America’s Oldest Family Businesses

Pride, ingenuity and endurance: More lessons from survivors.

What motivates a family in modern-day America—the land of easy mobility and limitless opportunity—to continue an enterprise founded by a long-dead ancestor? Here are the views of Randall Holmes of Holmes’ Brothers Farm of Wayne County, Mo., founded in 1847. “My brothers and I carry on a tradition started by our great-great grandmother, who told her granddaughter, who told our father, ‘Don’t sell the farm,’” Holmes says. “Before my father died, he gave his permission to sell. We have chosen not to. We don’t feel obligated to keep the farm as some kind of commitment to legacy. Rather, it has become something of a novelty and tradition we continue just to see how long the business can stay in one family.”

Holmes and other proprietors of the companies that rank among America’s oldest family businesses are justifiably proud. In fact, since the last version of our list was published in 2003, we’ve received numerous communications alerting us to 34 venerable companies we had inadvertently omitted (plus many impressive businesses too “young” to make the list). Asterisks on our list identify “new” additions.

Longtime Family Business readers will notice a change in our numbering system with this edition of the list. Two or more companies founded in the same year are now ranked as a “tie,” with the businesses listed in alphabetical order. For example, the Howell Farm in Cedarville, N.J., and Lyman Orchards in Middlefield, Conn., both founded in 1741, are tied for No. 12. The next business on the list (John Whitley Farm of Williamston, N.C., founded in 1742) is thus ranked at No. 14.

What has enabled these companies to stay in business for so many generations? In 2003, we pondered this question and suggested four strategies for family business longevity, based on the characteristics of the enterprises on our list:

1. Stay small.
2. Don’t go public.
3. Avoid big cities.
4. Keep it in the family.

Since 2003, only two businesses have changed ownership. The Delaware Gazette of Delaware, Ohio, was sold to Brown Publishing Company of Cincinnati in 2004. And after the death of the sixth-generation owner of Sawyer Bentwood Co. in Whitingham, Vt., George Campo purchased the company. Five other companies on our 2003 list either have closed their doors or could not be reached to confirm their existence.

Thanks to feedback from owners of the country’s oldest businesses, plus a bit of research on our part, we have identified three more keys to long-term sustainability of a family company:

5. Choose a business that won’t go out of style. To put it bluntly, people will always eat, and people will always die. Many of the companies on our list are working farms or ranches, makers or sellers of food products, and funeral home operators.

6. Be creative. Farms and funeral homes may dominate the list, but America’s oldest family business is Zildjian Cymbal Co., established in 1623. Other instrument makers are guitar company C.F. Martin & Co. (#47) and drum manufacturer Noble & Cooley (tied for #93).

7. Persist. “To each generation come challenges,” says Paul Hayward, the seventh-generation owner of The Homestead, a Sugar Hill, N.H., inn established in 1802 (tied for #26). “The inn has survived for over 200 years through the Civil War, Great Depression, World War I and World War II,” Hayward says. “I am confident my family will see the Inn through present difficulties.”

Leah Kristie served as a student intern at Family Business in summer 2007. We extend special thanks to Professor William T. O’Hara, founder and executive director of Bryant College’s Institute for Family Enterprise in Smithfield, R.I., and his associate Peter Mandel, who conducted the original research for our list, first published in 1999.

The oldest family businesses in America       Updated May 2008

* denotes new listing     Click here for information on companies inadvertently omitted from our list.

17TH CENTURY
1. 1623 Avedis Zildjian Co.
Zildjian family
Cymbals/Norwell, MA
www.zildjian.com
Founded 14 generations ago in Constantinople by an alchemist named Avedis I, who discovered an extremely musical metal alloy to create powerful, durable cymbals. The sultan named him “Zildjian,” Armenian for “cymbalsmith.” The family arrived in the U.S. in 1929, in time for Avedis Zildjian III to establish ties with hot, rising jazz drummers. His son Armand (1921-2002) created the company’s modern factory. Today his daughters Craigie (CEO) and Debbie (VP-human resources) are Zildjian’s first women leaders in its long history.

