The Northern Farmers
These farms suffered most from the loss of the mill. Set on high ground, hilly and rock strewn, the sheep they raised for the mill once brought them a fine profit, but the land is less fit for crop farming than the southern flatlands. Trying to convert these properties to food crops has proved a limited success. Many of these farmers in the past ended up deeply in debt to banks in Bolton and New Jerusalem.
The northern farmers are sometimes called “Old Believers,” or “Congregates,” a reference to their descent from those who split from the Foxfield Congregational Church when it converted to Unitarianism in the mid–nineteenth century. Many of the Congregates gather on Sundays at the Copley farm, where Ike Copley preaches fire and brimstone sermons in his barn.
All the Old Believers are timber operation backers, for both political and religious reasons. Nearly all them had their lot improved by
directly gaining money from the timber operation. Most have timbered property and allow the timber companies access to the whole of the northern hills.
Northern farm family names include Clegg, Copley, Pearson, Whipple, and White.
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