I believe this was the Farm of Fred and Iris Russell at the very beginning of the Center Limestone Road in Fort Fairfield. I hand picked for Fred in the 70's. Eventually worked my way up to work on the back of a barrel truck and we worked in the basement of that biggest barn during the winter, sorting, bagging and loading trailers.

Yes, Fred Russell, later years Jeff Thibeau.

This is my house.
The Fred Russell farm. Now owned by EJ Dorsey. It looks a lot different now. The house was renovated and an addition added in the 90's. Only 1 of the out buildings remains today.
Center Limestone Rd.

Funny thing..I worked for Fred for yrs. Got kicked out of the field and the back of the pick up truck and still got my PHD ( potato house degree ) from Fred. Had a lot of good times working for Fred.

Fred was a good guy, for sure. And it was like heaven to see Iris come with a basket of candy bars in the afternoon!

Celeste and I were blessed to know Fred Russell and his family through my father, Wayne Thibeau. Fred became too sick to harvest the crop in the mid 80's and we struck a deal to purchase the land, growing crop, harvest it and retain his customers. The farm had never seen a potato harvester and the rocks were plentiful! Shortly thereafter, Fred passed and the family wanted Celeste and I to be in the home since we had purchased the farm. We were blessed with some good years in the potato business and were able to buy the homestead and remaining 30 acres. The history in the home and the outbuildings was significant and we attempted to preserve the integrity of what we could as our family grew. The barn/potato storage was beginning to show significant structural damage and JR McGillan tore it down for us. The home was remodeled in 1991 by Sayers and Reed, outstanding craftsmen in their trade. We added the same exact beautiful trimwork in the new areas, retained the original sink, and used one of Fred's old hardwood planks used to slide barrels on to make a bar between the kitchen and dining area. We uncovered and refinished all of the beautiful hardwood floors in the home. The 2 story garage to the right had hardwood floors upstairs and housed pickers back in the day. The blacksmith shop still remains today. And the taller building in the back corner was an actual slaughter house with the existing wheel above the first floor. Our family has great memories of that old homestead and we were so pleased to hear that EJ had purchased the home as we had invested our lives in caring for and preserving a small part of Aroostook county.

A portion of this farm was cleared in 1870-72 by Benjamin and Clarissa Woodard of New Brunswick, Canada, and the main house was in place by the mid-1870s. Not sure why, but the cellar room under the extreme left part of the main house, for decades, consisted of stacked, slate stones and a dirt floor, while the rest of the cellar rooms and floors were concrete. Could there have been a cabin or smaller house originally?

The Woodards built the house and the connecting woodshed and barn. Not sure about the long machine shed, to the right, or the slaughterhouse. If you look closely at the photo, you can see the remains of another shed between the slaughterhouse and machine shed.

The farm was sold in 1894 to Calvin Rich, to William Maines in 1902, to George W. Kinney in 1906, and to Forest L. Spear of Limestone in 1912. Forest and his wife Fern (Lundy) Spear worked the farm until 1947 when it was sold to their nephew, Fred F. Russell. Fred and Iris (Emery) Russell managed the farm until the 1980s. Then it was sold to Jeff and Celeste Thibeau.

Forest Spear moved a field barn using horses, logs, ropes and men, and attached that to the back of the barn that was attached to the shed and house. He built the stable attached to the right of the barns. He also built the machine shop (blacksmith shop) and the garage where men who worked for him during planting and digging slept in the two second-story rooms, heated by a small wood stove. He and Fern had the hardwood floors installed in the house; the interior and exterior door and window trims were from the Woodard era.

Forest was part owner of Kyle and Spear, a food market in Fort Fairfield. He supplied the beef and had a small desk where he kept accounts inside the slaughterhouse.

The Spears had one daughter, Helen, a singer in New York City prior to her marriage. In the 1940s Forest had a cancer operation and the doctor told his wife and daughter that he had less than five years to live and needed to sell the farm. He didn't think he'd get his money out of it if he sold it to his nephew, but Fern told him that he should give Freddie a chance. By 1952, Fred and Iris had paid off the mortgage. Forest continued fishing and golfing in Maine and Florida, and outlived his doctor by several decades.

Fred and Iris were my parents, and I grew up on the farm along with my older brother Joe. We'd often see Uncle Forest and Aunt Fern. In the 1970s, one of Calvin Rich's daughters came back to visit as well and told my parents what fun she had there as a kid.

Fred and Iris Russell were my uncle and aunt. I went there to visit in the summer of 1964 and 1965 when I was staying with my uncle and aunt on the Emery dairy farm just up the hill from the Russell farm. It was a real nice farm with the huge barn and all of the outbuildings. The huge barn was gone shortly after it was sold.I have some nice memories of going there when I was about 9 or 10 years old.

That was my grandfather, hi Jane, long time no see or speak! I'm about to start my own farm in Southwest Florida, growing an abundant range of tropical fruits, veggies, various grains, and of course chickens and goats. Wow it's been so long! I wonder who cut down the trees on our 9 acres right near the farm.......