THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS ARCHIVES & RESEARCH CENTER Guide to Greenwood Farm Collection, 1840s-1993 GF.MS.Coll.1 by Sharon Spieldenner 2011 Last updated: March 2015 Archives & Research Center 27 Everett Street, Sharon, MA 02067 www.thetrustees.org [email protected] 781-784-8200 The Trustees of Reservations – www.thetrustees.org Extent: 122 boxes Linear feet: 90.0 Copyright © 2013 The Trustees of Reservations ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION PROVENANCE Gift of Sally Dodge, 1975. OWNERSHIP & LITERARY RIGHTS The Greenwood Farm Collection is the physical property of The Trustees of Reservations. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. CITE AS Greenwood Farm Collection. The Trustees of Reservations, Archives & Research Center. RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS This collection is open for research. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE GREENWOOD FARM Located on Jeffrey's Neck, a peninsula on the Ipswich River Estuary, Greenwood Farm features two historically significant houses and 216 acres of gardens, pastures, meadows, woodlands and salt marsh. There are several drumlin islands along the salt marsh, three of the largest are Diamond Stage, Widow’s and Homestead Island. Settled shortly after the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the property was part of a 1640 land grant from the Town of Ipswich given to Robert Paine, and soon became known as Paine Farm. There he raised cattle, harvested salt hay, and fished. Three generations of the Paine family made their home and farmed here, including Robert Paine Jr., who graduated from Harvard in 1656 and served as jury foreman for the Salem witch trials in 1692. In 1694, a salt-box style house, now known as the Paine House, was built. Early records show that Robert Paine Jr. deeded the house and much of the Paine farmland in 1703 to his daughter Elizabeth Paine (1677-1717) and her husband Daniel Smith (1673-1755), the grandson of Richard Smith from the neighboring farm. The reservation takes its name from Thomas Smith Greenwood (1807-1883), son of Ruth Smith (1786-1807, great granddaughter of Daniel Smith) and Thomas Greenwood (b.1782), who built the 19th-century white farmhouse, not far from the Paine House. Greenwood Farm Collection - 2 The Trustees of Reservations – www.thetrustees.org After Thomas S. Greenwood died, the land was passed to his daughter, Pauline Thurlow Farley (1845-1932). She was the last of the Smith descendants to live on the farm. Pauline held the land until 1911, when she sold it to Guy Murchie, who had previously leased it for several years. Guy Murchie renamed the property Three Islands Farm. In 1916, the farm was bought by Robert G. Dodge as a summer retreat for his family. The Dodges resided in the 1828 Farm House, which was remodeled by Robert G. Dodge's brother and architect, Edwin Sherrill Dodge. The Paine House was primarily used as a guesthouse. Alice Childs Dodge spent several years furnishing the Paine House with a fine collection of early American furniture and decorative arts. Greenwood Farm remained in the Dodge family until the mid- 1970s, when it was deeded by the Dodge sisters, over a period of years and with a life interest for Sally Dodge, to The Trustees of Reservations. After the death of Sally Dodge in 1993, Greenwood Farm was opened to the public for birding, hiking, house tours and educational programs. The Trustees of Reservations continues its commitment as stewards of Greenwood Farm. Work has been done to restore parts of the property, particularly the Farm House and the Paine House. In the late 1990s, archaeological investigations revealed an 18th-century milk room or dairy inside the Paine House. Artifacts and reports from the archaeological surveys, as well as archival material from the Greenwood Farm Collection on the history of Greenwood Farm and on the Dodge family, are available for research. Thomas Smith Greenwood and his daughter, Pauline T. Farley Katharine, Eleanor, Sally, Alice and Alice Childs Dodge at Greenwood Farm, c.1920s. Greenwood Farm Collection - 3 The Trustees of Reservations – www.thetrustees.org DODGE FAMILY Robert Gray Dodge (1872-1964) Robert Gray Dodge, the eldest son of Elisha Perkins and Katherine Searls Gray Dodge, was born July 29, 1872 in Newburyport, MA. He attended Newburyport High and Putnam Schools and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1893. In 1897, Dodge graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was elected editor-in- chief of the Harvard Law Review. In that same year, he became a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association. Dodge went on to teach property and contracts at Harvard Law School and in 1898, taught the first class on property law at the Boston Evening Law School, which later became Northeastern University. Dodge was instrumental in the