Does Farm's Past Have Future?

Md. Site Needs Support System

Combines, thrashers, tillers, stoves, canning ovens, water pumps, glass mousetraps, oyster tongs, goat-propelled corn shellers, tobacco prizes, a wool recycler and just about everything else needed to sustain a rural farming community can be found on a 130-acre farm and private museum in St. Mary's County.

But the family that owns the massive collection of more than 15,000 large artifacts and countless pieces of rural Americana fear it could be lost forever if someone or something does not step up to save it.

The John K. Parlett Farm-Life Museum on Green Manor Farm in Mechanicsville, which includes eight themed barns that house 48 historic tractors, including a 1927 Model D John Deere, a re-created hardware store and an old trades barn, is opening its doors to the public one last time this weekend during its Farm-Life Festival.

The late John K. Parlett Sr., a former St. Mary's commissioner and member of the Maryland House of Delegates, would give tours to area schoolchildren, host tailgating parties for antiques clubs and began the annual Farm-Life Festival 12 years ago to show off his treasures.

But after his death in 2005, maintaining and caring for the collection became too much for his 72-year-old widow and her seven children.

"This is the history of America. . . . This is worth saving," said John K. Parlett Jr., 54, who with his family and local, state and federal officials has been trying to find a way to preserve the collection for future generations.

The family's last choice is to hire an auction company. "Everything will go off in 15,000 different directions," he said.

"That is not what Pop wanted, but I just can't do it anymore," said Parlett's widow, Catherine "Kitty" Parlett, who still lives on the farm and cares for it and the museum.

The couple's children have moved away, own their own businesses and have lives of their own. Plus, she said, without her husband there to help, caring for the collection and the farm just isn't as much fun.

When the Parletts bought their farm in 1958, the eldest Parlett had brought along a few treasures from his family's farm. As the years passed, his collection grew.

"After he got out of politics [in 1986], we went full blast," Kitty Parlett said.

Her husband would comb through old farming and collecting magazines and have choice equipment sent from across the country. Each weekend, the couple would go to antiques shows and auctions as far away as Ohio in their truck and covered cart and come home with a load of treasures.