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Tompkins County Farm Bureau News April 1949
Article from Larry Lanning
Bethuel Gould and Deborah, his wife came to Enfield probably from the town of Hector, which was then part of Tompkins County, and purchased the farm which is still in possession of the
family, located about ¾ of a mile north of Millers Corners. The deed for this property was recorded on March 31, 1831, and recorded the following year in the Tompkins county Clerks
Office, Moses Lovell was the Commissioner and Samuel Love the clerk when the deed was recorded. This was part of Lot No. 44 which was drawn in 1790 by Pvt. William Balantine of the
first New York Regiment. Apparently Balantine never saw the property, as the deed was delivered to Michael Connolly, who was probably a land speculator.
Bethuel Gould was born in 1800 and lived to the ripe old age of 97 (Rolfe Cemetery - Sept. 2, 1800 - Feb. 11, 1898). His first wife was Deborah Allen (Jan. 20, 1804 - Jan. 18, 1863
– Rolfe Cemetery) of Hector. Twelve children were born to this union, of which grew up. After her death he married Mary Hoffmire.
It is thought the farm house was built previous to the purchase of the farm by the Gould’s, although probably not as large as it now.
The Town of Enfield was rather sparsely settled at this time, but the Gould’s rapidly became acquainted with the community and Mr. Gould was elected Supervisor of the township in 1835,
ad held the office for four years. Little is know of the type of agriculture followed by Mr. But probably it was largely hay and grain farming. In 1965, he sold the farm to Willis
Fish for $5,075 and took in payment at a mortgage for $4,500. In as much as he bought the farm for $1,350 about 25 years before that, this shows that land values had risen quite rapidly
during that period. Although part of this increase might been due to improvement of the land by clearing trees and stumps. The deed was recorded by F.J. McElheney, as county Clark,
called for seventy-four acres, 3 roods, and 6 and 9/10 rods of land.
Horace Lanning of Enfield married Ursula Gould, the daughter of Bethuel and Deborah Gould, in 1858. In 1968, he bought the farm of Mr. Fish for $7,500 and it came back into the Gould
family white it still remains. According to the agreement, he assumed the $4,500 mortgage and was to pay $60 for the winter wheat then growing. Mr. Lanning was to have 10 cords of
4 foot wood, and all loose boards and fence posts then on the farm.
Mr. Lanning was born in 1829, in a log cabin on the farm now occupied by Clarence Stoughton, and went to the district school near the golf course is now located. After his marriage
he stared farming with his brother, Harrison, and what is now the Raymond Carpenter farm, a mile or so to the north. After a few years, he sold out to his brother and moved to Trumansburg
where he lived a year before buying the Gould farm.
Mr. Lanning immediately started enlarging the farm business. He cleared seven more acres, pulling the stumps with a team of oxen. He kept 40 to 50 sheep and raised four or five colts
for sale each year. Four or five cows were kept and butter was made. A farm flock of 100 to 150 hens produced eggs. He grew wheat and sometimes held it for three or four years until
he could get a dollar a bushel. He had the first grain binder in the town of Enfield. An intense rivalry developed among the neighbors in growing corn. Mr. Lanning mixed hen manure
with ashes and put a handful on each hill of corn in an effort to out yield his neighbors.
There was a two acre orchard on the place, composed of King, Greening, Northern Spy, Baldwin, Sheepnose, Russets, and Golden Pippins. Apples from this orchard were barreled and hauled
to Taughhannock Falls for shipment. The orchard is now entirely gone. Frank Rothermich, who still lives in Enfield, worked for Mr. Lanning as a young man in 1890, as his name is still
painted on the granary door.
Horace and Ursula Lanning had three children, Charles, Cora and Ida. Cora is the wife of Fred Rumsey, and Ida married Albert Tucker, so all three spent theirs lives in the town of Enfield.
Charles married Addie Rolfe, of Applegate Corners in 1994, and lived on a nearby farm, now occupied by Carleton Miller, but worked his father’s farm in his later years. They had two
boys. Ray lived with his grandfather, Horace, during much of his boyhood days. He says that he liked it there because his grandfather gave him more privileges, even allowing him to
ride on the plow when he was plowing. Charles Lanning kept 18 to 20 Jersey cows.
Raymond Lanning married Fanny curry in 1907, and took over his grandfather’s farm after the death of the latter. He increased the size of his dairy to eight cows. At first he sold
cream to the Mekeel factory at Jacksonville, then to the condensary and now to the Arctic Ice Cream company. Only about 150 hens were kept on the farm, but he raised grain and hay together
with six to seven acres of dry beans four to five acres of potatoes each year.
Two children were born, a boy and a girl. The boy, Horace is now running the farm. He graduated form Trumansburg High School after taking a course in agriculture and had part of a
year of agriculture at Cornell. For about 10 years he worked for the G.L.F. in Buffalo and Ithaca, but in 1943 he came back to the farm. He married Elizabeth Hull of Syracuse in 1939.
They have two children, Lawrence and Lorraine. Horace keeps about the same number of cows that his father did, but has increased the number of hens. This winter he is keeping 800,
but usually has around 1600. He produced eighty+ bushels of pea beans and now has twenty-three acres of wheat sowed for this year.
Running water has been piped from a spring to the barn for many years, but was put in the house in 1941. The first tractor, a McCormick Deering (10-20) was bought in 1926 and their
first automobile, an Overland in 1919.
Considerable remodeling must have been done to the house about 1870. Some repairs were made recently, and in tearing off some of the plaster in the kitchen, it was found that parts
of a newspaper dated January 25, 1870 has been pasted on the lath before the plaster was applied. Several advertise
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