Present History of Silverbrook Farm  

Biography of a Mid-life Farmer..

Hi, I am Andy Pollock, the owner of Silverbrook Farm.  My parents, Harris and Mary Jane Pollock bought our farm in Dartmouth in 1953. I think we’re still “new” by village standards. They enjoyed horses and spent many happy years riding through the adjacent woods. I grew up shoveling horse manure: I couldn’t wait to go away to Penn State for my undergraduate training (in Business) so I didn't smell like a horse!

After completing a BS at Penn State, I worked and attended graduate school at the University of Maine: completing an MBA in 1989. Soon after graduation, my father developed terminal cancer and I ended up back on the farm lending a much needed hand. Two years after his death and the farm in fairly good but dormant state I bought a house a few towns away, helping my mother out whenever she needed me.

During this time, I worked in the business side of Medicine. I supervised the finances of a large social service agency and was director of operations for two large physician groups as they attempted to merge. Later on I started a company with a physician to process medical claims. I enjoyed watching our business grow but after five years  I asked if I could be bought out. I had other plans in mind.

Concurrently, my mother began showing troubling signs of Alzheimer’s Disease and eventually moved to an assisted living facility. My partner and I moved back to the farm.  The property showed many signs of benign neglect (or as I call it "Yankee Maintenance"). We spent countless months cleaning out the house, the barn and various out-buildings. We continue to repair sheds, replant orchards, cut and clear new fields and work to bring the farm back to the beautiful place that it is.

The sale of my share of a business coincided with a growing desire to work the land. Fortunately, I have a kind and patient spouse who indulges this desire. ( Even with the smell of chicken manure, long hours, hatching chicks in the house, escaping pigs etc….) We are heading into our ninth year of full time farming and I can honestly say that I wouldn't do anything else!



Past History of Silverbrook Farms

ZOETH HOWLAND

Son of Henry, was born probably in Duxbury about 1636. In the tenth month, 1656, he was married to his wife Abigail, as appears by the Friends' records at Newport, R. I. In 1657 he took the oath of "Fidelitie" at Duxbury, but because of his Quaker proclivities held the clergy of the established church in little esteem. Witness a deposition of one Samuel Hunt about this time:

"About a fortnight before the date heerof, being att the house of Zoeth Howland, hee said hee would not goe to meeting to hear lyes, and that the diuill [devil] could teach as good a sermon as the minnisters; and that a 2cond time being att the house of the said Zoeth Howland, and his brother, John Hunt, and Tho Delano being with him, hee questioned with the said Zoeth Howland whether hee would not goe to the meeting, because the minnesters taught lyes, and that the diuill could teach as good a sermon as the minnesters, and hee said hee denied it not. Also, Tho Delano questioned him whether the minnesters taught lyes, and hee said yes, and lett him looke in the Scriptures and hee should find it soe." For this audacious utterance Zoeth was arraigned at the term of Court in March, 1657-58, "for speaking opprobriously of the minnesters of Gods Word," and was sentenced to sit in the stocks. He and his wife were also fined for not attending the ordained meetings. It is therefore not surprising that he departed from Plymouth, and made his home in Dartmouth, on a portion of his father's holdings, where he could breath a freer air. At his death his estate, as reported to the Court at Plymouth June 7, 1677, included a quarter share of land valued at fifteen pounds, a yoke of oxen, three cows, one mare, and miscellaneous farming and household utensils. There is no record of a will.

Zoeth Howland was slain by the Indians at Puncatest, in Tiverton, R. I., near the ferry, on March 28, 1676. The ferry was subsequently kept by Zoeth's son Daniel, and known for many years as "Howland's Ferry." It is probable that Zoeth was going to or from the Friends' meeting at Newport when he met death. John Cook of Portsmouth, R. I., at a court-martial held on some Indians at Newport in August, 1676, testified that being at Puncatest in the middle of July he asked several Indians "Who killed Zoeth Howland?" and they said "there were six in the company and that Manasses was the Indian that fetched him out of the water."

