08/27/2026
In 1960, tragedy struck our family, forcing the farm to be sold at auction the following year. The new owners kept it operating as a dairy farm, hiring a local family to move on-site and manage the daily operations.
That family made the farm their home for 55 years until retiring and moving from the farm in 2016. That same year, I was blessed with the opportunity to buy back the buildings and a small piece of our original farmland. I named it The Front Porch Promise Farm and my husband and I built a venue where the original 1800s barn once stood. We built it as a gathering place for the Cassadaga Valley and community at large.
Today, our community gathers in this space alongside the family who called it home for over half a century. We will honor the memory of their oldest son, who poured his heart, time and hard work into the farm for so many of those years.
As I watched his daughter set up a memorial table of photographs this morning, I was reminded that the most precious legacy we leave behind is memories—ordinary, everyday moments that become healing medicine for hurting hearts in our time of loss.
My prayer today is that as family and friends say goodbye to a man they deeply loved and respected, their hearts will be filled with comfort, treasured memories, and gratitude for a life truly well lived—a life devoted to hard work, caring for others, and providing for those around him in the way only a dedicated farmer can.
The picture of tractors is brought to you by local residents who drove them to the FPPF and put them on display in honor of the man who was known by all as a man who could fix anything—-especially tractors.
Rest in peace dear friend. You will be missed but not forgotten.
