Matriarchs: Shirley Pumphrey, Josephine Franklin, and Mary Franklin

Neighborhood: Millersville

When I get the itch to plant something or start salivating at the thought of home grown produce, it may be because I have a little farming in my blood. For my grandparents and their children farming was a way of life that supported the family, provided a rich bounty to locals and city slickers alike and developed wonderful relationships as good neighbors.

The Franklin family accumulated various parcels of land totaling 80 acres in Millersville between what is today Benfield Road and Benfield Boulevard, which today bears only a tiny resemblance to what it was when I was growing up. The three family homes that remain on Veterans Highway between Northrop Grumman and the I-97N Severna Park exit are a lasting reminder of our family roots.

As time and loved ones passed, my cousin and I decided to sit down with the remaining family matriarchs to capture their memories. Sitting at the dining room table of the home that Aunt Shirley and her late husband Leroy built on original farm land, the story of the Franklin family began to unfold.

John and Mary Tesar (my great grandparents) lived in a house on a farm at the crest of the hill just north of Benfield road. They had three sons, Tony, Harry, and John and one daughter named Barbara (my grandmother). Their daughter met and married Albert Franklin, who lived on another farm located in the area, and the newlyweds moved in with her parents.

The union of Barbara and Albert Franklin produced four boys, Edward, Albert, Harry and George, and three girls, my mother Barbara, (for whom I named), Shirley, and Betty. The children grew up in the house where their grandparents had lived: two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs including a kitchen and a living room. Cooking was done on a wood stove in a summer kitchen adjacent to the house. In the spring of 1941 the family moved into their new three-bedroom house which was just below their grandmother’s home.

Growing up, the children worked on the farm, and went to school, Sunday school and church. As the farm was the family’s only source of income, everyone had to do their part.

The family concentrated their efforts on truck crops at first but then added a more profitable tobacco crop and eventually built a tobacco barn on their property. Both the girls and the boys planted, hoed, cut, darted, and handed off when the tobacco was being hung in the barn. Aunt Shirley said that stripping gave them something to do together in the winter and provided quality family time. To feed the family, they raised hogs, calves, pigs, chickens, and ducks, and canned garden produce, such as tomatoes and corn.

Each year for about 20 years, from May until Christmas, the Franklin family operated a produce stand on Crain Highway in front of their home, selling cantaloupes, tomatoes, corn, and various other vegetables and fruits. At Christmas time they sold sweet potatoes, pumpkins, cider, and handmade wreaths and garlands. With help from their father and brothers, my mother, Barbara, and Aunt Shirley ran the road stand after their mother died.

Clientele from Hochschild Kohn, the May Company, and Stewart’s would stop in their chauffeur-driven cars on Friday nights to pick up what they needed for the weekend and leave a list of items they wanted to pick up on their return trip to the city. The regulars often offered their house keys to the Franklin family in case they wanted to go down to the shore during the week.

Fourteen years after the birth of her last child, my grandmother, Barbara Tsar Franklin, died at the age of 49 of a massive stroke leaving my mother and her namesake to assume care of the family. Albert Franklin died at the age of 63 from complications of gangrene.

The property Albert Franklin had amassed over the years was split between his children. He gave Shirley, Betty, George, Ed and Barbara each a half acre to build a house adjacent to the family home. Albert and Harry got the remaining acreage, which was farmed for a while and then eventually sold for commercial development.

My aunts, uncles and my parents always had large vegetable gardens and would share their bounty with other family members, friends, and neighbors. Today, at 81-years old, Aunt Shirley still maintains a beautiful flower and vegetable garden.

George Franklin’s son, Rick, is the fourth generation Franklin to carry on in a family-owned farming related business. He owns and operates Franklin Lawn and Garden on Route 3 North in Crofton

Times have changed and it is hard to know whether the next generation of Franklins will go back to the land or even choose a related career that preserves open space, protects the environment or advances farming technology. We do know that our family will always have an appreciation of simpler times and the hard work that goes into bringing farm fresh foods to our tables. After all, it’s in our genes. Perhaps John Greenleaf Whittier said it best - “Give fools their gold and knaves their power; let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all.”