Otis Family Farm

The old "Hanging Rock Road" in Maromas.
Hanging Rock Road was a major road that ran through Maromas, but is now long out of use.

Notice the scattered remains of the old cobble on the path.   

The Otis Family Farm was located in the Maromas District of Middletown, Connecticut. Actually, the old granite foundation of the Otis home still stands and is now on privately-owned property. 

Back in the day, Maromas was a sparsely-settled, yet close-knit farming community along the Connecticut River in the southeast section of Middletown. Dairying, and the raising of sheep and grains were the principal means of livelihood.

Here, the river was bordered by grassy meadows, with a few level stretches of land, but mostly there were large areas of hills, valleys, and ridges, dotted with enormous chunks of bedrock and quartz. Fish were abundant, wildlife abounded, and a wide variety of trees grew in the native Maromas woods—a few of my favorite worth mentioning are linden (aka basswood), wild cherry, wild apple, and oak.

Daniel Otis grew up on his family’s farm in one of the northern-most parts of Maromas, high up in the hills at the bend in the river where massive walls of glacial rock jut out from the steep hillsides. He lived in a beautiful area, where a magnificent panorama of hills and valleys stretched out in every direction.

The family kept a few farm animals for milk and meat, along with some bee hives. Preserves were canned, hard-cider was made, and some type of grain was grown (the will of Erastus Otis lists tools and implements that point to this).

To be exact, Erastus' will mentions that the family owned one cow, one calf, two goats, one horse, one hive of bees, four empty bee hives, seven barrels of cider and twelve dry casks, along with one pork barrel, one beef barrel, and one fish barrel. The will also mentions that they had eleven milk pans and one strainer in their possession, as well as a wood churn and a tin churn. So, just like all rural farming folk, they milked their own cow and made butter. 

According to the will of Erastus S. Otis, the Otis Farm consisted of a total of 19 ½ acres:

Ash Tree Lot: 9 acres

Russell Lot: 7 acres

Butler Hill Lot: 3 ½ acres

The remains of an old ash tree on the Otis property.

Above is a photograph of the remains of a long-dead ash tree on the Otis property. This tree most-likely lent its name to the "Ash Tree Lot," which consisted of 9 acres. No doubt this tree was magnificent in its day, sheltering the home with its leafy canopy in the summer and offering a painterly blaze of color in the autumn. I bet it was a great climbing tree too! I can picture a young Daniel Otis scrambling up its limbs.