "Fosterfields." His daughter, Caroline Rose Foster, spent 98 years living and working on the property, enjoying carpentry, fishing, and civic engagement during the Gilded Age of Morristown.
While writing her will in 1974, Caroline Foster arranged to bequeath the land to the Morris County Park Commission following her death, with the intent of making the property an educational farm. Upon Foster's death in 1979, the Park Commission received the farm. The boundary was increased on October 9, 1991. It was listed as a contributing property of the Washington Valley Historic District on November 12, 1992.
History
Lenape ownership
Around 1000 the land was inhabited by Munsee Lenape people. Circa 1500, Morris County was part of the Lenapehoking. Arrowheads found in Munsee encampments throughout the Washington Valley suggest that they hunted wolf, elk, and wild turkey for game. They likely ate mussels from the Whippany River.In the 17th century Munsee fishermen made an annual pilgrimage from the Washington Valley to the Minisink Island on the Delaware River, in part to procure shellfish. Caroline Foster has said it is likely that Munsee farmers cultivated corn in the summertime in the fields of the Washington Valley.
In 1757 colonists of the "New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians" forcibly relocated some 200 Lenape from the Washington Valley to Brotherton, New Jersey. In 1801, some members of the tribe voluntarily traveled to join the Oneidas' reservation in Stockbridge, New York after receiving an invitation from the Oneidas. However, colonists again expelled Lenape families in Stockbridge to Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1822.
Ogden Farm
Circa the 1750s, Samuel Roberts had purchased over of land in Washington Valley, including what became Fosterfields and the nearby Ranney farm. Caroline Foster has stated that Roberts enslaved three Black people; no further details are provided.In 1774, Samuel Roberts's stepson Jonathan Ogden married Abigail Gardiner. That year, Roberts gave him 150 acres, presumably as a wedding gift. Like his stepfather, Ogden enslaved three Black people. A farmhouse was built to house Ogden, likely by carpenters he enslaved.
The farmhouse is situated on the now-defunct Road to Jacob Arnold's. The road was named for Jacob Arnold's Tavern, a historically significant 1740s tavern then located at the Morristown Green.
Although the farmhouse burned down in 1915, the original one-story foundation from 1774 still remains.
In 1776, Ogden was listed as a landowner in Morristown. He was a county judge, and from 1802 to 1804, represented Morris County in New Jersey Legislature. He invested in the First Presbyterian Church's purchase of the Morristown Green.
Revolutionary War
During the Revolutionary War winter of 1779–1780, General Washington stationed four regiments of artillery, field pieces, forges, and machine shops in nearby Burnham Park. Washington directed Henry Knox, Continental Brigadier general, to be in the proximity of the artillery park. Knox either used the Ogden farmhouse or the Samuel Roberts house as his home and headquarters.Samuel Roberts and Jonathan Ogden fought in the American Revolutionary War.
Slavery
Foster claims that Washington Valley households usually enslaved one person per twelve-person family.Circa 1825, Thomas, Neal, and Ibbe were Black persons on the plantation enslaved by Jonathan Ogden. Ogden died in 1825 at the age of 82. Jonathan Ogden put his wife Abigail and son Charles in charge of enforcing his will. In his will, Ogden stipulated "my wife Abigail have the time and services of my three blacks – Thomas, Neal, and Ibbe – during her life." It is unclear whether Thomas, Neal, and/or Ibbe were freed after the death of Abigail Ogden. Sources do not indicate when the farm discontinued use of enslaved labor.
Fire
On June 10, 1915, the Ogden house burned to the ground due to a mattress being placed too close to a stove pipe. Foster recalled:I woke up in the morning early and heard screams and shouts and I jumped up and you see the thing blazing...It took three days to burn, it was all solid oak... I had draw a plan and I told him as near as I could how the thing looked.In 1915, the Ogden house was rebuilt based on Caroline Foster's memory of its appearance before the fire.
Woods family
The historic Ogden house continued to be used as a residence, even after Revere built The Willows in 1854.From 1918 to 1927, the historic Ogden house was occupied by the Woods family. Edward Woods emigrated to the U.S. from Cornwall, England in 1909 and began working at Fosterfields in 1910, eventually being promoted to farm superintendent and moving into the Ogden House. Woods was paid a monthly salary of $95.
His wife Agnes Woods arrived in 1916 and was paid to provide food for the farmhands, usually Irish immigrants, at 25 cents a meal. The house did not have running water during this time, requiring the Woods family to pump water into buckets and bring it up to the kitchen.
The Woods family used a 1915 wood stove range to prepare family recipes, including biscuits with gravy and pasties. Due to their portability, Agnes Woods carried pasties to the farmhands working in the fields. As of 2022, farm staff demonstrate the functional wood stove in educational cooking programs.
The Willows
The Willows refers to a mansion commissioned by Joseph Warren Revere, completed in 1854.Ogden farm purchase
A 1851 issue of The Jerseyman describes the estate, one year prior to its purchase by General Joseph Warren Revere:In 1852, Revere purchased the Ogden Farm from then-landowner Platt Rogers for $6,000. Revere was a naval officer. He is the grandson of Paul Revere who was best known for his role in the American Revolutionary War. His other travels took him to Mexico, Cuba, Liberia, France, Germany, Greece, Egypt, Portugal, Spain, Algeria, and Italy. Revere chose to settle in New Jersey.
