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Casey Farm (c. 1750)

Experience history, explore the land (Saunderstown, Rhode Island)

Located by the bay on the ancestral homeland of the Narragansett People, Casey Farm once produced food for local and coastal markets and was one of many plantations tied to slavery. Today, farm managers raise organically grown produce for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and the seasonal Casey Farm Market. Choose from a wide range of farm-based education programs. Tour the farmyard to visit the animals, the cemetery where generations of Caseys are memorialized, and the farm house museum gallery featuring family portraits and cultural objects representing all the people of this land.

Located near Newport, Casey Farm had access to goods imported from England, enabling its early owners to live fashionably. The region’s economy was tied to the slave trade, and this plantation was one of several in the region supplying plantations in the South and the West Indies. By 1755, soon after the Casey farmhouse was built, 19% of people in the county were enslaved. Casey Farm was one of many Rhode Island plantations that used forced labor by people of Indigenous and African descent to care for crops, animals, and domestic duties. Enslaved people allowed the farm to prosper, so centuries later, Historic New England could steward the land. By the nineteenth century, tenant farmers worked the land, but the Caseys retained two rooms in the house for their own visits. The Casey family pursued other careers and some influenced national events. Eight generations of them owned the farm from 1702, keeping the original 300 acres together, and donating a working farm with a farmhouse and barnyard buildings in 1955.

Today, CSA members receive fresh, certified organic vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers, and a relationship to the land on which the produce is grown. Buy a share for the 2024 summer season, or contact the farm office for more information. Join us at the Casey Farm Market every Saturday during the summer and shop locally grown and produced goods, produce, and food.

Historic New England has launched a series of digital visitor experiences featuring never-before-seen videos, new photography, oral histories, and archival material, including Casey Farm.

 

Plan Your Visit

Location

2325 Boston Neck Road
Saunderstown, R.I. 02874

 

EXPLORE DIGITAL TOURS

Days & Hours

Casey Farm Market
Saturdays, May 18 – October 26, 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Guided farm tours
Saturdays, May 18 – October 26
Tours at 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 AM

Tuesdays, June 4 – October 15
1 PM – 4 PM
Tours on the hour

Admission

Guided farm tours
$10 adults
$9 seniors
$5 students and children
$25 family

Free for Historic New England members and North Kingstown residents.

Accessibility

A visit to the farm involves walking on unpaved pathways. Visitors with limited mobility may be able to enjoy the farmhouse tour and can access a virtual tour of the site from their own digital device. The site is not equipped with ramps, elevators, or lifts. Service animals are welcome but please leave all pets at home. We are happy to work with you to make your visit an enjoyable one and we encourage visitors with questions or requests to call ahead.

Directions

Take I-95 to Route 4 south to Route 138 east (Newport/Jamestown exit). Turn right onto Route 1A before the Jamestown Bridge. The farm is one mile on the right. From Newport, take Route 138 west to the Narragansett exit. Turn right onto Route 1A. The farm is one mile on the right.

Parking

There is a large parking lot at the farm.

Contact Information

A Coastal Farm

More than 300 acres stretching from Narragansett Bay to the Pettaquamscutt River were owned by the Casey family from 1702 to 1955.

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  • A Coastal Farm

    More than 300 acres stretching from Narragansett Bay to the Pettaquamscutt River were owned by the Casey family from 1702 to 1955.

  • Barns and Outbuildings

    Barns and outbuildings have changed little since the Casey family owned the farm in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.

  • Family Cemetery

    Members of six generations of the family rest here, including Brig. General Thomas Lincoln Casey, who helped build important structures in Washington.

  • Organic Produce

    Casey Farm is a working organic farm that produces vegetables and fruit for a Community Supported Agriculture program and local farmers' markets.

  • Dominique Chickens

    These heritage-breed, free-range chickens provide eggs for the Community Supported Agriculture program and the popular Project CHICK school program.

  • Stone Walls

    More than ten miles of dry-laid stone walls, most at least five feet high, divide the fields at Casey Farm.

