NORTH WATERFORD – The Richard and Frances Jones homestead was one of two Bicentennial Farms in Waterford, farms that have been in the same family for more than 200 years.

The 300-acre farm was settled by Josiah Proctor, a Navy veteran, who acquired the land in the 1780s, according to the summer 1998 edition of Waterford Echoes, a publication of the Waterford Historical Society. Proctor cleared it and built the first house.

Josiah and Benjamin Proctor were involved in building a sawmill in Albany Township on Crooked River. The Proctors owned considerable land, much of what is today North Waterford.

The farm ended up in the hands of the Farmer family, according to the article. Thomas Jones married Belle (Isabelle) Farmer and had one son, Wallace, who worked on the farm until the married Ethel Kilgore in 1906. Wallace, who was born in the farmhouse, was Richard’s father, according to the article.

The lineage is listed as going from Josiah and Benjamin to John Proctor to Carolyn Proctor Farmer to Mary Isabell Farmer Jones to Wallace Jones and then to Richard Jones, according to Waterford Echoes.

The town history, “Waterford, Maine 1875-1976,” published by the Waterford Historical Society, states that Wallace Jones and his family made more than 3,000 pounds of butter annually, selling it to people in Waterford and Norway for 50 years.

Richard and Frances Jones carried on the family farming tradition, according to the town history. Richard Jones has run a sawmill and a shingle machine, besides the agricultural operations.

The neighboring Rice farm is the other Bicentennial Farm in Waterford.

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