By Molly Lovell
Editor
     The for sale signs at the Benjamin Farm on Pleasant Hill Road have prompted curiosity among residents of the neighborhood and beyond, but what about the farm’s former owner, Jerred Benjamin? Long time neighbor and friend, Beth Bellemere sat down with the Leader to talk about Benjamin, a person she described as a “fascinating character,” in the Scarborough community.
     Bellemere said Benjamin, who passed away last year, purchased the farm during the early 1950s for the purpose of raising beef cattle. Benjamin had roughly 120 cattle at the high point of his tenure at the farm. The property was also sprinkled with sheep, chickens, ducks and two precocious guard geese that served as trusty look outs for the other barnyard animals.
     Bellemere, who has lived in her home across the street from the farm for more than 30 years, said during spring Benjamin would ask for her help in the birthing process of the calves and every year she would help Benjamin give inoculations to the animals on the farm. She even got the opportunity to bottle feed the lambs whose mothers didn’t take to their babies.
     Benjamin never lived in the old farmhouse at the front of the property, but had a home in South Portland rather. As Bellemere recalled her friendship with Benjamin, she reflected upon how sad it’s been for her to see the farm deteriorate.
     “It’s as though they were moving through life in step together,” she said of the ailing farmhouse and Benjamin himself. She said at one point he had intended to fix the place up, but just never got around to it. “Time just sort of caught up with him,” she said.
     Time also caught up with the brick barn that used to sit on the land, formerly known as Robinson Farm. The barn was identified as a historical structure back in 1994 during a survey of the town’s oldest buildings. Now it’s nothing but a pile of bricks.
     Bellemere described Benjamin as a very philosophical, yet practical man who had the know how to do just about anything. When Bellemere wanted to paint her house Benjamin put up staging and moved it accordingly every day until the job was finished.
     Benjamin was proud of his 128 acres on Pleasant Hill Road. In fact, when he died his family insisted that his body be driven past the old farm one more time. Bellemere has photos of that last good-bye in an album that’s entirely devoted to images of Benjamin and his farm.
    Bellemere said there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the farm’s property. “The land itself is different than what the casual passerby might think,” Bellemere said. Though Benjamin didn’t let many people explore the land because of liability reasons, he did let Bellemere do her fair share looking around.
     She said the land is peppered with natural springs and streams; some of those springs feed the pond that’s behind Bellemere’s home. She also said the springs are part of the headwaters of the Spurwink River that borders Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough.
     Bellemere said that as far she knows, the original Pleasant Hill Road ran through Benjamin’s property one hundred years ago and residents regularly used the road. In more recent years the road had been used as a cow path.
     Bellemere said it saddens her to think that the land could be turned into housing developments and called the possibility, “terribly inappropriate.” She also fears that development could jeopardize the Spurwink River because of the springs and streams on the property.
     Bellemere said several people have expressed the same sentiments. “I haven’t heard a single person say, ‘wouldn’t that be a great place to build a big house.’”
    According to Bellemere, Benjamin wanted the land to be preserved. “He made it very clear,” she said, and added, “He wanted people to be able to walk, to picnic, to enjoy and study nature there.”