Wadsworth Farm

Nicely located along the SNETT. Wadsworth Farm is one of the first farms in Franklin. As with most New England farms, they originally produced a variety of crops and animals, both for sale and home consumption. Wadsworth had another role, as a railroad station on the rail line from Boston to Hartford. In the early 1900's there were busy double tracks, and Wadsworth Station had a water tower, fed by a spring, where the steam engines stopped. The village of Wadsworth was located here, with a general store and post office alongside the tracks. In the 1930's the Bishop family bought the farm, and it produced eggs and vegetables, later becoming a small dairy. From the 1950's to the 1980's Den Bishop raised vegetables for the old Almacs supermarkets, and ran a small sawmill. Since that time Wadsworth Farm has produced greenhouse crops and the fields have been used by Cook's Valley Farm to raise vegetables. Today there are four families, all direct descendants of Alice (Bishop) Root and her husband Melvin, that live on the land. Marilyn (Root) Cook works a portion of the farm with her husband, Warren, and son, Nate. This page is our way to introduce friends to the farm and our efforts to revitalize the agricultural life and history of the land. Dan puts his heart and soul into consistently growing beautiful plants and produce. Through this page, we'll showcase his greatest offerings and we'll track life and changes on the farm with Pat (Root) Morse, her son Daniel Morse (grandson of Melvin & Alice Root), his wife Kristen, and children Brian and Zackary. We are also dedicated to protecting open space. Today our sixty acres forms an entrance point for the 800 acre Franklin State Forest, and the old railroad bed is now part of the state owned rail trail system (SNETT).