D-4-1
The Hunting Farm
Charles Rice came to Packersfield from Sudbury, Massachusetts after service in the Revolutionary War and built a house on the 38-acre property. He sold the property in 1786 to his neighbor to the west, William Barker (C-4-1) and, likely, continued to live there until 1791. That year he moved to A-2-12. In 1792 William Barker sold the place to his 23-year-old son, Thaddeus. Thaddeus sold the farm in 1797 to Jonathan Hunting and started his mill at B-4-7. Hunting acquired more land increasing the size of the farm to 120 acres. He was succeeded by (his son, brother?), Thomas, who owned the place for eleven years. On the purchase, Thomas was described as a trader from Boston. When he sold it, he was styled a merchant from Boston and was the joint owner with Bela Hunting. It is likely that Jonathan ran the farm for the other Huntings; Jonathan was listed as a Nelson resident on the 1820 census.
The farm was purchased by Oliver Stone in 1829. Stone had a shoe making business just west of the Village burying ground (D-3-3) that he owned from 1822 to 1833. He purchased the farm for $600, getting a $486 mortgage from the Huntings which he paid off two years later. The deed described him as a yeoman, no longer the cordwainer who’d bought the shoemaker’s shop near the common in 1822. In 1835 the place was acquired by Upton Burnap (D-4-2) and became part of his, much larger farm.
