The Monmouth County Park System (MCPS) will hold its Wool Days/Sheep shearing event on April 29 and 30.
The event will be held from 12 p.m. through 3 p.m. on both days at the historic Longstreet Farm, which is located at 44 Longstreet Road, Holmdel.
The events will feature sheep-shearing and demonstrations by sheep-herding dogs. Wagon rides to the neighboring Monmouth County Historical Association’s Holmes-Hendrickson House will also be included. There the staff will demonstrate the way wool was used in Colonial America with spinning and weaving activities.
According to the MCPS’s website, Longstreet Farm was among the largest and most prosperous farms in Holmdel. The original 495 acres were assembled in 1806 by Hendrick Longstreet from several farms.
The MCP’s webpage notes that, during the 1890s, the farm was owned by Longstreet’s daughter, Mary Ann Longstreet, who was in her age 70s. The farm was managed at that time by Hendrick’s great-grandson, Jonathan I. Holmes, who was in his 20s.
During the 1890s, Longstreet Farm was a general farm on which tenant farmers raised cereal grains, livestock, and potatoes as a cash crop, according to the MCPS webpage.
General farms that primarily used horse power, such as Longstreet Farm, were slowly being replaced by farms which relied on market gardens and used steam and gasoline power. In the 1890s, Longstreet Farm was considered an old-style farm, according to the MCPS website.
According to the MCPS’s webpage, Jonathan I. Holmes inherited the farm in 1911 from his aunt, Mary Ann Longstreet. The farm remained in the family until it was purchased by the MCPS in 1967 from Jonathan’s daughter and heir, Mary Longstreet Holmes Duncan. Since then, the farm has been preserved as a slice of the county’s rural past. The farm opened to public in 1972.
The MCPS’s website states, the Longstreet Farmhouse was built-in three sections between 1775 and 1840. Structural changes made in the 20th century were eliminated when restoring the farmhouse in the 1890s period.
Admission and parking for the event are free.
For more information, visit www.MonmouthCountyParks.com or call the Park System at 732-842-4000.
For persons with hearing impairment, the TTY/TDD number is 711.
