The man who posed as the fifer for Wellington artist Archibald Willard’s famed “Spirit of ’76” painting in the 1870s was raised on a large Brighton Township farm that has remained in the family.

This week, Hugh Mosher’s great-great-granddaughter Joyce Browand, and her husband, Wilbur, signed conservation easements with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, guaranting that 176 acres of the 182-acre Peck-Wadsworth Road farm will never end up as a housing development by signing.

The organization works to preserve the scenic beauty, rural character and natural resources of northern Ohio.

“We wanted it to stay in the family,” Joyce Browand said Thursday. “This farm has been in my family for five generations. We didn’t want some developer to wind up buying it and building homes on it. This was the way we could do that.”

A conservation easement permanently protects the natural, agricultural and scenic resources of the land while allowing the property to remain in private ownership.

The Conservancy also signed conservation easements with the family of Rhea Cowie, a 91-year-old Rochester Township woman whose family has opted to protect 208 acres of their 220-acre Gore Orphanage Road farm, according to Andy McDowell, director of the Land Conservancy’s Firelands Field Office.

“Both farms have nice streams that flow into the Black River, plus a good amount of land that will always be available for farming,” McDowell said. “Even if someone didn’t want to farm it, they could plant it with trees or let it grow up in brush to be eventually cleared out for farming again.”

The Land Conservancy began talks with both families about preserving their land in early 2009.

“They were aware of us and what we do,” McDowell said. “We wanted them to take time to think about what they wanted to do.”

While both farms will be shielded from development, the conservation easements give the landowners some flexibility to build new homes for themselves if they wish, McDowell said.

The Browand farm dates to the mid-1800s, when Hugh Mosher’s father, Gideon, homesteaded the land, according to Joyce Browand.

The couple purchased it from Joyce’s mother, Irene Holmes, in 1959. The farm is midway between Quarry Road and state Route 511.

“We’re about the only farm around here where anyone still farms their own land,” Joyce Browand, 80, said. “Most of the land down Mosher Road has been sold to developers. It all used to be farmland.”

Her husband, Wilbur, 84, still farms the land, which produces soybeans and wheat.

“We have some calves but no cattle,” Joyce Browand said. “We’re getting up there, but we stay very active. We’re still pretty healthy.”

Jarvis Babcock, a former Rochester Township trustee, acted to permanently conserve more than 1,000 acres of his own farmland in 2007. Gerald Cowie, a current Rochester Township trustee, served with Babcock for more than 20 years, according to McDowell.

“That may have inspired them to follow suit,” McDowell said.

Formed in 2006, the nonprofit organization has saved 333 properties and 21,402 acres of land across northern Ohio.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---