Shirley & Welch Easement
PLC Helps Preserve Working Farmlands in Goffstown
by Kelly Teevan
A long relationship has led to the protection of two neighboring farms on a historic Goffstown hill.
Paul Welch’s father bought the house and horse barn on Shirley Hill when Paul was about two years old. The seller was Shirley Johnson, who owned Shirley Hill House – a resort described in its brochure as “the Saint Moritz of America.” Two years later, the Storm of 1938 took the roof off the hotel, and Mr. Welch was able to buy more land when Mr. Johnson decided to close the resort.
Paul started working with chickens and a garden that sold vegetables when he was eight. He has worked on that land since then, running a large dairy herd until the barn burned, dramatically, in 1966 – with the national champion bull rescued at the last moment. Now Paul raises hay on three beautiful hilltop parcels, known for their views to Route 128 in Massachusetts, especially from the large granite Tipping Rocks, and views of Goffstown’s own Uncanoonuc Mountains. Paul breeds a few horses every year and looks after hay crops for neighbors.
Jim Shirley’s family, across the road, settled there in 1763, when Goffstown was just two years old. Many generations have lived and farmed there; the Shirley home is a landmark cherished by people all over town. The history of the Shirley family is, in a way, the history of the United States: some members serving in the Civil War (even a great-aunt named for Vicksburg); some moving west in the 1800s. Jim’s wife, Sara, now runs a produce farm (ShirleyFarm.com) using the community-supported agriculture (CSA) model, whereby 35 families share in the benefits and risks of the farm and farmer, keeping their spending local and greatly cutting food transport. Shirley Farm is one of the very few Bicentennial Farms in New Hampshire, meaning it’s been in production in the same family since before the Constitution.
In the early 1940s, Paul Welch attended the one-room Shirley Hill School, along with Jim Shirley’s two sisters, Mary and Connie. After awhile working by their homes, Jim and Paul came to see each other daily. Jim went off to college and law school, lived in Deerfield for 22 years, then returned to his family home with Sara in 1993.
Paul had felt the financial squeeze on a farmer with costs such as taxes, insurance, and building maintenance rising, and land value to builders rising. He eventually sold off a couple of parcels to keep his farm going. Knowing that the clock was ticking and wanting to preserve the land, Jim and Paul talked off and on about what feasible options might exist. Paul had his motivations: to keep the land open and working, as he’d always known it. And Jim had his: to protect the legacy of so many generations of families who’d worked that land—a feeling few of us can know.
The story gets more complicated at this point, as many groups came together with Paul and the Shirleys to conserve 100 acres of prime-quality working farmland, plus a 77-acre woodlot. Jim met with Carol Hall who was a representative of both Goffstown’s brand new Open Space Committee and the Russell Foundation, and a bold plan emerged. Given the statewide significance of the farm soils and the availability of local matching funds and generous landowner donations, the farms were strong candidates for federal grant funding, administered by the N.H. Natural Resources Conservation Service. About 18 months later, with the very special efforts of the Russell Foundation and support by Goffstown’s officials and taxpayers, and after many twists and turns, all the Welch fields and parts of the Shirley land are now protected by easements held by PLC.
Jim Shirley tells of a time long past when the two properties were probably both part of the Shirley Farm, “and this, in its way, reunites the old farm, forever.”
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