816-Lmcast*r Farming, Saturday, February 13, 1988
Hopedell
(Continued from Page B 14)
and Bill Handy are presently the
only two permanent residents,
they’re much too busy to feel lone
ly in the big farm house. “We have
a lot of company and we have
grandchildren here almost every
weekend,” said Ruth. “We really
enjoy it.”
Each summer more than 100
Hopes gather at Hopedell for a
family reunion. For the farm’s
200th anniversary Ruth’s parents
planned a special open house.
Twenty-five years later the Hand
ys held a three-day party with 500
drop-in guests.
Ruth’s easy hospitality was
developed during her growing-up
years when her mother ran a tourist
home. She indicated the sign that
beckoned travelers to Hopedell
Farm during the two Depression
years that U.S. Route 30 was under
construction. ‘The first sign, that
Mother made herself, is really pri
mitive; it’s in the attic. A man in
Parkesburg painted this one. He
didn’t get it done, and he didn’t get
it done. So finally my dad would
take every rainy day that he
couldn’t work on the farm and go
up there and sit with (the painter)
to see that he didn’t get drunk.”
Before Lena Hope advertised
the tourist home, city-based vaca
tioners would come to the farm for
as long as six weeks each summer,
Ruth remembers. She recalled a
Rhode Island hardware salesman
who liked staying on the farm so
much that he went back to Provi
dence and brought his wife and
two children down.
‘They stayed here two weeks
while he went to Wilmington,
Reading, Lancaster and Harris
burg, and then back here in the
evening,” she said. “We played
around the bam and played with
the animals and swam and went
hiking. They came back every
single year until the girl started to
college.”
Hopedell Farm has been in the
middle of American transportation
development for most of its 245
years. Valley Road bisects the
farm south of Sucker Run. Next to
the road the Conestoga Traction
Company’s trolley tracks used to
run along the meadow.
“We rode on the trolley very sel
dom,” Ruth stated, “It cost five
cents to go to Parkesburg. When
you were making two dollars a
day, five cents was something you
just didn’t throw around. But we
got more pleasure watching other
people ride it, especially in sum
mertime when Lukens Steel Com
pany had their picnic at Rocky
Springs Park. Hundreds and hun
dreds would ride in open air trol
leys with banners across the
sides.”
In the 1800’s, after Robert Hope
divided the original farm with his
brother, the Philadelphia and Col
umbia Railroad cut through the
property. Robert was given per
mission to cross the tracks to
harvest his wheat and com. Later
the railroad denied access to the
north fields.
Robert overcame what could
have been an economic hardship
by burning qua'ity limestone from
the shallow hillside north of Suck
er Run, spreading it on his fields
READ
LANCASTER
FARMING
FOR COMPLETE
AND
UP-TO-DATE
MARKET
REPORTS
Tradition
and sharing the excess with neigh
bors. By 1850 crop production was
evenly divided between what,
Indian com and oats at 150 bushels
each.
Robert’s son, Thomas, started
dairying when it came his turn to
manage the' farm about 1860.
Twenty years later he’d increased
the herd 500 percent, generating an
income of $13,500. Even so, the
family had to cope with the rail
road’s new owner, the Pennsylva
nia Railroad. In 1879, Thomas sold
land north of the line to the Pennsy
and used the money to add a veran
da and Italianate windows to the
house.
The railroad planted locust trees
as replacements for their old stone
ties, but never harvested a single
one, according to Ruth. The rail
road also began using a spring in
the woods to fill the wooden water
tower built next to the tracks. The
tower was dismantled after the line
LAWN & GARDEN
WAIVER
was electrified.
Bill has seen changes at
Hopedell since he married Ruth in
1944. Horses were used on the
farm until 1950. “I remember
Frank and Barney,” Bill recalled.
“Back in the day of steam locomo
tives old Duke filled the haymow
the horse was blind but strong; the
hayfork was manual but efficient.”
Ruth added that her father oiled
harnesses next to a pot-bellied
stove on the second floor of the
springhouse. “He also had a trac
tor,” she declared.
The next change to Hopedell
Farm may come from the 35-foot
Sucker Run dam proposed by the
Chester County Water Resources
Authority. “It would take over our
whole farm,” Ruth stated. “In case
of a hundred-year flood, water
would be up in our bedroom. For
that reason we couldn’t live here.”
“We can’t sit around waiting for
that,” Bill says. “We had the hall,
front room and three bedrooms
papered. We’re going to keep
going on faith.”
Great Tractors That Just Got Better
THE ENTIRE FORD TRACTOR LINE IS BETTER THAN EVER
OPTION #3
Waiver Of Finance
Charges To
SEPT. 1, 1988
OPEN 2 B,G DAYS OF SAVINGS
March 3rd and 4th
HOUSE Details To Follow
1655 Rohrerstown Road, Lancaster, PA
Flory Mill Exit off Rt 283
(717) 569-7063
YOUR LANCASTER COUNTY RELIABLES FOR FORD TRACTORS & NEW HOLLAND INDUSTRIAL EQUIP.
LANCASTER
FORD TRACTO
Is Committed For Tomorrow in
With
SB GSBW7
OLD FAVORITE
FORD TRACTORS
Lancaster Ford Tractor And See For Yourself
for
FARMING
%
£0?
See LANCASTER FORD TRACTOR
For NEW HOLLAND SKID LOADERS
* 0 M&J
fit
ide by
the ladles of the Hope family and their friends about 1830.
f/ /
FORD
for
LANDSCAPING
LANCASTER
TRACTOR,
’BB
FINANCE
OPTION #2
0% APR
Financing For 12 Months
5.9% APR
Financing For 24 Months
7.9% APR
Financing For 36 Months
8.9% APR
Financing For 48 Months
9.9% APR
Financing For 60 Months
For Qualified Buyers With
FORD MOTOR CREDIT CO
FREE MOWER
With Lawn And Garden
Tractor Purchase
FORD
INC.
-ar_Z5J
i
FORD
for
INDUSTRIAL