Breaking Ground

Farming is probably the oldest industry in the world. To turn the soil, the earliest farmers dragged a pointed stick through the ground, until the advancement of a harness, to which, in all likelihood was yoked a woman, while the man guided the big pointed plow-stick. Naturally, stronger animals would yield faster and more efficient work, and soon domesticated beasts were dragging a heavier plow, which by 1000 B.C. included a wrought-iron tip. Improvements in both tools and techniques came very slowly. Agriculture was interpreted as a “divine” process, and changes were often considered impious. In fact, early colonial American farmers worked the soil in much the same way as those of Julius Caesar’s day. A major break-through came with the first patent for a cast iron plow in America in 1797. However, farmers mistrusted the new cast plow. They said it "poisoned the soil" and fostered the growth of weeds. Further, it was not efficient – dirt would stick to the metal and have to be repeatedly cleaned off by hand. This caused problems when settlers began moving onto the western plains in the mid 1800s. There were miles of dense grass prairie, and a more efficient plow would be a necessity.

The problem of the plains was solved by a blacksmith from Vermont named John Deere. He had invented a blade which was self polishing, and by the time Eben W. Chaffee was ready to begin operations on the Great Plains of Dakota in 1876, John Deere was manufacturing about 75,000 plows a year. This was part of a significant confluence of historic factors: Vast tracts of affordable land; flat, rich, perfect, virgin loam; floods of immigrant labor; accessible mass transport to commercial markets; rising price of wheat due to declining wheat crops in the eastern U.S. and in Europe; and adequate, modern equipment – into this “perfect storm” of ingredients stepped Eben Chaffee, and he recognized the recipe for successful agrarian enterprise.

The first square-mile section of the Amenia and Sharon Land Company land in the Red River Valley of Dakota, 640 acres, was broken during the spring and summer of 1876, and re-broken (backset, or re-plowed at 90^o) that fall. The following spring, in March, 1877, Eben again left his wife, Amanda, and young son, Herbert, at home in Ellsworth, CT, and traveled to Dakota to oversee the first growing season. He brought with him a crew of men from the east, and hired Mr. R. Gallup, a Casselton liveryman, as foreman. The eastern company stockholders authorized a cash advance (mortgage on the land) for working capital, and with this Eben bought his seed, paid his labor crew, bought 25 horses, six wagons, thirteen plows, five harrows, four seeders, and four harvesters, plus other horse equipment and machinery. He also purchased lumber for a headquarters house, hired carpenters to build the house, bought beds and furniture, feed for the horses and food for the men. He was also paid a salary of $750. And he broke two and half more sections of land (1500 acres) to be ready for cultivation the following year. That first season, the Amenia and Sharon Land Company realized a passable yield of 15 bushels of grain per acre, for gross income of $5,495.83. This was not enough to pay dividends, but Mr. Chaffee was convinced they were onto something.

BONANZA

Back east, legends were springing up about these new great farms, the Bonanzas. For those used to farming small sections of rocky soil, the idea of endless fertile prairie was beyond imagination. So the stories grew, and railroad advertisers enlarged the drama, touting the glories of prairie farming and successfully drumming up business for the railroads as they brought in dazzled homesteaders and settlers. One reporter claimed “I’ve seen a man on one of our big farms start out in the spring and plow a straight furrow until fall. Then he turned around and harvested back.” Another boasted, “There is no position in the world I would more cheerfully undertake to fill than that of a BONANZA FARMER. During most of the year he lives in town in his own house or stops at the best hotels, smokes the best cigar, is full of good stories and takes life in an easy, jolly way….The farmer is the true aristocrat here – the man of means and elegant leisure.”

