Daniels Farm: Milk boxes, Integrity and Wide Open Spaces

When I think of Daniels Farm, I think of my family milk box and a name one can trust. The family has an important place in Middletown history and earned the admiration of the community through its progressive farming practices and fair dealings.

The Daniels family has operated a farm in town for five generations, beginning in the late 1870s with Samuel Daniels (born 1826). The original farm, located about a mile south of the current farm site at 874 Millbrook Road, was destroyed by fire in 1913.

At that time the farm was known as The Millbrook Dairy Farm and was run by Herbert O. Daniels (born 1868). The Connecticut State Agricultural Society named him its counselor and instructor for the “promotion of better agriculture in the state” in 1913. He provided all farmers in Connecticut with free advice and recommendations as part of his position. He was known for his vast knowledge and understanding of modern farming.

Lewis Daniels Sr.  (born 1900) added a retail milk business in 1918 to the farm and dairy operation at 874 Millbrook Road, now Daniels Farm. The farm had a daily milk delivery that many of us remember, which continued until 1980s under Lewis’s son Raymond Daniels. I, for one, remember that the milk box outside our back door always provided a place to sit on summer days. Even as a kid, I marveled at the convenience they offered, with chocolate milk, butter, and cheese delivered just outside the kitchen door whenever one wanted it.

The agricultural operation at the farm was rented to Willie Harvey beginning in 1968, so that the Daniels boys could focus on their extensive dairy business, which by this time included about 130 Holsteins for milk production. Harvey and his sons owned the cows and tended to them, while the Daniels business bought the milk from them and a few other area farms to process and bottle for its customers.

Sunshine Dairy, the farm on Coleman Road owned by the Guida family, bought the Daniels dairy business in 1982. At around the same time, the Harvey family gave up the farm lease. This was not unusual during this time period, as local small farm operations all over New England found it nearly impossible to make a profit.

The Daniels family, however, managed to remain creative and progressive thinking. They planted Christmas trees and operated a pumpkin patch, haunted hay ride, and a variety of other marketable opportunities.

The Daniels family earned a wonderful reputation for being friendly and reliable, no matter the service they offered. They opened the farm to school groups to tour the dairy operation and, later, children flooded the farm for the pumpkin patch and other seasonal activities.

Today, Bob Daniels, who took over after the death of his father Ray in 2008, runs the farm. And the place is busy! The big barn houses the Hospital for Special Care Manes & Motions, which offers therapeutic riding opportunities for people who have physical or emotional disabilities. A landscaper, a dog grooming business, and a hay baling operation rent space in the dairy barn. Other areas are rented for boarding horses and for storage.

Over time the property connected to the farm has shrunk. In its heyday, the farm needed up to 125 acres to be productive. The Daniels owned much of the required land; some of it was rented. Without the need for grazing land for the cows, the Daniels family sold more than 22 acres to the City of Middletown for open space, although they maintain access to the land for farming.

Today, Daniels Farm includes about 30 acres with a house and several barns. But most importantly, it incorporates the farm vistas that help us imagine life in a more rural time in Middletown’s history.

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