Friday, October 28, 2011

Once Upon Quoketaug by Rudy J. Favretti

Soon after we purchased the 42-acre property on Quoketaug Hill, my husband came upon a book written by Prof. Rudy J. Favretti called "Once Upon Quoketaug". We were beside ourselves with excitement because this book documented the lives of a Connecticut farm family from 1712-1960 beginning with the family patriarch, Eleazer Williams.
Rudy Favretti grew up taking piano lessons from Dee (Delia Williams), a descendant of Eleazer Williams in the 1930's. He also helped on the farm by carrying wood and became intimately familiar with the land and it's use. During Favretti's childhood, Grandpa Prentice who was born in 1866 told Favretti stories of his father who was born in 1820, spanning 150 years of information and stories about the property and it's people. A paragraph in the book goes as follows:
"Prentice Allen was an emotional man. Many is the time I (Favretti) saw tears flow into his eyes as he exclaimed how beautiful the day was or as he pointed out the scenery from the top of Quoketaug Hill."
We also know from pictures in the book that the part of this originally 500 acre farm that we currently own was called the West Pasture. The land is still as beautiful as related by Prentice Allen and we are reminded that we are just transitory caretakers of this remarkable property.

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