For Eben Chaffee, managing the Sharon & Amenia Land Company Farm was far from leisure. It was challenging and fulfilling work, and he was often out in the field with his men. He returned each successive summer, bringing more labor crew, and putting more acreage under the plow each year. His salary also increased slightly each year, to $1000 for 1878; $1200 for 1879; and $1500 for 1880. After this time, he was earning enough in dividends to forego any salary. It was his salary, though, in addition to his share of future profits that enabled Chaffee early on to acquire his own holdings of Dakota land and increase his personal fortune. Near the meandering Rush River, the office building, erected in the center of section 25, became general headquarters for dormitory and farming operations. In the summer of 1878, a blacksmith shop was added nearby, chiefly for repairs on company farm equipment, but outsiders were soon utilizing its services. On July 15, 1880, an agreement was completed to construct a spur of the Northern Pacific Railroad running north from Casselton, which would greatly increase the efficiency of transporting grain, and a train depot was built for the A&S Land Company. As soon as the depot was finished, Chaffee built a new company supply-post opposite the depot and moved his own office and headquarters there. The new train depot needed a name, and, thus honoring the original stockholders in the company from Amenia, NY, the prairie town of Amenia, Dakota Territory, was born.

Growing... and Growing...

The next summer, 1881, the town took a great leap forward. Nearly 25,000 acres were under cultivation, and storing all that grain as it waited for shipment was becoming an issue. The company approved a grain elevator to be erected near the train tracks, for collecting and storing company grain as well as that of neighboring farms. This was the beginning of the logical expansion into subsidiary enterprises. E.W.Chaffee’s in-law relative, Cornelius V.A. Reed, from the hometown of Amenia, NY, was hired as the engineer for the new elevator; though he had no technical training, he was a very good mechanic. C.V.A. Reed was the son of prominent local NY historian Newton Reed, and the younger brother of E.W.Chaffee’s son-in-law, John H. Reed. John Reed was married to Eben Chaffee’s daughter, Florence, and the Reeds had all recently become new stockholders in the Amenia and Sharon Land Company and were planning a trip to Dakota to see the operations for themselves. On April 9, 1881, just as the spring season was getting underway in Dakota, Eben’s daughter, Florence, at home in Ellsworth, CT, died from complications of childbirth, leaving a 3-day old infant and three other young children.

This, of course, was devastating news. It was a great distress for Amanda, Eben’s wife, who had lost their first baby daughter at age 3, many, many years ago. Florence and John Reed and their children had been living in the large colonial home in Ellsworth with her parents, Eben & Amanda and young Herbert, along with both Eben’s and Amanda’s elderly mothers. Amanda would assume care of her now motherless grandchildren, but the newborn, Henry, was adopted out. Edward and Emma (Reed) Gridley, old friends and associates from Amenia, NY, gave little baby Henry a loving home.

It was also difficult for Eben’s remaining young son, Herbert Fuller, age 16, to lose his beloved older sister. It was decided that young Herbert (Bert as he was affectionately called), should travel to Amenia, Dakota Territory (D.T.) with Newton and Cornelius Reed, accompanied as well by Cornelius’ maiden sister Mary. Herbert could be introduced to the family business, and spend the summer helping out in the office. He returned to spend each following summer there.

The blacksmith shop, just north of the first elevator, was doing a brisk business in keeping A&S farm equipment running smoothly, and was also bringing in income from neighboring farms. The elevator and store also subsidized the farming income.

E.W.CHAFFEE

Dealer in

Dry Goods, Groceries, Boots and Shoes

Flour, Feed, Hardware, etc.

Eben's supply store furnished Amenia & Sharon Company farmhands, but was also depended upon by new, smaller farms sprouting up in the area. The summer labor crews moved on after threshing in the fall, and Eben also returned home to Connecticut each fall, leaving only enough men to care for the livestock through the harsh winters. Each spring, by April 1, as the deep snows were beginning to melt into the prairie fields, Eben Chaffee would once again return to Dakota to oversee the new season’s plowing and planting.

Putting Down Roots

By 1885, the demands of managing such a large farming operation were complex, and Eben and Amanda decided to move permanently to Dakota to make Amenia their new home. They decided to claim a quarter section of land for themselves, so, when Eben returned to Dakota in April as usual, he arranged to have a claim shanty erected on the northeast corner of section 26, near the train tracks. Robert Reed, Eben’s grandson, later mentioned in an interview (1957) that the claim shack was originally a depot in the nearby town of Casselton (presumably until the new passenger depot was built in 1879), and the railway had it transported to Amenia for Mr. Chaffee. In July 1885, Amanda arrived with their son, Herbert, now age 20 and a June graduate from Williston Seminary, a scientific school at East Hampton, Mass. The Chaffee family spent the rest of the summer living in the claim shack, and Amanda returned once more to spend her last winter in Connecticut. The following spring, of 1886, she moved permanently to join her husband and son residing in Amenia, D.T., and also brought along her younger grandson, Robert Reed, age 12. His father, widower John Reed, and older brother Walter, age 15, had already made the move from Connecticut to Dakota two years before. The Reeds built a house west of the claim shack, and Eben and Amanda moved into their new residence above the company store.

