The Farm
Jersey cows once roamed the acreage surrounding the Manor House, and chickens and pigs populated the yard behind the kitchen shed and herb cellar. Wool from sheep and fur from animals such as rabbits were used to make clothes and blankets, and hens produced eggs that were a staple for the large Foy household and its tenant-farming families.
Berkshire pigs were a major source of income for the Foys. Late in the Civil War, Mary Ann Simmons Foy petitioned Jefferson Davis to exempt her 18-year-old son, Joseph Thompson Foy, from service in exchange for feeding Confederate troops with pork. After harvest, the pigs were turned loose on the peanut fields to turn the soil and fatten on the dropped “goobers” — in time for holiday celebrations and a large family barbecue on New Year’s Day.