How it all began

In 1703, the area of Warwick was granted the Wayayanda land patent, by Queen Ann of England. But hundreds of years before the land was settled and farmed by the European settlers, our area was inhabited by the Minsis tribe of Indians. Minsis means wolf and they were part of the Wolf Clan, who were fierce protectors of their family tribes. Here at the farm, our property was adjacent to a main Indian tribe and wigwams were still being used near the property until the 1800s.
Our land began to be farmed in the middle 1700’s, just before the French Indian War. It was on the border of the disputed State line between New York and New Jersey, which ran right through the middle of our land! At this time it was first settled by the Dolson family, a wealthy Dutch farming family from New Amsterdam. Farming slowed down for a period during the 1770’s, as men left the safety of their farms and families, to fight in the Revolutionary War. Throughout the next century, the property was handed down and stayed in the family until the late 1800’s, with a rich history of marriages with other well known first settlers in Warwick. The Marshall family farmed property in the 1900’s, then sold a parcel of land to the Nash family in 1964. A well known architect built their wonderful mid century home by the lake and they gave the land a rest from farming for nearly 50 years. They chose to enhance the property by planting a wonderful assortment of special trees, many now standing more than 70 feet high. Now in the 21st century, nearly 275 years later, it is once again a working farm in the beautiful and fertile Warwick Valley.