Narragansett Nation

For at least 10,000 years before the present, the Narragansett people and their ancestors have lived on the land that is now called the West Bay of Rhode Island where Casey Farm is located. The Narragansett nation was the largest and most powerful in the region and allied to many others including the Wampanoag, Niantic, Nipmuk, and Shinnecock. This strip of land between Narragansett Bay and the Pettaquamscutt Estuary was called “Namcook,” or “the place of the fish.” As the name implies, this place along the bay was a summer home for Narragansett people, historian Lorén Spears of the Tomaquag Museum has stated. Tomaquag Museum is Rhode Island’s only Indigenous museum dedicated to sharing culture, arts, and history from a First Person perspective, and a partner to Historic New England at Casey Farm.

Archaeology on the farm and nearby sites has produced cultural objects such as stone tools and quartz projectile points that are the result of the long history of habitation on this land. Large villages of about 500 people worked together to build homes, hunt, fish, cultivate crops, and gather all they needed to maintain their physical and spiritual communal life.

The first European voyage to explore Narragansett Bay is generally agreed to be the one headed by Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1523. As more explorers and traders visited from Europe, they brought diseases for which Indigenous people had little immunity, and entire communities were decimated. The first permanent settlement in Narragansett territory was led by Roger Williams in 1636, ejected from Massachusetts for religious reasons. He was a co-owner of a trading post at Cocumscussoc, just north of Casey Farm, and wrote a book to assist others to understand the Algonquian language and culture, The Key to the Language of America, in 1643.

People of European descent surveyed Namcook in the seventeenth century, and then a group of investors from Massachusetts and Connecticut known as the Atherton Group, who renamed the strip of land between the bay and river “Boston Neck,” attempted to claim the land. Cogninaquand, chief sachem of the Narragansett country, sold 5,330 ½ acres to the group of investors on July 4, 1659. Because the Atherton group did not have the consent of Rhode Island’s General Court, Roger Williams refused to translate for them and the sale was declared void. Legal issues held up settlement, as did King Philip’s War in 1675. The war was disastrous for Indigenous people, many of whom were enslaved and sent to the West Indies, and some forced to become indentured servants, while still others continued to live in the area as free people, though without the same rights and opportunities as white Americans. The land changed hands through investors many times until 1702, when Joseph Morey acquired it.

A Working Plantation

On March 30, 1702, the property now known as Casey Farm was acquired by Joseph Morey of Jamestown, Rhode Island, the first Casey ancestor to own the farm. Prior to 1702, the land had been involved in a long dispute between Connecticut and Rhode Island, dating back to its “sale” to a group of English colonists from both colonies by the Narragansetts in 1659.

Soon after he aquired the land, Joseph Morey gave the land by deed of gift to his daughter Mary, who was married to Daniel Coggeshall. Mary died in 1724, and the land passed to their son, Daniel Coggeshall Jr. Daniel Coggeshall Sr. was the grandson of John Coggeshall, one of the original incorporators of Rhode Island and its first president. He was born in England and immigrated to Boston in 1632, where he became prominent in the colonial government. He was banished to Rhode Island in 1637 or 1638 because, in his official position, he refused to condemn other religions, including Quakers, who were banned by the Puritans. After settling in Rhode Island, he became a Quaker himself.

Around 1750 Daniel Coggeshall Jr. and his wife, Mary Wanton Coggeshall, built the farm house that still stands today. With a gable-on-hip roof and vernacular Georgian details, this showy style was favored by traders in Newport and in the Bahamas.  It was a prominent landmark for sailors along the western passage of Narragansett Bay. It stands 135 feet above sea level and about 1,320 feet from the shore.

The Coggeshalls had seven children. During the early to mid-eighteenth century, the Coggeshall family prospered from the farm. The close proximity of the farm to Newport, the second largest port in New England, provided the Coggeshalls with an immediate market for their tenants’ produce. Crops included corn, wheat, rye, barley, and apples for cider. An important product was Narragansett cheese, which was sold in large quantities in the southern colonies. Sheep were also raised. As Quakers, the Coggeshalls probably used indentured servants as laborers but it is unclear whether they owned slaves (Quakers outlawed slavery in the 1790s), but it is certain they profited by sending farm products to slve plantations in the Southern colonies and West Indies. By 1747, and probably much earlier, the family had established a cemetery on the property, which was used for burials until the 1950s.

