The Daisy Farm was purchased by the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery in the early 1900s and totaled 160 acres.
Previously it had been owned by the Ryder and Weller families with them building a farmhouse and barn on the property. Successful farmers Gray and Youngblood leased the land, and it was known as the Weller Farm as well as the Daisy Farm even before the Sisters owned it.
The Sisters built a farmhouse and barn in 1902 once they took possession of it and kept cows, chickens, and pigs that provided food for them, the students, and patients at St. Mary's hospital. The farm closed during the Great Depression in the late 1930s when it no longer was financially feasible.
Click on the images and links below for more information on the history of the Daisy Farm.
In the background behind the students and Sisters in the creek are what is known to be the original farmhouse and barn built by the Ryders and Wellers. It was in this barn that the Wellers had a school sometime between 1877-82.
Once the Sisters purchased the land, they used it as a working farm complete with livestock such as cows, pigs, and chickens. That plus produce grown was food for the Sisters, students at the school and college, and patients at St. Mary's Hospital. They also brought students here for picnics from the school they had at 3rd Ave. East and 3rd St. before they built Tower Hall.
At one point, the farm had 11 cows, 1 steer, and 4 teams of two horses.
Milk from the cows would have been used by the school and St. Mary's Hospital. A milk house or spring house was built in 1902 for storage and still stands close to Chester Creek, which would have kept it cold.
The last section of land the Sisters purchased in 1906 included some woods and what would be the quarry for the gabbro or bluestone used to build Tower Hall and the Theatre. These woods also had wild berry bushes the Sisters harvested.
The Sisters had Chester Creek dammed near the north edge of their property by Niagara St. to create a livestock pond that was then used as a skating rink by the students and Sisters in the winter.
Mr. Beyenka worked on the farm along with his wife. They were the parents of Sister Eustacia. He is pictured here behind Tower Hall holding some very big produce.
Before the Sisters own the land, it was rented out to Misters Gray and Youngblood. It was reported in the newspaper that in 1871, they raised a quarter acre of cabbages yielding 2,000 heads!
This photo shows Mrs. Beyenka in the farmyard that also includes the barn and farmhouse the Sisters built in 1902. The farmhouse became Tarry Hall and housed the post office and bowling alley when it was moved behind Tower Hall in 1941.
At one point the farm had 250 chickens, and eggs were gathered for the kitchens at the school as well as for St. Mary's Hospital. They could be kept cool in the milk or spring house built in 1902 that still stands along Chester Creek.
The farm also had 6 turkeys, 6 geese, 4 rabbits, and 1 dog valued at $25 ($787 in 2023).
The farm had gardens and crops such as wheat and potatoes. Part of the land was also used for pasture for the livestock. Horses were a vital part of running the farm, and the Sisters had 4 teams of two horses and 19 vehicles of various kinds including 5 carriages.
Other crops that had been grown on this land before the Sisters owned it included oats, timothy and clover, corn, peas, beans, and turnips.
The previous owners - Andrew and Mary (Ryder) Weller grew seed potatoes on this land and in the late 1860s advertised 4 varieties in the newspapers: Early Goodrich, Early Sebec, Harrison, and Gleason.
College Street was connected from what had been called Allen Street to the College and its entrance sometime in the early 1940s. This photo shows workers on the new road and a farmhouse on the other side of Kenwood Ave. as well as Tower Hall, Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel and Library, and Stanbrook Hall, which had been added to the campus in 1938.
by Andrew Weller's sister-in-law Ella Fraser Weller, who was married to his older brother Samuel. He was a Presbyterian minister and founded Occidental College in California.
Ella's sister K. A. Fraser took photographs of "children in the author's immediate circle of friends" to illustrate the poems Ella wrote for the book. This is a photo of her with a child.
Samuel and Ella had two boys, Harold and Earl, who are included in the book.
The copy our Library was able to obtain was dedicated to a family friend, 5 year old Ethelwin McPherron. Sadly Ethelwin died when she was 15 and is buried in the same cemetery as Ella and Samuel and many Wellers including their father Tobias at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angelus, California.
Inscription in our copy of the book, which reads "Ethelwin McPherron with compliments of the Author"
Tobias was born on June 18, 1801 in Thurmont, Maryland and died at age 90 on March 11, 1892 in Los Angelus. In between, in lived in the area of Ashtabula, Ohio where he raised 8 kids with wife Sarah Higgins.
They were a highly educated family with two sons (Levi and Andrew) being teachers, two sons (Samuel and Oliver) Presbyterian ministers, and attending colleges like Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, Heidelberg Academy also in Ohio, and the University of Chicago.