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Farm Pictures |
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Some history of Curles Neck Farm on this site. Henrico Historical Society (Curles Neck Farm) |
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This is a history of Curles Neck obtained from "Historic Curles Neck Dairy Farm." A
pamphlet published by Babson Bros. Co. on some date not recent. I added some of my
own at the end. I plan on fleshing it out a bit more eventually. |
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Curles Neck was settled sometime in the 30 years following the settleing
of Jamestown. At first it was not one farm but, several farms or tracts of land.
They had names such as Woodson's, Raleigh, Bailey's, Tillman's, Wood's Farm,
The Slashes, Bremo and of course, Curles. There are two theories about where the name was derived from. One says it came from the curls in the river that make it a peninsula. The other theory says it came from the surname Curle. William roscoe Curle's name is mentioned on an old grant. In earlier days Curles was always referenced as Curle's , with the apostrophe. The Randolph family lived in Curles Neck as early as 1635. This is the same family which later included the statesman John Randolph. Nathaniel Bacon of "Bacon's Rebellion" fame lived here around the 1670's. Here are two links about Nathan's Rebellion.
In 1894 Charles H. Senff bought Curles Neck, Bremo, and Strawberry Plains farms. This brought the size of Curles neck up to it's present 6,000 acres. He built a mansion the same year to replace the previous owner's mansion which had come under neglect. He also built other hoses, two wharves, put a local telephone in in 1900 and an outside line in 1913. In this day the Curles Neck was farmed with 90 mules and 100 black laborers. It;s yield of wheat, corn and oats was 50% above US averages. It had 1000 beef cattle, 1000 sheep, 100 horses, 500 hogs, poultry and, a small dairy herd. Senff died in 1913 and C.K.G. Billings boght the property. Billings loved horses and after his purchase Curles Neck had several championship horses. There was also a mile horse track on the farm. Strawberry Hill Races were once held on the farm. Click the link and scroll down to history. Billings' successor A> B. Ruddick started the dairy operation. Curles Neck Dairy started retailing in 1933. IN 1943 my grandfather F. E. Watkins purchased the farm which was then already 300 years old. Today the farm is in a miserable state. The dairy operations were sold to PET some years ago. There are no functioning dairies on the farm anymore. Most of the money that Curles Neck generates now comes from Vulcan mining rocks. This has an unbelievably negative effect on the land. The old brick barns at one of the farm's dairy locations (Prospect) are to be torn down for more digging. The present owner, Richard watkins, the son of F. E. Watkins has no respect for the farm's history or beauty. He only cares that it's his kingdom. I know him personally. All his sense of self-worth, his signs of approval, it's all money. Money is his only real emotion. He never gives he buys. He has never been able to generate money on his own. So, he takes Vulcan's checks. Money is his addiction. |
| Update: The farm has been sold, and will probably be developed, at least some. I've heard of plans for houses there. |
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