In a talk Saturday, Dr. Richard Leck shared his experiences restoring and living in a 19th century Woolwich farmhouse. Woolwich Historical Society sponsored the hour-long program at the town office.

The Leck home on Mountain Road is in a portion of Woolwich know as Montsweag which years ago had a number of farms and churches, a school and a grange hall.

Leck and his wife Esther bought the former Bailey Farmstead in December 1971, the same year Maine was commemorating its sesquicentennial of statehood. The Lecks raised five children there. Richard said the home is unique because only two families have lived there, the Bailey family and his.

“The days when families lived and worked on the same property for generations is a way of life that simply no longer exists in New England,” he said. Families once raised all the food they needed and made ends meet by working their property. Besides raising crops and livestock, they cut wood and harvested ice. “When the home was built in 1820 it was basically a cape with an ell, basement and center chimney."

The original house had three fireplaces and was entirely heated with wood probably cut by the Bailey family on their property, he continued. Sometime later, possibly the 1850s, the ell was taken down and the home enlarged with a shed and carriage house.

“By that time, woodstoves had become available which were much more efficient at heating than fireplaces,” he said. The home went through a more extensive remodeling in 1914 when the original chimney was removed and two new ones were added.

After the Lecks bought the property, they did some of their own remodeling including adding a new addition and many other improvements. Esther said they tried to keep all the interior painting, wallpapering and other renovations in a traditional Colonial-style using period colors. It was a great deal of work; she called it a “labor of love.”

"When we were finished each of the children had their own bedroom and a second bathroom had been added,” she said. “The home and property was a wonderful place to live and raise a family.”

Her husband spoke fondly of the Bailey family, sharing stories about some of them he remembered including Jay Gould Bailey, Roland’s father who ran a sawmill and cut ice on the property.

“Jack Shaw told me once Jay Gould he was known as “Thunder” because he had a deep, booming voice.” He said other details about the Bailey Farm appear in Woolwich Historical Society’s, “History of Woolwich Maine – A Town Remembered.” The chapter titled “Hamlets and Houses” features a fascinating interview of Roland Bailey who was born and raised on the Bailey Farm. He was among three generations of Baileys to call the farm their home. Their name for it was Brookside Farm.

Roland Bailey could trace his branch of the Bailey family back to pre-American Revolution. Capt. John Bailey, his great, great, great-grandfather, came to Woolwich from Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1761. As a youngster growing up in the 1930s, Bailey recalls there were no homes on Mountain Road south of the Montsweag schoolhouse. Besides farming, raising cows and poultry, ice was harvested here during the winter. Bailey Brook was dammed to form an ice pond.