Editor’s note: This is the first of a series on 20th-century resident Mary Abbot, in celebration of Women’s History Month. The information is taken from the diaries Mary wrote between 1913 and 1932. The diaries are part of the Harvard Historical Society’s collections.
Mary Abbot (1888–1952) was the oldest of four siblings all born in Berlin, Germany. At the age of 20 she and her brother Frank, a year younger, came to America, he to attend Harvard University and she to pursue landscape architecture and gardening. Mary, who never married, was a woman ahead of her time, both in schooling and in business.
Mary attended the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, Gardening, and Horticulture for Women in Groton. The school was founded in 1901 by Judith Eleanor Low, with 17 acres of meadows, orchards, gardens, and greenhouses just off Main Street. (The property is now part of Lawrence Academy.) It was unique for its time in being a school for only girls in a profession dominated by men. She then went on to study horticulture for two years in Pennsylvania, followed by courses in agriculture at the University of Massachusetts. In 1913 she was finished with her schooling.
In 1911 Frank was one of four graduates of the university who participated in the “back to the land” movement by setting up farms in Harvard, and he wanted Mary to join him in starting a farm and running an orchard. On April 10, 1913, they moved into the 1829 farmhouse at what is now 204 Bolton Road and started Bare Hill Farms, where Mary got equal billing: “Proprietors F. Abbot and M. Abbot.”
They sold apples locally and shipped from the Harvard Depot or from Ayer. Mary packed boxes of apples and delivered them to the general store in town center and to customers around town, first by horse and buggy and then in the Model T. The former was more reliable, as Mary would often find a flat tire in coming out of the store or experience one—or two—on her way coming or going.
In 1914 Frank and Mary did business in front of the house on Sundays, with a painted sign, “Apples for sale,” hung on a maple tree. They charged $1.50 for a bushel basket; a half basket was 75 cents, and a paper bagful 50 cents. Customers were asked to put money in the box. The next year they bought a hand cider press, made five gallons, and painted a “Sweet Cider” sign. In August 1916, Mary sent 84 cards to customers, advertising their Porter apples, and she took some to the village to sell at the Women’s Exchange.
As time went on, Frank and Mary expanded the two orchards on the house side and added one across the street. They had a new barn built and an elevator installed. The latter proved particularly useful to Mary when she once got shut up in the barn cellar and climbed out through the elevator.
Until around 1932, Mary was very active with the apple business—picking up drops, sorting, grading, and packing apples. She hired workers to help her in the barn, where they also stenciled apple barrels. It was Mary who sent out all the apple bills.
There was always a battle against pests. For the first several years, Mary spent days at a time, sometimes two and three hours a day, collecting heaps of brown tail and gypsy moths. In 1916 there was a bad infestation of aphids and they sprayed all the trees with Black Leaf 40 (long since removed from the market!). There was great excitement in 1919 when they purchased the new Fitzhenry Guptill power spray truck for $500. Mary, who was quite frugal and in charge of the farm accounts, may have had some outrage at the high price of that improvement. Another high point of 1919 was that they started shipping apples to England. A low point was spotting a deer in the orchard.
In addition to the apples, the Abbots had a booming egg business. They shipped eggs into Boston and had a regular customer from the city who came out every day to pick up many dozens. It was the first thing on Mary’s daily list of chores to deliver eggs to the general store and also frequently to the Barn Restaurant at 7 Still River Road. Mary persisted, despite the detection of an incidence of cannibalism among the hens that she found disgusting. In the mid-1940s they were still taking 35 dozen eggs a week into the village.
In addition to her partnership in the orchards and the egg business, Mary put her gardening and horticulture training to use in the large vegetable garden and in the various berry patches around the house. Frank took loads of potatoes (that had been sprayed with arsenate lead) to Gale Dickson store in town center, and Mary took other vegetables and boxes of berries for sale in the village.
Along with keeping the farm accounts, Mary took care of other financial matters. Early in 1917 she attended a talk on income tax, and on March 19 she sent off the form. From her hospital bed in Boston during two extended stays at different times, Mary recorded, almost every day, the work Frank had done in the orchard. She was a dedicated and knowledgeable businesswoman.
Mary Abbot sold loads of potatoes to the Gale Dickson store in town center. (Photo courtesy of the Harvard Historical Society)
