Hard Work: If there’s an inherent thread that runs through the farms featured in our series, it’s hard work. And if ever there was a family who epitomized that principle, it’s the Vargases.
An article published in 1960 in New England Dairyman titled, “Fighter, Farmer, Father” featured Al Vargas, “president of Hampton’s Local New England Milk Producers’ Association, school bus driver, justice of the peace, alternate trial judge,” and patriarch of one of the town’s largest families. Al’s wife, Addie, and all sixteen of their children – Lorraine, Virginia, Adrienne, Theresa, Alfred, Dottie, Arthur, Lawrence, Patricia, David, Beverly, Wayne, Glen, Marlyn, Daniel, and Alan – were present for the interview, and “a happier and healthier group would be hard to find” the reporter wrote. At the time, the children ranged in age from 35 to two, and with four of the daughters married, the family included 17 grandchildren, a number that continued to grow. And though the surname is no longer listed on the town’s rolls, several members of the family remain – the Christadores, Paul Cichon, Brad Waite, and the Emonds, who reside in the old homestead.
Many of the farmers we’ve featured inherited their farms, yet Al Vargas’ route to agriculture was more circuitous. A successful career as a boxer started when he was only sixteen. During his ten years in the ring, he won most of his fights, and half of those with knockouts, and though he was a middleweight, heavyweights, who appreciated his style and aggressiveness, frequently trained with him. One of his regular sparring partners fought the heavyweight champion, Max Schmeling. “Al Vargas, the boxer, brought to dairy farming the same aggressiveness, the same singleness of purpose,” the article stated. “But he brought more than that. He brought a gentle nature.”
His journey to our town was also unique. When the time came for Al “to put the gloves away”, he became a truck driver, travelling all over New England. In the middle of a wintery night in December 1936, while descending the desolate hill which was once Route 6, he found himself stranded when a connecting rod on his truck broke. Approaching a lone farmhouse, he knocked on the door several times, and almost left to look elsewhere when a light finally appeared from within and a woman answered. Mrs. Weeks shared her hospitality with the stranger that night, letting him use the telephone to call a mechanic and inviting him to sit in the warmth of her kitchen until his truck was fixed. The next morning, after the truck was repaired, and after a hearty breakfast, he departed “with profuse thanks for her kindness” and returned to his five motherless children.
Driving the same route the next week, he stopped at the farmhouse to “thank the good woman once again.” The visits continued. Mrs. Weeks, a descendant of Colonel Litchfield who once owned vast holdings in the town, was a widow trying to maintain her small farm of 125 acres, only 50 of which were tillable. Eventually the two were married, and Al continued to drive the truck while learning all he could from neighbors on farming, until he was ready to devote himself to agriculture full time.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Vargas passed away, and Al was left once again with five children to raise on his own while continuing to learn about the business of agriculture, but “they got along, somehow,” and two years later, he married Miss Addie Robbins of Canterbury, who also had a daughter. Together they brought ten more children into the world and onto the farm, which continued to grow as well, accruing acreage, improving the stock and the soil, and developing into a modern operation.
With land owned, or the use of which was acquired, the Vargas farm expanded to 400 acres, including 200 acres of tillage and 100 acres of pasture. At the time the article was written, the 38 Holsteins included several blue-ribbon recipients in county fairs, 20 cows were producing 1400 pounds of milk every two days, delivered from the bulk tank to the tank truck, and plans for the next season, with the maximum number milking, anticipated the delivery of 2200 pounds of milk every other day.
+The Vargas farm was also the first in the State to be licensed to sell milk right from the farm, according to grand-daughter Carrol Reuthe. “That was no small feat,” she said. “It meant that the milk was of the highest quality, tested weekly. “
“I remember taking my small, antique milk can down to him to fill up and then picking it up in the evening,” Kathy Thompson recalled. “Loved that raw milk with the cream on top.”
In addition to running a dairy farm, Mr. Vargas drove a school bus, and was active, not only in the agricultural community, where his fellow farmers continued to re-elect him as president of the Milk Producers Association, but also in the community at large, where he was involved in the “politics” of the town. Mr. Vargas’ opinion mattered to townsfolk.
+Along with the original homestead, there is only one remnant left of the once sprawling farm. At one time, a pole barn, open on one side to permit access, sheltered the cows utilizing a “pen-stabling” model. An aluminum roof provided for cooler quarters. A concrete cow yard strewn with fresh bedding consumed a considerable area. The four-stall milking parlor, the only remaining building which has been converted into an apartment, was easily accessible to the pole barn. There was also an “immaculately clean” milk room, where a 250 gallon bulk tank cooled the milk until it was picked up and trucked to Providence. The Vargas farm stored 150 tons of hay and 200 tons of grass silage. Equipment for forage production included a field chopper, an automatic silo filler, and a hay drier in order to harvest and store hay at its maximum protein content. The hay-drying shed provided a capacity of 450 fifteen-inch bales.
Hard work was not relegated only to the out of doors. Inside, Addie Vargas provided daily meals for a dozen people, and on holidays, forty family members gathered at her table. Reportedly, the family used twelve quarts of milk a day, sixteen on Sundays, 22 dozen eggs a week, and a bushel of sweet corn per meal when it was in season. Addie Vargas did all of her own baking — pies, cakes, cookies — for which she was quite famous, volunteering her homemade goods for community events. On the day of the interview, she was making 22 dozen doughnuts for a church breakfast. Her culinary talents were legendary.
“She won lots of ribbons for her baking at Grange Fairs,” Diane Becker recalls. “Her kids had homemade bread for their sandwiches every day.”
“Every Sunday they had a main meal in the middle of the day and at suppertime, on Sunday only, they had cake and ice cream for supper,” Kathy Thompson relayed. “When Lisa was little she always asked to go to Gramma and Grampa’s for Sunday supper, with good reason.”
Townsfolk remember her baking like it was yesterday. It was very memorable. The whole family was memorable. As was the farm.
But those who were raised there remember it best.
Wayne Vargas recalled that his father used to milk by hand before the milking parlor was automated, and that he and his brothers began helping out in the barn by age six. They used to hold the cow’s tail while their dad milked by hand. They would all get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to work in the barn before school.
David Vargas remembered that they all had jobs to do on the farm and couldn’t have any after school projects because there was work to be done. He recalled that his mother used to have a wood cook stove in the kitchen that she used year round, and did all her canning on it in the summer. She didn’t get an electric stove until the late 1950’s. He also relayed – unfathomably – that the house only had one bathroom!
“I will always treasure my life growing up on a working dairy farm,” Carrol said. “I believe it’s what gave me the work ethic I have till this day.”
“Al Vargas is a good dairy farmer, as he was a good fighter. But the fine family that he has reared on his dairy farm is the greatest tribute to him and Mrs. Vargas,” the article concluded, leaving the last words, on family life on the farm, for Al himself: “We don’t make much money, but this is living.”
Recipe of the Month: Molasses Crinkles
We might not have her recipe for doughnuts, but these cookies are especially fabulous when dunked in coffee.
Cream ¾ cup of butter. Gradually add 1 cup of sugar. Add 1 egg and beat well.
Mix together:
2 ¼ cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. cloves
½ tsp. ginger
½ tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
Mix 1/3 of the dry ingredients into butter mixture. Add 4 tbs. molasses and mix. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix well. Chill for a half an hour. Shape dough into balls one inch in diameter, roll in sugar and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for 7-10 minutes.
Addie Vargas