A History of the Shag Hickory Farm

of Springwater NY

By Patricia and Phillip Willsea in 2003

The Shag Hickory farm is located at 6609 Liberty Pole road in Springwater NY and contains 150 acres.

Peter Burdick owned this farm but we are not sure when he purchased it. There are 150 acres, half in the town of Springwater and half in the town of Sparta.

Peter and his wife built the main part of the homestead in Springwater when they married about 1880. There is another small house on the property in Sparta.

They owned a threshing machine and did threshing in the surrounding area, when it was a new idea. They also had a milling machine and forge in the shop.

About 1916 their son Charles took over the farm. He married Lottie and they had no children.

Charles had 16 cows, one saddle horse and two beautiful Clydesdales (Duke and Bowser, who lived to be 36 and 38 years and were as gentle as lambs, so it is said). He also keep sheep in his later years.

In 1967 Phillip and Patricia Cullen Willsea purchased the 150 acre farm. This is a part time farm supplemented by outside employment. Phillip and Patricia had three children; Elizabeth, Alfred and Jeffery.

They did extensive improvement to the land and buildings, built a garage on the house in 1980 and an addition to the house in 1991 and a new barn for equipment in 1995. They raise and sell polled Hereford beef cattle. They also made improvements over the years to improve the land by removing old hedgerows and stone piles from the center of the fields and tiling to eliminate the wet areas.

The farm is still run as a part time beef farm, selling calves in the fall.