Daniel Coggeshall Jr. lived on the property and managed it until 1772, when he moved into the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Abigail and Silas Casey. In 1774 Benjamin Gardiner took possession of the farm from Daniel Jr. due to Daniel’s failure to pay a mortgage on part of the land.

During Gardiner’s ownership of the property, the Revolutionary War directly affected the farm. During the British occupation of Newport in August 1777, the British army in the bay spotted a group of revolutionaries gathering at the Coggeshall house. The British fired their guns at the house and then sent soldiers on shore. Most of the American soldiers escaped, but some were injured, killed, or captured. A bullet hole from this attack still remains in the parlor door of the house.

Benjamin Gardiner occupied the farm from March 1775 until March 1783, when it was transferred back into the ownership of Daniel Coggeshall’s heirs. Daniel had passed away in November 1775. His daughter Abigail and her husband, Silas Casey, received a one-eighth share of the farm. In 1781, Silas Casey, a successful businessman and merchant, came into sole ownership of the divided estate. In 1787 Silas sold part of the farm to his father, Thomas Casey. A complicated set of dealings saw various parts of the estates in different hands throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

When Silas Casey died in 1814, part of the farm transferred to his son, Wanton Casey. Wanton had fought in the Revolutionary War, eventually going to France in 1779 for his health and to learn the mercantile business. During his stay, according to the family, he was the guest of Benjamin Franklin and also met the Marquis de Lafayette. He returned from France in 1783 and became a partner in his father’s business. Soon after he traveled to Ohio, where he was one of the founders of the town of Marietta, on the Ohio River, one of the first settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains. There he married Elizabeth Goodale. They returned to Rhode Island in 1793 and moved into the mansion house at the farm with their family. The Caseys had ten children that survived childhood.

Preserving the Farm

Wanton Casey left the farm to their oldest son, Thomas Goodale Casey, while he in turn left it to his nephew, Thomas Lincoln Casey. Thomas Goodale Casey had improved much of the farm. At the time of his death in 1855, he was engaged in building a new barn. He had added a porch on the mansion house, and re-shingled and clapboarded the house as well.

Thomas Lincoln Casey spent considerable effort proving his title to the land, since Thomas Goodale Casey’s will was declared invalid in the state of Rhode Island. The dispute over his will led to the division of the estate among eleven heirs. Thomas Lincoln Casey wrote A Historical Sketch of the Casey Farm, Boston Neck, Rhode Island, in 1881, in which he stated, “Some of the heirs were opposed to the division of the estate into sevenths, or its sale out of the family, regarding it as an heir-loom, which ought to be preserved, while others cared nothing for this sentiment, looking upon the farm simply as a piece of property, of which they owned a share, and in this view they were sustained by the law.” The farm was appraised at $10,500. Over the next fourteen years, Thomas Lincoln Casey endeavored to unite the property under one title. Some of the heirs quit-claimed their right and title to Thomas for one dollar, reserving visitation rights, which would later prove an encumbrance. He was able to recover full ownership of the farm for $3,678.12, and by 1875, owned the farm without any encumbrance whatsoever. Restoring the farm became his hobby.

Thomas Lincoln Casey graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1852, first in his class, and was appointed a lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers. During the Civil War he was stationed at Fort Monroe on the coast of Maine. In 1878 President Hayes and Congress appointed him to complete the construction of the Washington Monument which, although construction began in 1848, had been abandoned due to design flaws. Casey redesigned the monument, which included strengthening the base, and Casey himself set the capstone in 1884. The monument was dedicated the following February. By 1888 he had risen to Chief of Engineers and Brigadier General. Among his achievements was overseeing the construction of the State, War, and Navy building.

Casey and his family lived in Washington, but he spent his vacations improving the farm while instructing the tenant family, the Goulds, on how the farm should be managed, such as rotating fields, planting crops, maintaining orchards, and fertilizing with seaweed. Casey completed the barn and rebuilt the sheep sheds, changing their frontage. He built a carriage house and woodshed, the roof of the ice-house, a new corn-crib, pig house, a new well-curb, and other outbuildings, and generally repaired all the buildings. He rebuilt many of the principal walls on the farm and “topped,” or rebuilt in a more formal manner, the walls bordering the main road crossing the estate (now the lane, Old Boston Neck Road).