Zoeth and Abigail Howland had nine children, the births of the first eight being established by the Newport Friends' records. The sons were Nathaniel, Benjamin, Daniel, Henry and Nicholas, and the daughters Lydia, Mary, Sarah and Abigail. The mother applied to the Court for an order in her favor to assist in rearing her large family, and on July 3, 1678, was granted her husband's entire estate, "lands, goods and chattels." On Dec. 2, 1678, she married Richard Kirby, Jr.

Silverbrook Farm links

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rhowland/index3.htm#Houck
http://www.pilgrimjohnhowlandsociety.org/index.shtml
http://www.commontyme.net/JH/jerry/John%20Howland.htm

Henry Howland
(From the Howland Heirs)
HENRY HOWLAND, the pioneer, with his brother Arthur, came to this country in either the Fortune, 1621, or the Ann, 1623. Their brother John had preceded them to Plymouth as one of the Mayflower Pilgrims in 1620. The origin of this family is believed to have been in Essex County, England, but extensive researches have failed to reveal the parentage of the three brothers. There was another brother, Humphrey Howland, a draper, of the parish of St. Swithin, London, whose will, proved July 10, 1646, left certain legacies to his three brothers, Arthur, John and Henry in New England. Still another brother, George, was of St. Dunstan's parish in the east.
 
The first mention made of Henry Howland is in the allotment of cattle in Plymouth in 1624, when he appears as owner of the "black cow." In 1633 his name is found in the list of freemen, and in the same year he indentured a servant, Walter Harris. In 1634 he was taxed eighteen shillings, as against a tax of nine shillings the year previous. He was among the earliest settlers of Duxbury, where in 1635 he was chosen constable, and was described as "one of the substantial landholders and freemen." In 1640 he purchased five acres of upland and an acre of marsh meadow in Duxbury, the price paid being "twelve bushells of Indian Corne." For several years he was surveyor of highways in the town, and for nine years served on the grand jury. But in 1657 he refused to serve longer on the grand inquest, the apparent reason being that he had turned Quaker and could not conscientiously perform the duties required of him. Thereafter he was an object of persecution by the authorities of the Colony. In October, 1657, he was "summonsed to appear at the next March Court to answare for intertaining Quakers meetings at his house." He was fined ten shillings. In March, 1659, his wife, their son Zoeth, and the latter's wife, and Arthur Howland and wife, with others, were fined ten shillings each for "frequently absenting themselues from the publicke worship of God." In 1659 Henry Howland was convicted and sentenced by the Court "to be disfranchised of his freedom in the corporation" for being an abettor and entertainer of Quakers. The following year he was again convicted and fined for a similar offense. Once, on refusing to pay his fine, his house and lands were seized by the marshal.

In 1652 Henry Howland was among the original purchasers of Dartmouth, where his son Zoeth and four of his six grandsons were destined to become settlers. He was the owner of half a share, or one sixty-eighth of the purchase, which was acquired from the Indians. Subsequently, with twenty-six others he bought the land known as Assonet, including the present town of Freetown, Mass., and here his son Samuel settled. In 1664 he bought a large tract of land at Swansea. It is probable that he lived for a time at Apponegansett, on his share of the Dartmouth purchase, as his will of 1670 gave to two of his children his horses and cattle "now running" there, and his wife's will, four years later, made this bequest: "Unto my son John Howland my house at Apponegansett." His old homestead at Duxbury was left to his son Joseph, excepting the "new room," which was reserved for the widow of the testator.

Henry Howland died in Duxbury, Jan. 17, 1671. His wife was Mary Newland, a sister of William Newland, who came from Lynn in 1637 and settled in Sandwich. She died in Duxbury, June 17, 1674. To the couple were born four sons and four daughters, Zoeth, Joseph, John, Samuel, Sarah, Elizabeth, Mary and Abigail, all of whom were legatees under the wills of both

.II) Zoeth Howland, son of Henry Howland, was born in Duxbury, Mass. He moved, with his wife Abigail, to Dartmouth, and there embraced the Quaker religion, his father and wife also being members of that church. Zoeth and Abigail Howland were tried and fined for their religious faith, it being proven that meetings were held at their home. Zoeth Howland was killed by Indians at Pocasset, R. I., January 21, 1676, the place of his death now known as Tiverton