Recently, I received an inquiry regarding an old farm in our Town. Right away I knew they were referring to the Brookside Farms of the Stewart family. I thought how things, which were common knowledge of my youth, are fading from memory, and that new people, settling in our community, have no awareness of the majestic landscape we once enjoyed, which is now being divided up between residential building lots and commercial buildings. Recently we’ve seen a surge in warehousing structures and large box stores. I wonder what will be the next wave of development in a decade or so.

To renew, and hopefully keep fresh in the minds of recent arrivals, one of the major players in our history around the end of the 19th Century, and definitely in the 20th Century, was the Stewart family.

New people to our community have difficulty imagining the landscape of our Town a century ago. Farming was slowing losing ground to the growth of industry. The Brookside Farms were a mainstay of milk production and a proud display of the family who operated them. Lush, well-groomed fields, meticulously tended, seemed to roll on for miles.

In the group of glass plate negatives we have been given, four magnificent images of the Samuel L. Stewart half of the farm were found. This portion of the farm was devoted to dairy operations and was quite extensive. So, for those of you wanting to learn more about our community’s history, here are four photos of Samuel L. Stewart’s home and farm. I’ve provide a copy of the map from Joe Santacroce’s history of the family so you can see the expanse of land it covered. Now you have an idea how Stewart Avenue got its name.

I’m not going to delve into the details here, but will refer you over to the Newburgh History Blog and a wonderful history put together by Joe Santacroce on the Stewarts. I could never surpass, or even match this document. Kudos to my predecessor who is also a great friend. I sometimes think we need to provide people with the path to the information they seek, rather than simply copy and paste, taking credit for someone else’s material, or rewrite and paraphrase it to make it sound “original.”

For those of you who don’t know, we wouldn’t have Stewart Field without Archie Stewart, Samuel’s nephew! Thanks, Archie, for giving us so much.