Farming 79 



ceiling, windows with deep seats looking east and in one 

 room a window looking south either side of the fireplace. 



"On the south end, the ground sloped so that there was 

 an easy entrance for barrows to the cellar, large and well 

 lighted, and used as a dairy. There was a small outbuilding 

 north of the house where was found a breast plate engraved 

 'The King's American Dragoon's,' laid away on a beam in 

 what had evidently been a stable. 



' ' The first time I ever saw Frederick was in February of 

 1848 when he came over to Holly Hill to tell Grandpa Per- 

 kins the news of the flight of Louis Philippe from Paris, just 

 received in New York. 



"Frederick was then settled on his farm with his Aunt 

 Maria Olmsted as housekeeper and provider for two jolly 

 green freshly imported Irish maids and three or four farm 

 laborers. We soon called on her and the families were very 

 friendly. At that time Grandpa occupied Holly Hill Farm 

 and Uncle Frank was living in South Brooklyn. John Hull 

 Olmsted had just graduated and had come to New York 

 to Dr. Willard Parker's office to study medicine. He came 

 to the farm for week ends and holidays bringing Charles 

 Brace generally and sometimes Frederick Kingsbury. By 

 the winter time I had grown so intimate with the Olmsteds 

 that it was arranged that I should pass Christmas at Hart- 

 ford on my way back from a visit in Boston, which I did. 



"In June his father, step-mother and half sisters Mary 

 and Bertha and young half brother Albert came to pass a 

 long season, bringing with them a fine span of horses and an 

 open carriage, the regular farm outfit being Old Black sub- 

 ject to blind staggers and not too speedy at best and an old 

 Rockaway. * f 



' ' Frederick was at this time 26 years of age full of life and 

 fun. He threw himself into farming with enthusiasm, in- 

 troduced system and order to his men, expecting for one 

 thing that at knocking off time every tool used should be 

 returned to its appointed place and that every ' chore ' should 

 be done at the hour fixed, the foreman to report progress^ 

 before going in to supper. He engaged in planting and deal- 

 ing in fruit-trees, pears principally, which he imported from 

 France. All was done in a simple inexpensive way, using the 

 old buildings on the place and practicing rigid economy. He 

 interested himself in the County Agricultural Society and 

 soon became an active member in company with Wm. H. 