He planted one hundred American elm trees at the cost of $100. The elms succumbed to Dutch elm disease and the weakened trees were destroyed during the Hurricane of 1938. There are photos from the 1930s that show the farmhouse and the surrounding elms in their glory. One elm that probably grew from a seed of one of these trees has managed to survive and can still be seen towards the swamp meadow just beyond the corn crib.

Casey also improved a wild cranberry yard of about two acres in the swamp meadow. There are still cranberries growing there today, and evidence of the method used to flood the bog at the bridge near the southern end. Casey built the stone wall around the family cemetery, and purchased several of the monuments placed there. He had his grandfather, Wanton, and his grandmother, Elizabeth, disinterred from their grave sites in East Greenwich and reburied at Casey Farm.

Thomas Lincoln Casey and his wife, Emma Weir, had four sons. The first, Thomas Jr., became a captain in the Army Corps of Engineers. Their second child, Robert Jerauld, died at age one and is buried in the family cemetery. Their third son, Harry Weir Casey, was born in 1861 at West Point. Their fourth son, Edward Pearce, known as Ned, became an architect of merit in Washington, and worked with his father on the Library of Congress.

Harry spent his summers at the farm, often with his brother Ned, during the 1870s. From 1871-1880, Harry sent letters to his parents in Washington, D.C., which provide an interesting description of life on the farm with the tenant family. He reported escapades shooting his gun and sailing to Block Island. His letters also include complaints about the tenants, the Goulds, including Mr. Gould’s failures to comply with Thomas Lincoln Casey’s instructions, which were frequent and explicit:

  • “Mr. Gould hasn’t fixed the broken places in the walls yet.”
  • “Mr. Gould hasn’t filled in the pig pens yet, or done anything else except white wash the piazza, and he did that just a little while before we came.”

Harry also complained of Mrs. Gould’s cooking, “regulation” johnnycakes, and lots of comments about dirty dishes and poor laundering. His letters, while not always positive, give valuable information about daily life on the farm. Harry also took many photographs with a glass-plate camera, images that now preserve Casey Farm in the second half of the nineteenth century.

In September 1877 Harry enrolled in the Scientific Department of Yale College where he received a number of awards. Tragically, just prior to his junior year, he drowned off of Narragansett Pier on September 1, 1880.

In 1881 Thomas Lincoln Casey completed his book, A Historical Sketch of the Casey Farm, Boston Neck, Rhode Island, which describes the history of the farm and Boston Neck, as well as describing in detail the efforts to preserve the property intact and his many improvements on the farm. Perhaps the final paragraph sums up his love for the land: “As a piece of property, the place is nearly valueless…The soil generally is exhausted in fertility, much grown up in brush and swampy grasses, the Mansion house dilapidated, and the fields stony. But as the heirloom preservation of which many sacrifices have been made by my ancestors, and as a repository of the ashes of my beloved kindred, the place is beyond price, and I trust will ever be zealously guarded and cherished by me and mine.”

Thomas Lincoln Casey passed away in 1896. At the time of his death, he was overseeing the construction of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. with his son, Edward Pearce Casey. He left the farm to his sons, Thomas L. Casey Jr. and Edward Pearce Casey.

Becoming a Museum

Thomas Jr. passed away in 1925. The farm came into the sole possession of Edward Pearce Casey. Sixteen days after his brother’s death, Edward Pearce Casey wrote his own will. He and his wife, Lillian Berry, had no heirs. Ned was friends with William Sumner Appleton, founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England, so he knew of the society, which was one of the only organizations that could be enlisted to preserve the farm at that time.