Construction
Revere planned to construct a new, customized mansion. It would later be known as The Willows, due to the large grove of willows in the woods surrounding the property.Revere chose a site about west of the Ogden house, upon a picturesque slope overlooking the farm. He contracted local master carpenter Ashbel Bruen of Chatham to construct the home. It has deeply pitched crossing gabled roofs and its front door faces southeast.
The design of The Willows resembles Gevase Wheeler's 1849 Olmstead House. In his pattern book Rural Homes of 1851, British architect Gervase Wheeler published his pattern for Henry Olmstead's then-$3,000 house "about a mile and a half" from East Hartford, Connecticut. Historian Renée Elizabeth Tribert argues that either Revere or Bruen undoubtedly owned a copy of the book and based it on Wheeler's design. The end result reflected Gothic Revival style – specifically, Carpenter Gothic. Revere hoped to retire on the estate.
While Bruen constructed the Willows from 1852 to 1854, the Revere family temporarily lived in the Ogden house. During this time, Thomas Duncan Revere was born, on November 22, 1853.
Written on August 7, 1854, Bruen's construction contract stated:
Bruen's construction of The Willows was completed in 1854, when the Reveres moved in. Norway spruces were planted around the mansion.
A self-taught artist, Revere likely painted the elaborate tromp l'oeil murals in the dining room, which were later maintained by the Foster family. The dining room murals include still lives, the Revere family crest, and a bouquet of baguettes. Revere also painted what appear to be wooden Gothic arches onto many of the walls.
In 1861, the Civil War prompted Revere to voluntarily join the Union military. Revere became Union Army General; he was commander of the 7th New Jersey Infantry Regiment and 2nd New Jersey Infantry Regiment. In 1872, injuries forced Revere to move to Morristown.
A January 9, 1873 letter from President Grant's secretary is addressed to Revere at "The Rancho," suggesting this was another nickname of The Willows.
Tenants
From 1872 to 1881, the Reveres rented The Willows out to tenants. Among these tenants was fiction author Bret Harte. Harte drew inspiration from his time in Morristown to write 1877 novel Thankful Blossom, a regionalist historical romance that takes place in Morristown.On April 20, 1880, Revere died of a heart attack while on a ferry to New York.
Fosters' ownership
From 1878 to 1880, Brooklyn Heights-based warehouse and grain dealer Charles Grant Foster rented The Willows, possibly to provide his wife with medical care for tuberculosis. In 1881, following Revere's death, Charles Foster purchased the entire property.In 1882, Foster purchased two adjoining farms: the Gribbon Farm on the east and the Nathaniel Wilson Farm on the west. He managed the farm while continuing to work in New York City and Morristown. Foster can be considered a gentleman farmer. His family lived and entertained guests in The Willows, Revere's former estate.
In 1882, to establish his dairy farm, Foster and his brother began imported purebred Jersey cows from the British Isle of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands. By 1883, the herd numbered around 70 head of cattle.
Foster invested in progressive farming technologies of his time. In 1883, he build an ensilage pit to feed cows during the winter, which demonstrated his investment in modern ideas. Other technology included kerosene-powered egg incubation, crop rotation, and steam-engine fodder choppers and water pumps.
In 1884, Caroline Foster was brought to the Isle; she later recalled, "We traveled from one village to another in horse and buggy, buying one cow here and one cow there." By 1884, the Fosters' herd had about 100 head.
Circa 1900, Foster affixed a wooden plain-front wall telephone to the hall of The Willows. Presumably, this investment allowed him to keep in contact with his office in New York.
Charles Foster participated in the American Jersey cattle trading industry, as evident by journal advertisements. Foster's herd was registered with The American Jersey Cattle Club; he traded with breeders Jeremiah Roth of Allentown, Pennsylvania; John T. Foote of Springbrook Farm, Morristown; and Louis Gillespie of Tower Hill, Morristown. An August 1900 advertisement in The Country Gentleman reads:
FOSTERFIELD'S HERD JERSEYS.
FOR SALE—COWS and HEIFERS, all my own breeding, and a choice lot in every way. Nearly every one sired by bulls...with butter tests of 14 lb. and upward, and served by bulls of the same standard. Will sell singly or a carload. Also for Sale, Bulls out of Tested Cows. Address
CHARLES G. FOSTER
Post-Office Box 173, Morristown, Morris Co., N.J.
A similar September 1919 advertisement was posted in Home and Field Illustrated:
Fosterfield's Herd Registered Jerseys.Foster maintained a daily farm journal for 40 years. Foster employed farmhands and coachmen to work on the property. An example of Foster's employees were the Woods family, English immigrants from Cornwall; more details are provided above. Andrew Gibbons, the Irish coachman, is another employee of the Foster's; a reenactor portrayed Gibbons in a 2017 Irish history event.
FOR SALE—Young Cows. Heifers, due to be fresh this summer and later.
Calves, both sexes, very attractive.
Come and see them or write
CHARLES G. FOSTER
P. O. Box 173, Morristown, Morris Co., N.J.
File:Caroline Rose Foster's Temple of Abiding Peace 2021, Fosterfields, New Jersey.jpg|thumb|In 1916, Caroline Foster manually constructed the Temple of Abiding Peace, a Cape Cod style cottage, as well as its adjoining garden.