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Chapter 2 - An Opportunity
In 1912 at the age of 21, Mark Shaw,
Jr., took a job off the farm driving a milk wagon for the Oliver J
Coburn Farm, a place his father had worked some 24 years earlier.
Family records indicate he earned $12.00 for the week’s work.
Despite this modest wage he was able to purchase additional property
on New Boston Road to expand the family farm. The job with the
Coburns lasted a little more than two years. In the spring of 1915,
disaster stuck at the Coburn Farm when the entire herd of cows had
to be destroyed as a result of "foot and mouth disease." This
misfortune led to the demise of the Oliver J Coburn Farm which was
the site of the current Dracut Historical Society building, the
Dracut School Complex and the former police station. The Coburn
Farm was sold at auction in 1933, most of the land going to the
Justus Richardson Farm.
For his dedicated service, Mark Shaw was offered the opportunity of
keeping the
Coburn home delivery customers. He was successful in keeping most of
the customers which became the beginning of the M.L.Shaw and Sons
milk delivery business.
 With this new retail business, the family, members were able to
dedicate
all of their efforts to the family farm. A new building for bottling
was constructed; more cows were purchased; and a very primitive
bottling operation began. They burned wood under a farmer's kettle
to make hot water, washed bottles by hand and filled them out of an
eight quart can. All milking was done by hand, cooled with water,
and then cooled with ice in the bottling plant. Ice had to be
purchased each day.
During the summer of 1915, Mark Shaw, Jr. began to build a home on
the farm. On a cold February night in 1916, having built enough of
it to live in, he and Sarah Grace Haslam walked to the home of
Reverend Samuel Dupertius to be married. The honeymoon lasted until
four A.M. the next morning when he returned to his delivery route.
They would have three children, Eleanor (1918), Winthrop (1921), and
Warren(1924).
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Home
Delivery
 Please
visit our new on-line ordering
system.
It's chock full of information and
details regarding our Home
Delivery service. Shaw Farm's trucks
deliver fresh milk,
bread, and other produce.
Click here
for info and ordering |
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Growth Hormones?
We have
strong feelings about not using
artificial growth hormones.
Click here
for more details |
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Shaw Farm Newsletter
Watch here for our 100th Anniversary
Celebration newsletters |
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The Boston Globe recently reported on our anniversary. Click here
for details |