His will stated: “First, after all my lawful debts are paid and discharged, I give and bequeath to the SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF NEW ENGLAND ANTIQUITIES of Boston, Mass., The Casey Farm located on Boston Neck, North Kingstown, Rhode Island, with all the appurtenances thereunto belonging, including the house built about 1745 and historic in that it bears the marks of an attack by the British during the Revolution; also…a permanent endowment, the income from which shall be used in maintaining the estate, including the burying ground thereon…Cultivation of the Farm shall continue and be maintained and the woods shall be preserved and the older trees not cut out as frequently recommended. This bequest will include, in addition, the contents of my dwelling and office comprising of old furniture, paintings, drawings, etc., much of which was taken from the Farm and should be returned; also genealogical material and a book written by General Thomas Lincoln Casey, giving the history of the Farm from the time of purchase from the Indians to be found in my library; also, documents wherever found.”

Edward Pearce Casey died in 1940, and his wife Lillian in 1955. Since that time, Historic New England has been operating the Casey Farm as a working farm, preserving the valuable land along the Narragansett Bay and teaching visitors about agriculture and preservation in Rhode Island.

 

Collections on Display

Portrait of Abigail Coggeshall Casey (1737-1821)

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Portrait of Silas Casey (1734-1814)

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Portrait of General Thomas Lincoln Casey, Sr. (1831-1896)

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Property FAQs

Find out about the CSA program, Casey Farm Market, photography policy, and more.

Learn More
  • What is the Casey Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program? How do I become a member?

    Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members support the farm by purchasing a share of certified organically grown vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers, which are available to be picked up on a weekly basis from mid-June through October. Spaces in the CSA program become available after January 1. Sign-ups begin in October. Buy a share or contact the farm office with any questions.

  • Is all of your produce grown organically?

    Yes. We are certified organic by the USDA.

  • Do you offer children's educational programs?

    Yes. We run Project CHICK, field trips that fulfill curriculum standards, summer camps, and much more. Learn more.

  • Is the farmhouse part of the farm tour?

    Yes, one room of the farmhouse is included on most tours. People on guided tours are introduced to the Casey family and the people who worked the land in our museum gallery room.

  • Can I schedule a private group tour?

    Yes, group tours of ten or more people can be arranged. Learn more.

  • Do you provide admission discounts for EBT cardholders?

    EBT cardholders from all fifty states can show their card for $2 admission to house tours for up to four guests per card.

  • Can I feed or pet the farm animals?

    In order to best care for the farm animals, we ask visitors not to pet or feed them. They have carefully planned diets, and other foods could make them sick. Also, because the farm animals are in a rotation system, they are usually surrounded by an electric fence for their protection.

  • Can I bring my dog to Casey Farm?

    Due to the farm animals and children’s groups that are often present near the farm house, barnyard, and agricultural fields, please leave all pets at home. Thank you for leaving pets at home during the Coastal Growers Market as well. Leashed service animals, of course, are allowed.

    On the hiking trails accessible on the bay side of Boston Neck Road and via the King Preserve ¼ mile north of Casey Farm, leashed dogs and well-behaved owners are welcome, just as long as no children’s groups are present.

  • What are the hours of the farmers’ market? Are you open at other times for the sale of produce?

    The Casey Farm Market runs Saturdays from May through October from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Produce is currently only available through the CSA program and Saturdays, mid-May through October, at the Casey Farm Market. When fresh eggs are available for sale, often in the winter, we put signs on the road and advertise on our Facebook page.

  • Is Casey Farm available to rent for private functions?

    Yes. A limited number of private events for up to 150 people are held at the farmhouse lawn and gardens each season from mid-May through early September. Learn more.

  • Can I use my metal detector here?

    Historic New England believes that any artifact recovered with or without a metal detector is an integral part of the site and should not be disturbed. Because of that we do not grant permission for anyone to remove any artifact from a site for any reason.

  • May I hunt on your property?

    Our site is designated for public use and also houses farm animals. We do not allow hunting on our property.

  • Can I take photographs at the farm and in the museum gallery?

    Interior and exterior photography for personal use is allowed at Historic New England properties. For the safety and comfort of our visitors on this working farm, we ask that you be aware of your surroundings. Video, camera bags, tripods, and selfie sticks are not permitted. Professional/commercial photographers and members of the media should visit the press room for more information.

  • How do I become a member of Historic New England and get more involved?

    Join Historic New England now and help preserve the region’s heritage. Call 617-994-5910 or join online.

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