Bissell Family History

From the GoosePondSugarShack website, note the following information about where Benoni and Mercy lived at the mid-point of their lives, Mercy would have been 45 years old in 1860, their son John was turning 20 and in two years would be headed off to the Civil War:

"The Bissell Family has been producing maple syrup from the Maple trees on the Goshen farm since the late 1800’s.  The maple trees on the property were tapped for family consumption during the early years.  For the past 40 years the family has been producing maple syrup and maple candy for retail sale.  The land currently owned by the Bissell children was originally purchased in 1860 by their great-great grandfather Benoni Bliss Bissell.  The property is located in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.  He started the family farm as a dairy operation. The property continued as a dairy operation until the 1960’s.  The current family members are cooperatively involved in the sugaring operation as they are committed to keeping this fifth generation family farm active and sustainable to preserve this land as a working forest."

The website also contains a wonderful essay by "Elizabeth" telling about the sugaring process and interesting pictures of the process.  I have borrowed one of the pictures from the website (below) and hope that these Bissell cousins will let me beg forgiveness later, because I haven't yet asked their permission...

Sometime soon we will also add a few words here about Richard Bissell's recollections of helping with the maple sugaring when he was a boy.