Casey Farm is a historic farm in

Saunderstown, Rhode Island Saunderstown is a small village and historic district in the towns of Narragansett and North Kingstown in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. Saunderstown has its own post office with the ZIP Code of 02874, which also includes a sma ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is now a historic museum property, operated by

Historic New England Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England a ...

, and is open to the public.

History

Casey Farm occupies a tract of land that has been undivided in 300 years of ownership. It extends the full width of the neck of land between the Narrow River and the West Passage of

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sma ...

. Its main house was built c. 1725–50 by Daniel Coggeshall, and became Silas Casey's when he married Coggeshall's daughter. The property remained in the hands of Casey descendants until it was given to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA, now

). The farm produced food for local and foreign markets. Located near

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

Casey Farm had access to materials imported from England, enabling its early owners to live in a fashionable manner. Prosperity ended with the burning of Newport during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, and the farm settled into a pattern of absentee ownership. Starting in the mid 19th century, the Casey family began to improve the farm. They leased the property to tenant farmers but retained two rooms in the house for their own occasional summer use, as they had come to regard the farm as their ancestral home. Casey Farm was also the summer home and subsequently the burial place of Civil War general

Silas Casey Silas Casey (July 12, 1807 – January 22, 1882) was a career United States Army officer who rose to the rank of major general during the American Civil War. Early life and military career Casey was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He gradua ...

, military engineer Thomas Lincoln Casey and Washington, D.C. architect Edward Pearce Casey. In 1955 the farm and Casey family papers were donated to the preservation organization

Visiting today

Today, hired farm hands raise

organic Organic may refer to: * Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity * Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ Chemistry * Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...

vegetables, herbs, and flowers for subscribing households in a

Community Supported Agriculture Community-supported agriculture (CSA model) or cropsharing is a system that connects producers and consumers within the food system closer by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alterna ...

program. The guided tour includes the farmyard and cemetery, where six generations of Caseys are buried. The farm is owned by

. The education personnel at Casey Farm also offer numerous programs for children during the school year and the summer. Staff members, which

calls "farm teachers," host various programs in the fall and springtime for schoolchildren. Casey Farm also partners with schools across Rhode Island by giving teachers and their students the opportunity to raise and hatch chicks in incubators each year. They call this partnership "Project Chick." During the summer,

has various summer camp offerings at Casey Farm for children between the ages of 3 and 13. These camps include week-long day programs and single-day programs.

References

External links

Historic New England website information
{{Historic New England Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island 1720s establishments in Rhode Island History of New England Cemeteries in Rhode Island Museums in Washington County, Rhode Island Farm museums in Rhode Island Buildings and structures in North Kingstown, Rhode Island Farms in Washington County, Rhode Island Historic New England National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Rhode Island

History

Visiting today

See also

References

External links