Timeline: Westport Farming in the 20th Century 

(corrections/additions are most welcome, please contact Westport Historical Society)

1904 400 farms, population 2600, 1200 cows, 760 horses, 16,000 chickens

1921 First recorded use of a tractor on a Westport farm.

1926 Noquochoke Orchards farmstand built.

1934 A plan for Westport’s abandoned farms proposed by Louis McHenry Howe, President Roosevelt’s No. 1 secretary. He “invited the selectmen of the rambling town of Westport, Mass., to his summer cottage at Horseneck Beach. There Vacationist Howe told them that the President might select Westport for an experiment in repopulating abandoned New England farms with destitute farmers from other parts of the country. The selectmen were interested but not excited. “The idea has its faults and its advantages,” observed the chairman tersely.”

1934 Westport farmers required to test cows for TB as part of a public health initiative. Alexander Tripp recalls that many Westport farmers “even if they didn’t lose their cows for TB reaction, got rid of them all.”

1934 Cows brought to Westport from drought-stricken Minnesota.

1940s Local farm numbers peaked spurred by WW2 need for “wall to wall fence to fence” food production.

1940s Height of market garden farming, for example, Turtle Rock Farm. “Before refrigerated transportation made produce from California and Florida more economical than local produce.” (Donald Erickson)

1950s 78 farms producing milk

1950s Shift to high volume dairy production required large farms.

1950s Western corporations buy out grain supply and squeeze out local poultry farmers. 

1955 The Westport Fair was established, under the leadership of Thomas McGarr (Voc-Ag Instructor) and Harold S. Wood (Principal), along with the support of the Westport High School Committee. The purpose of the fair was to promote agriculture in the town, and to show projects that the vocational students had completed. As time went on, it became the social event of the summer with many people looking forward to its arrival each year.

1960s Future Farmers of America program at Westport High School.

1960 More dairy cows per square mile in Westport than anywhere in New England.

1960s The construction of Route 88 divided farms.

1963 Westport Conservation Commission formed.

1970s Chapter 61A introduced, offering significant local tax benefits to property owners willing to make a long term commitment to farming.

1970s Agricultural Preservation Restriction program introduced, a voluntary program that protects agricultural land from development in perpetuity.

1975 Farms begin to feel the pinch of economy. Farming becomes unaffordable due to rising costs of equipment and labor and changing tastes.

1980s A generational shift in farm ownership begins in Westport: Yankee farmers begin to retire, younger generations do not wish to continue farming. Portuguese families take on many of the “Yankee farms”.

1980s Land becomes unaffordable for farmers. Some Westport farmers move to New York State and Connecticut.

1986 Dairy farm buy-outs by the federal government. Federal buy-outs, initiated to reduce a surplus of milk, led to the sale of one fourth of all dairy farms in southeastern Massachusetts. “Geographically we had the largest concentration of dairymen go out in the country. We lost some of our best men.”(James Shaw, dairy livestock specialist). The government gave farmers a maximum of $22.50 for every 100 pounds of milk his cows produced that year. To complete the deal, the farmer had to sell off the herd, often for meat. Jay Tripp was one of the few Westport dairymen able to keep his herd. Sadly, the buy out decimated the breeding lines of local herds such as the Acheson farm guernsey cows. “All those bloodlines are gone” (Mike Kelly).

1980s Open land preservation efforts begin.

1980s/90s Renewed activity in vegetable farming.

1982 Long Acres farm is sold to the Russell family and transformed into Westport Rivers Vineyard and Winery.

1984 Coastal Growers Association founded.

1991 Westport’s Harvest Festival begins.

2000s Farm Viability Act encourages diversification. The Wood farm opens an ice cream stand.

2003 The Atkins Diet : “ That hurt us a lot. We dumped five or six trailer loads that year. It was a sad thing for us.” (Jerome Sampson)

2004 Right to Farm Act “to ensure the protection of the people in their right to the conservation, development and utilization of agricultural resources.”

2016 1 orchard, 2 major dairy farms, 1 cheese producer, 3 beef farms, 2 poultry farms, 1 major nursery and many smaller operations, 1 alpaca farm, many small apiaries (honey producers), many smaller mixed agricultural operations catering to neighborhood and small market clients, 1 vineyard.

2019 Solar array at Sampson Farm: “This solar farm is really important to our family business, allowing us to increase production, ramp up our retail space, and expand our operations. But it’s every bit as important to our neighbors because it means we can continue feeding them with the healthy food and clean energy they need. In a tight-knit community like ours, that means the world.” (April Sampson)