About Wingover Farm

Wingover Farm has been in our family since 1970. We recently began to restore the property to a working farm. We have cleared land, grown and baled hay, set fence posts, installed chicken coops, planted a vegetable garden and started chicks.

The farm has acres of native grasses, alfalfa and red clover on which our hens forage for natural healthy food. Our garden provides yummy hen treats such as squash and sunflower seeds and cherry tomatoes.

Past & Present Owners of the Farm

Posted by Marjorie Jensen

Monday, February 06, 2006

I have no evidence of early deeds for the farm. The oldest I could find in Tiverton Town records showed ownership of the main parcel by a Horatio Hart in the late 1800s. At some point in the early 1900s, Herbert J. Cavaca purchased that land, noted on the deed as “the Horatio Hart Farm.” The farmhouse can be dated to about 1800 and probably earlier. Alex and Anne Taber purchased the parcel from Herbert Cavaca, et ux., on December 6, 1944 along with the farmhouse and, presumably, a barn and other outbuildings. On September 17, 1963, the Tabers bought vacant land from Mabel L. Reynolds, whose property abutted the Taber's southerly border. The Reynolds parcel was also owned at one time by a Hart, who later married a Soule, according to my neighbor, Peggy Quick, who owned the “Hart and Soule” place in the 1980s. Mabel Reynolds (daughter of Louisa Soule) kept her farmhouse but granted the Tabers a right-of-way to Old Crandall Road. In 1970, my first husband, Dominic P. Munafo, and I bought both parcels from the Tabers. The farm was named when we installed a 1,200' grass landing strip for a small airplane. The name was that of an aerial maneuver, the “wingover,” that also suggests images of the geese, ducks and other waterfowl that fly in and out of the farm's wetlands.

Later, in the 1970s, we added the small piece of land in front of the Hart and Soule place, the “Swamp Lot,” that we purchased from Isabel Wiley. By coincidence, in 1980, my second husband, Dennis OKeefe, acquired the Wiley home and millpond. When his mother and aunt came to live with him he converted the barn to the home where we now live. The northwest corner of Dennis's land abuts the southeast corner of the Swamp lot with Crandall Road running between. The Adamsville Brook runs through both properties. In the 19 th century the millpond provided ice that was stored in the barn that is now our home. The dams directed water through a mill that was used, alternately, to saw lumber and grind corn. In 2004 we put Wingover Farm into the USDA/ RIDEM Farm, Forest and Open Space Program, including Dennis's millpond and surrounding land.

1956 Newspaper Article

It has been commonly reported that Wingover Farm harbored contraband during Prohibition. The following story with pictures of the farmhouse appeared in the Providence Journal on Monday, August 20, 1956.

<caption top rt: "This is more than a picture of an old RI farm house. It is a scene of a battle. It is, the house on the Tiverton Farm just above Adamsville where bootleggers shot out with hijackers during prohibition. "

 

 

<caption bottom rt:"These men are pointing to bulletholes made as highjackers shot at bootleggers within."

 

H. Cavaca Dies, Ex-Rum Runner
Although the 1956 ProJo article above does not name the featured bootlegger, it has been commonly acknowledged that he was Herb Cavaca, owner of the pictured farmhouse that was sold to Alex Taber, Senior, in 1944. Anna Taber gave us the article in 1970. Mr. Cavaca was a local legend and some of his colorful antics were described in his obituary.

Farm House in the fall of 1970 after getting new shingles & a fresh coat of paint.

The farmhouse is a typical center-chimney cape-cod style home with two ells. The oldest part is likely more than 200 years old. There are two fireplaces and signs of another on the first floor with a “ghost” of a woodstove on the second floor. One fireplace still holds the old cooking crane that held many a pot of food. The home was, of course, post and beam construction. One room features rounded corners; similar round corners can be found in several other early homes in Tiverton including the Hart-Soule-Reynolds home next door. The first ell was likely built as a kitchen. Charred beams over the stove pipe-hole suggest a narrow escape from a house fire. According to a neighbor, Mabel Soule Reynolds, the second ell was built in about 1900 and was used at some point as a milk-house. The only bathroom was installed during the mid-19th century although it has since been updated. It is not known what the original barn looked like. A tumbledown dairy barn primarily made of plywood and corrugated metal was razed in the 1970s. Until 1976 the source of household water was a spring that still bubbles out of the ground and into the Adamsville watershed. A well had been sunk into the spring to a depth of about 12 feet. (Now, a deep well serves two homes on the property.)

Wingover Airstrip

This is the first plane, a two seater cessna , that used the airstrip c.1970