The Asa Cheney farm, a
landmark at Belleview on Route 17, is part of a farm
tradition in the Cheney family which began in 1807.
The building, built
bout 1845, have been in the Cheney family for 72 years. The 104-acre
dairy farm borders a 600-acre plot purchased for $2 an
acre in 1807 by Albigence Cheney,
great-great-great-grandfather of five Cheney children
active and well-known in farm activities today.
According to John C.
Cheney, 79, oldest surviving member of the family who
farms with his son and grandchildren, the Asa Cheney
farm was first purchased from the Holland Land Company
in 1807 by George Bly.
He lived with his family in a log cabin in a
now-abandoned road which cut through the farm.
Meanwhile, Albigence
Cheney, the family bachelor, the same year took a
600-acre plot which extended north to what is now the
Chautauqua Brick Company property, and built himself a
log cabin near what is now the right-of-way of the old
J.W. and N.W. Railroad.
Also that same year,
Jonathan Cheney, brother of Albigence and forefather of
the present owners, settled across the lake at Cheneys
Point. His
son, Calvin Cheney, moved across to help Albigence with
his farm, and on the settler’s death fell heir to the
land.
Calvin Cheney built
himself a home, part of which was later moved and now
forms a section of the present Clarence Pickard home.
About 1845, Daniel and
Harry Windsor purchased the 104-acre- plot from George
Bly, and another section, now the Oscar Caywood farm a
few hundred feet to the north, from the Cheneys. They built the
two houses and farm building, still in use, with Harry
occupying the farm pictured above and Daniel taking over
the Caywood place.
Harry Windsor sold the
Asa Cheney farm to Griswold Hatch, a “gentleman farmer”
who was noted for wearing white shirts and a silk top
hat.
The first Asa Cheney,
son of Jonathan Cheney, took over his own fifth share of
the land after his father’s death, and purchased he
share of this twin brother, Abel, and the 104-acre plot
from Griswold Cheney, about 1877. The farm has
been in the Cheney family since then.
John Cheney remembers
that he was 7 years old when he moved with his father,
Asa, and family into the home. His part in
the moving was to carry the cat in a flour sack, so it
wouldn’t run back.
(It didn’t.)
Late in the 90s when
John Cheney was 26, his father deeded him the adjacent
65-acre plot to the north where he and Mrs. Cheney still
live. They
were married in 1900, and in 1902 he built the house
with lumber taken from the farm. He built the
barns in 1906.
The two adjacent farms
were operated as one by the family, and still are, Mr.
Cheney says. In
1927, he purchased the farm from his father’s estate and
deeded it on to his son, Asa Cheney, 2d, the present
owner.
The joint farm, now
included 300 acres, serves as pasture for 63 head of
dairy cattle, and the Cheneys also raise most of their
own grain, corn and hay.
As a sideline, they harvested a 3,000 bushel
potato crop last year.
John's five
grandchildren are carrying on the family's farm
tradition. William Cheney, the eldest, isa 4-H
agent at Watertown; John Cheney 2d, helps his father and
grandfather in operating the farms; and the three girls,
Anabel, Donna and Edith, all in school, are active 4-H
Club members