2. 1635-38?
Tuttle Farm
Tuttle family
Agriculture/Dover, NH
www.tuttlefarm.com
In 1635, founder John Tuttle settled in Dover with his wife and four-year-old daughter after surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Maine on his way from England. His 240-acre farm is now in its 11th generation under the Tuttle family. The Tuttles grow vegetables, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and black raspberries and operate a retail shop on site.

3. 1638
Shirley Plantation
Hill/Carter family
Historical site/Charles City, VA
www.shirleyplantation.com
In 1613 on the James River between Richmond and Williamsburg, Sir Thomas West settled Virginia’s oldest plantation. Shirley Plantation operated as a tobacco and grain farm from 1613 to 1952. In 1638, Edward Hill acquired the plantation. In 1723, his great-granddaughter Elizabeth Hill married John Carter, whose descendants have managed it ever since. Tenth-generation Charles Hill Carter Jr. and his wife converted the plantation to a tourist attraction in 1952. In 1998, the family began hosting weddings and corporate events under the Carters’ children, 11th-generation operators.

4. 1642
Barker Farm
Barker family
Dairy, apples/North Andover, MA
In 1642, Richard Barker founded his family’s farm, now run by the tenth generation of Barkers. Visitors can pick apples and flowers in season.

* 5. 1667
The Seaside Inn and Cottages
Mason family
Hospitality/Kennebunkport, ME
www.kennebunkbeach.com
In the 1640s, John Gooch arrived at the request of Fernando Gorges, agent for King Charles II. Gooch was asked to reside on the oceanfront peninsula at the mouth of the Kennebunk River to ferry travelers across. Travelers often stayed a night or two, so Gooch provided rooms and operated a tavern. The inn is now owned by 12th-generation member Patricia and her husband, Ken Mason.

* 6. 1680
Saunderskill Farms
Schoonmaker family
Agriculture/Accord, NY
www.saunderskill.com
Originally granted to Lt. Hendrick J. Schoonmaker by Peter Stuyvesant in 1663 as payment for military service. The land (named for the tributary of the Rondout Creek that flows through it) has been continuously farmed for 12 generations, since 1680. It now includes more than 800 acres of vegetables, flowers and orchards. A stone manor house, built in 1787, still stands on the property, as does a barn that housed oxen used to pull barges on the Delaware & Hudson Canal. Saunderskill is one of the few farms in the nation to have received the Tricentennial Award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now run by Jack, Dave, Cathy and Dan Schoonmaker.

18TH CENTURY

7. 1700?
Allandale Farm
Lawrence family
Agriculture/Brookline, MA
www.allandalefarm.com
Allandale Farm is the last working farm within Boston-Brookline limits and one of six farms left within the Route 128 Beltway. The farm specializes in naturally grown foods and operates a summer outdoor program for children.

* 8. 1712
The Orchards of Concklin
Concklin family
Agriculture/Pomona, NY
www.theorchardsofconcklin.com
The Concklin family came to America in 1637 from Nottingham, England. Nicholas Concklin bought 400 acres in the Pomona region in 1711. J. Raymond Concklin took over the farm in 1945, operating it with his wife, Ardelle; his son, Richard; and his daughter, Linda. When he died in 1993, Richard and Linda took over the farm. They are still farming it today, along with Linda’s son and Richard’s wife and children.

* 9. 1720?
Smiling Hill Farm/Hillside Lumber
Knight family
Dairy, lumber/Westbrook, ME
www.smilinghill.com
In the 1720s, Col. Thomas Westbrook and nephew Nathaniel Knight constructed a house in the Stroudwater region of Falmouth (now, Portland, Maine). The farm is still located on the same property. In the late 1970s the Knight family separated Knight Farm into two businesses to accommodate the farm’s growth in both agriculture and silviculture. Hillside Lumber (est. 1980) and Smiling Hill Farm (est. 1982) are owned and operated by the family’s tenth generation.

10. 1722
Nourse Family Farm
Nourse family
Agriculture/Westborough, MA
http://oldenoursefarmgourmet.com
After Rebecca Nurse was hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Mass., in 1692, her family fled Salem. In 1722, her descendants purchased land on the frontier in Westborough and established Nourse Farm, where the family has farmed the 140-acre spread for more than 280 years. Jonathan Nourse, proprietor since 1971, has expanded into prepared foods (jams, jellies, pies, etc.).

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