Issue link: http://southshoremagazine.uberflip.com/i/543152
20 22 Hornstra Farms Imagine 100 years ago in 1915 the landscape of the South Shore and Hingham in particular. It was quite different than what we see in the regional landscape of today. In 1915 the South Shore was a truly agrarian society with dozens of working farms throughout the region producing a multitude of crops and raising a full range of livestock. In 1929 in Hingham alone there were, 17 poultry farms and 25 dairy farms with over half these farms were large scale operations. During and after World War II our region rapidly changed from a farm based society to more of a manufacturing and service industries focused society. The Farms began to fall to the pressures of the need for land to house the influx of new people to the area and commercial development. In the late 1940's and early 1950's the state had over 7300 working dairy farms, there are now just 155. HORNSTRA FARMS is one of those 155 farms that is still standing strong and in fact expanding! John Hornstra is the fourth generation of his family to own, run and manage their dairy business, Hornstra Farms Dairy. In 1912 John's great grandfather Anske, his wife Agnes and their six children emigrated from Holland to the United States where they settled in Hingham, the Hornstra family first worked on the expansive Brewer Farm in Hingham, what now is The Trustees of Reservations Worlds End property, the family then purchased a property on Fort Hill Street and ran a small dairy farm there. Three short years later in 1915, the Hornstras purchased the then Jordan Farm on Union St. in Hingham and the rest is well, history in progress. Hornstra Farms continued into the 1970's as a working farm, with bottling and home delivery taking place in Hingham. Unfortunately, Hornstra Farms also fell to the pressures of land needed for the increasing residential population, the Hornstras faced tremendous pressures from the Town of Hingham's need for land and fields for Hingham High School, to which Hornstra Farm used to grow hay and corn to sustain their dairy herd. The rest of their land was sold to developers for private homes and a large condo complex known as the Meadows and to the town of Hingham. The barns and buildings remained vacant for years and were the subject of many photos, paintings and artwork of a "by gone era". John was not going to let his families legacy and hard work of farming here on the South Shore become a piece of folklore or history and believed that a working Hornstra Farms with cows etc. was part of the future as well as the past. In the mid-late 1980's John took over the home delivery business from his father Jack Hornstra who was the last vestige of "the quintessential milk man" in the area. John has always had an avid interest and passion for farming especially dairy farming, it's in his genes. I have known John Hornstra Farms is celebrating 100 years in the dairy farming business on the South Shore and the joy of the cows coming home! by Stanley Blackmur, photos by Edgar Stewart