early development of Northeastern University and served as chairman of its Board of Trustees for over 20 years, retiring in 1959. The Northeastern University campus library, built in 1959, is named in his honor. On September 11, 1900, Robert G. Dodge and Alice Woolley Childs of Amesbury, MA, were married. They lived in Newburyport, Boston and later, Ipswich, MA, and raised four daughters, Katharine Gray, Eleanor Childs, Sarah "Sally" and Alice Langdon. In 1899, Dodge was elected City Councilor in Newburyport. In 1902, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts under Attorney General Herbert Parker, a position he held until 1906. From 1908-1911, he served as member of the State Board of Ballot Law Commissioners. In 1910, Dodge became partner of the Boston law firm, Storey, Thorndike, Palmer and Dodge, where he began his long career as a trial lawyer. He participated in many high-profile cases during his career. He acted as defense counsel for both the anti-trust suit against the United Fruit Company and a suit involving the directors of Gillette Company. In the 1920s, he became one of three special assistant attorneys general to Attorney General Weston Allen in the proceedings for the removal and disbarring of District Attorney Joseph C. Pelletier and Governor's Councilor Daniel H. Coakley on charges of corruption. In the 1930s, he represented the City of Boston with Corporation Counsel Henry B. Foley in its suit against Edmund L. Dolan, City Treasurer under Mayor James M. Curley. Dolan was held liable for using his official position for illegal personal gains. Throughout his life, Dodge served on several boards and participated in many important community activities. He was a long term member of the Massachusetts Judicial Council as well as the American Law Institute, and for 21 years, he was a member of the US Supreme Court Advisory Committee of Civil Procedure. He served as president of the Boston Bar Association from 1931-1934 and for over 25 years, was president of the Boston Social Law Library. Mr. Dodge also served as chairman of the Board of Trustees for Wellesley College for 17 years, and for many years, served on the board and executive committee of the New England Conservatory of Music. He received honorary LL.D. degrees from Tufts College and Northeastern University. Robert G. Dodge was an avid traveler, taking trips abroad with his wife and children nearly every July around his birthday. He kept a daily journal, a habit he began in 1886, when 14 years old, and continued until 1962. At the time of his death in 1964 at the age of 91, Robert G. Dodge was senior partner of Palmer, Dodge, Gardner and Bradford. Greenwood Farm Collection - 4 The Trustees of Reservations – www.thetrustees.org Alice Childs Dodge (1875-1948) Alice Woolley Childs Dodge was born in Amesbury, MA on June 19, 1875. She was the daughter of Edward Atherton Childs of Moretown, Vermont and Ella Maria Bagley Childs (née Lois Perry Woolley), from New York City. Alice attended Amesbury High School and Dana Hall in Wellesley, MA and received her B.A. from Wellesley College in 1898. On September 11, 1900, she married Robert Gray Dodge. The newlyweds took up residence at 71 High Street in Newburyport and on Bay State Road in Boston. They had four children, Katharine Gray, Eleanor Childs, Sally and Alice Langdon. Alice C. Dodge was an active member of many boards and charities, most prominently the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), of which she served as president in 1929. For 24 years, she served on the board of Trustees of Wellesley College. She was a member of the Association of University Women; member of the board of the New England Hospital for Women and Children; held office in the Needlewomen Friends Society, as well as the Beneficent Society of the New England Conservatory of Music. During WWII, Mrs. Dodge arranged to take in two English children, Bridget "Biddlet" Jameson and Geoffrey Orr, who were sent abroad to escape the London bombings. The Dodges became quite close with the children and their parents and continued to correspond and visit with them for many years after the War. Alice died at her home, Hotel Braemore in Boston, on February 2, 1948 of heart problems. She had two siblings, Edna Childs Lynch, wife of Rev. Robert LeBlanc Lynch, and Agnes Atherton Childs, stage and silent movie actress. Katharine Gray Dodge (m. Brownell), 1901-1983 Katharine Gray Dodge Brownell, the eldest daughter of Robert Gray Dodge and Alice Childs Dodge, was born in Brookline, MA, July 1, 1901. She attended the Winsor School in Boston, graduating in 1919, and received an A.B. from Vassar College in 1923. In 1928, she received an M.D. in pediatrics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Brownell joined the faculty of the New York University College of Medicine and became a leading authority on rheumatic fever and heart disease in children.