Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series about the history and modern-day workings of Wheel-View Farm in Shelburne.

Lifelong Shelburne resident Carolyn Wheeler is of the fourth generation to live and actively farm on familial land, and since 2011 has been curating a cornucopia of artifacts reflecting the lives of her and her husband’s ancestors. Carolyn organizes and displays their treasures at Wheel-View Farm, where she and John Wheeler have worked together for decades, raised children, and now share family and local history with their grandchildren, friends, and visitors from near and far.

Carolyn Wheeler’s great-grandparents arrived in the U.S. from England at the end of the 19th century; the impetus for their immigration was an initiative of the John Russell Cutlery Company, founded in Greenfield in 1834. According to an item found online, courtesy of the Greenfield Historical Society, “Russell built his water-powered factory on the banks of the Green River. He first produced chisels and axe heads, but as the company grew, he began to produce large quantities of high quality hunting knives to supply the needs of the American frontier.”

Throughout much of the 19th century, JR Cutlery sent knives to England to have pearl handles carved by experts in that craft; Carolyn Wheeler’s great-great-grandfather was one such English pearl carver. Toward the end of the 1800s, the cutlery company advertised in England to entice pearl carvers to relocate across the Atlantic to do the work here. Several of Wheeler’s ancestors made the move and the rest, as they say, is history: local history.

The appropriately named Wheel-View Farm, with its breathtaking vistas, has its roots in Carolyn Wheeler’s great-grandparents’ 1896 land purchase. “My great-grandmother, Mary Wilson Reynolds, wanted to farm,” said Wheeler. Mary Wilson and Charlie Reynolds met through Mary’s brother, Sidney, who worked with Charlie at the Turners Falls site of JR Cutlery; Sidney learned pearl-carving from their father while growing up in England.

Due to her status as a married woman, Mary Wilson Reynolds was required to obtain a permit bestowing on her the legal right to purchase animals and conduct business — a document now on display in the farm’s museum. “My great-grandmother wrote many business letters to inquire about the price of items she wished to purchase, whether it was apples, turkeys, or whatever,” said Carolyn Wheeler. She signed her letters M. W. Reynolds, and (recipients) tended to assume she was a man. Most of the replies began with ‘Dear Mr. Reynolds’ as their salutation.

Like his wife, John Wheeler has deep roots in the area, also represented in the Wheel-View Farm Museum. In fact, John Wheeler’s family arrived here nearly a century-and-a-half before Carolyn’s. “John’s mother was a Coombs, and the Coombs family came in 1752,” said Carolyn. Coombs is a familiar name to residents of nearby Colrain. John grew up on Frank Williams Road in Shelburne — on the farm where the renowned artist Josh Simpson now creates iconic works of glass — but John has also lived on Coombs Hill.

“My mother’s maiden name was Reynolds,” said Carolyn Wheeler, whose farm is on Reynolds Road. “John and I both have roots here going way back, and our ancestors never threw anything away. Of the artifacts in our museum, 99% remain from when our relatives cleaned out attics, sheds, barns, or cellars.” Visitors to the museum can learn a great deal about local farmers and farms, including and principally what became Wheel-View Farm. We’ll learn more about contemporary workings of the farm in next week’s column, but first, let’s explore some history.

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles

Nicotine pouch ban would hurt business, Athol convenience store owners say

Home on Winter Street rendered uninhabitable following two-alarm fire

With third location in Turners Falls, Community Health Center to serve another 4,000 patients

Athol Chief Joseph Guarnera reflects on six years with Fire Department

Athol-Royalston teachers report harassment from students, lack of administration support

Ed board chair: Lawsuit anticipated in wake of MCAS vote

Your Daily Puzzles

Cross|Word

Flipart

Typeshift

SpellTower

Really Bad Chess

Those interested in visiting Wheel-View Farm and the museum need only give Carolyn a call (contact information is listed at the end of this column). Carolyn enjoys sharing history and artifacts, and invites visitors to have hands-on experiences. “We have an old player piano that folks are welcome to play,” she said. A player piano operates by a pneumatic mechanism involving perforated paper or metallic rolls, and requires no musical skill or knowledge; all you need is the ability to pump with your feet! Player pianos were popular in the late 19th century; in fact, the first model, called the Pianola, was invented by Edwin S. Votey in 1896, the same year Mary Wilson Reynolds and Charlie Reynolds settled in Shelburne.

The Wheelers’ museum contains a remarkable collection of objects that harken to an era before plastic was ubiquitous; visitors can enjoy tactile contact with implements and ephemera made of wood, metal, leather, paper, and other materials. Visiting the museum reminds me of how much I reveled in seeing, feeling, and smelling items I found in my family’s sheds on our southern Quebec dairy farm. Sitting in the dark and quiet during the 1970s, I loved touching and holding objects that I knew were held and used by my grandparents, great-grand-parents, and so on over hundreds of years. Perhaps those peaceful, solitary moments were the genesis of my becoming a total history nerd. Suffice it to say, when I’m at Wheel-View Farm, I feel right at home and wonder, not for the first time, whether I was born in the wrong century.

Ladders, horse shoes, baskets, lengths of sturdy rope, and barrels are included in the display, as are milk pails, watering cans, and bottles. Residents of Franklin County and surrounding areas have access to many terrific historical societies and museums, but before saying “Been there, done that,” readers might consider the extraordinary experience of viewing and touching objects housed on the very property where they were used for decades and centuries. At Wheel-View Farm, there’s an old cash register, as well as wagon wheels, plows, saw blades, and feed bags. Every item was used on the spot.

Artifacts echo activities that happened both indoors and out: kitchen utensils like ladles, churns, and skillets are displayed alongside snowshoes and sleds. Tool fanatics can gawk at wrenches, axes, and scores of other implements. Document buffs can take in records related to farming, family and more. “We have the original electric bill from 1927,” said Carolyn Wheeler. “There was one light bulb and one outlet per room. It’s interesting to note that Panama had electricity before Shelburne did.”

While visiting the museum, one can imagine members of the Wheeler, Reynolds, Wilson, Coombs, Gowdy, Lawson, and many other local families hard at work or engaged in delightful play. “It goes really deep for me,” said Carolyn Wheeler. “It feels special to have flowers here that my great-grandmother planted, including hardy hibiscus, rose, and hellebore. In our collection of old letters, we have some written to Mary Wilson Reynolds from 1901, thanking her for sending lovely trailing arbutus (mayflower) to friends in Greenfield.” Mayflowers have long symbolized the end of hard times and the arrival of spring, and for some they embody the concept that — even in difficult situations — beauty can take root and bloom. For some, the annual gift of mayflowers marked an important time of year.

“I love reading these old letters, because they refer to plants that are still here,” said Carolyn Wheeler, who makes it a point annually to take a stroll to check out mayflower blooms. “They’re fairly rare, and seem to like poor, acidic soil. They smell heavenly, and they bring my family’s history to life for me.”

To schedule a visit to Wheel-View Farm, call 413-625-2900. To check out the farm’s website, visit wheelviewfarm.com. Tune in next week for modern-day glimpses into Wheel-View.

Eveline MacDougall is the author of “Fiery Hope,” and a musician, artist and mom. To contact: eveline@amandlachorus.org or P.O. Box 223, Greenfield, MA 01302.