Last updated: June 8, 2023
Place
Information Panel: Orchards, Fields, Gardens, Pastures
NPS / Claire Hassler
Quick Facts
Amenities
2 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Wheelchair Accessible
The wayside shows a drawing of seven enslaved working men and women working in a wheat field that spans the top of the sign. They stack hay into a pile in front of a one-story brick building with two windows. An ox-drawn carriage sits in a grass field by a dirt road in front of them, and an orchard with red fruit lines the right side of the image.
A five by five-inch black and white map in the lower left corner indicates that you are near Peirce's Mill and Pierce Shoemaker is to the south. Text below the map reads: This detail from an 1861 map shows the mill, several other buildings, and the rows of trees on the hillside that made up the Peirce family orchard. To the right of the map, the sign is titled in large white letters:Orchards, Fields, Gardens, Pastures. Below, the text reads: Even in the mill's heyday, the Peirce family ran a diversified farm. They grew vegetables, tended bees, raised livestock for meat and dairy, and cultivated fields of wheat, corn, rye, and oats. On this hillside they maintained a substantial orchard. Some of these products were consumed by the family, their tenants, and their enslaved workers. Others were sold at market.
A five by five-inch black and white map in the lower left corner indicates that you are near Peirce's Mill and Pierce Shoemaker is to the south. Text below the map reads: This detail from an 1861 map shows the mill, several other buildings, and the rows of trees on the hillside that made up the Peirce family orchard. To the right of the map, the sign is titled in large white letters:Orchards, Fields, Gardens, Pastures. Below, the text reads: Even in the mill's heyday, the Peirce family ran a diversified farm. They grew vegetables, tended bees, raised livestock for meat and dairy, and cultivated fields of wheat, corn, rye, and oats. On this hillside they maintained a substantial orchard. Some of these products were consumed by the family, their tenants, and their enslaved workers. Others were sold at market.