Bruce Mays Memorial Barn Tour
For Vermonters, barns are part of our landscape and our lives. Barns shelter our animals, store our provisions, and hold much of our history. Barns have stories to tell.
John Porter, UNH Extension Professor/ Specialist, Emeritus, and author of the book "Preserving Old Barns,” shared the stories he could “read” as he led us through 5 iconic barns in Newbury, starting with the Gibson Barn and continuing to the barns owned by Chip & Serena Spear, Robert Atwood, and Megan Putnam Warren. At each stop, we heard stories of how the farmers cared for their cows and produced, stored, and distributed their milk. We ended at an active dairy farm, Mark & Sarah Putnam’s, on Corey Hill Road.
John Porter and Chip Spear describe how the barn supported the Spear’s dairy operation. The Spears had a milking herd and a maple sugaring operation and worked with horses down through the years. The milkhouse building was moved from the corner of Moore Hill Road. Once a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp, it was known as the “Hurricane Lodge”.
Megan Putnam Warren’s barn was built around 1900 by Henry Tewksbury. Tewksbury owned and operated a steam-powered sawmill, which he used to saw out all of the lumber for the farm and the large dairy barn. In 1914, Putnams came along and bought the farm and continued to milk cows in the barn for many decades.
Robert Atwood welcomes a crowd of people into the barn where back in the day, he welcomed a crowd of cows. They could tie up and milk as many as 62 cows, including the legendary Margaret who set a US record for lifetime production of milk.
Feeding time at Mark and Sarah Putnam’s barn. The Putnams built their barn 20 years ago, using modern technology at the time, including an ingenious way to manage the manure.
Big pig at the Putnam’s barn, living comfortably side-by-side with their cows.
Excerpt from the NHS Winter 2025 Newsletter