Person:Frank Churchill (1)

CHURCHILL

Elmwood Farm, located on a cross road from Gilbertsville to Morris, was part of a large tract of land bought by General Morris and deeded by him to his son Jacob, as was the land now owned by Noah Wood. The stone house, now occupied by James Churchill and family, and owned by Mrs. Carrie Churchill, was built for his son Jacob in 1821, and today is as good as the day it was built. It is one of the finest residences of Morris.

Jacob Morris lived on the farm several years and then deeded it to his brother, Valentine, who, in 1837, sold it to Nathan Lull. His father, Nathan Lull, was a son of Benjamin Lull, who, with his five sons were among the early settlers on Butternuts Creek, having bought a large tract of land about two miles above Morris Village before the Revolutionary War. The land includes what is now the farms of W. B. Gilbert, W. S. Lasher, S. Yates estate and others.

They were driven out by Indians and remained away until the troubles were settled. They returned to their farms and made of them some of the finest farms in Otsego County. Both Benjamin and his son, Nathan, served for a time in the Revolutioary War, and then came back and ended their days in the rich farming country so wisely located by Benjamin Lull, Sr.

Nathan made it his home until his death in 1889. After his death, his daughter, Mrs. Carrie Churchill (who was born in the house), bought out the heirs to the estate, thus keeping the property in the family.

Elmwood Farm is located on the banks of the Butternut Creek and contains 150 acres. Most of it is rich bottom land and well adapted to dairy farming, watered by running spring water at both house and barns, also by a brook as well as the Butternut Creek. Its resources are chiefly the products of the dairy, although grain and stock are raised. There is a wood lot of twenty acres composed of hemlock and hard wood timber. Morris, two mile distant, is it's post office. Its market places are Otego, Mount Upton and New Berlin, ten miles distant, and Oneonta - sixteen miles distance.

-This information was furnished by Percy W. Gould to Clifford Starr of Elmwood Farm. The book's name is "New Century Atlas - Otsego County" published by Century Maps Co., 1903.

This was the home of Patricia Starr's family at the time of her father's death in 1950. He had inherited from his aunt, Bertha Starr Churchill.