(NOTE: All these names, and traveling back and forth from the Dakota territories to Connecticut, can become very confusing. But what is interesting about this is the deep connection Eben Chaffee had to his home community of Ellsworth/ Sharon, CT and Amenia, NY and his relational ties to so many. References and some old photographs show that lives and businesses were intertwined between Chaffee, Reed, Gridley, and Everett, for example, who show up over and over again in the Chaffee story. )

Nature Takes Its Course...

Something else was transpiring during the summer of 1887: A romance. Herbert Chaffee had accompanied his nephew, Walter Reed, to Oberlin College (Ohio) in January, where Walter was enrolling in courses there. Herbert had not intended to stay, but he happened to meet a young woman studying at the Conservatory of Music there, so he enrolled as well and spent the winter term at Oberlin, enjoying her company. Returning to Dakota in the spring, he corresponded often with the young woman, whose name was Carrie Constance Toogood. He stayed in Amenia until after the new church was dedicated, and then visited Carrie at her home in Manchester, Iowa, where they became engaged.

Herbert and Carrie were married in Iowa on December 21, 1887, and after finishing another term together at Oberlin College, moved to Amenia as husband and wife. Eben and Amanda moved into their own new home in the village, and Herbert and Carrie took up their residence in the living quarters above the store. Herbert was appointed Assistant Treasurer and Assistant Agent of the company, and began his work for the company in earnest.

But the stockholders back in New York and Connecticut were becoming impatient. The initial purpose of the Land Company had been to acquire the Dakota land, create a desirable community and then re-sell the land for a quick and hearty profit. Instead, they had been persuaded to invest in a gigantic farming operation. The easterners were not really interested in farming, and were ready to realize their profit, and move on. Especially now, with Chaffee’s resignation and the felt loss of leadership in North Dakota.

Since 1877, Dakota had been blessed with favorable rains and income had risen steadily; this had been quite adequate to pay expenses and dividends, and keep the eastern stock-holders hanging on. In 1886, for example, they received $42,245, nearly 50% of their paid-in capital. After 1888, however, several years of lack of rain caused income to drop, and by May of 1892, the eastern investors were disgruntled enough to bring formal action against E. W. Chaffee, to force a sale of the land and dissolution of the company. Eben Chaffee countered with a proposal to buy the entire property for $298,200, which, at the company meeting, was tabled unanimously. Had he succeeded, he would have become the single largest individual landowner in North Dakota.

The stockholders who were interested in liquidating the Farm all lived in the east, and were called ‘the eastern faction’. Those who came west, basically the Chaffee/Reed family, were interested in developing the bonanza farm, and became known as ‘the western faction.’ Leadership of the company had passed on to Eben’s son, Herbert Fuller Chaffee, and to his nephew, James Stuart Chaffee, who still lived in Sharon, CT. This created a management struggle, which continued until the company split and divided its assets, in 1895. In the meantime, the internal strife was too much for Eben Chaffee’s fragile health, and on October 19, 1892, while returning from a business trip to one of his farming operations north of Amenia, he stumbled out of his buggy, and died.

The torch of the Amenia and Sharon Land Company was officially passed along, and a new chapter began.

To learn more about Eben Chaffee, click here to read his biography.

For more pictures of Amenia, click here for the Photo Gallery

CHAPTERS OF OUR STORY

Introduction

Chapter 1: Chaffee Origins

Chapter 2: From the Mayflower to the Ousatonic

Chapter 3: From the Hills to the Plains

Chapter 4: E.W.C. and the A&S Land Company

Chapter 5: Herbert Fuller Chaffee - Genius of the Bonanza

Chapter 6: End of an Age