Friends of Historic Glasgow (Delaware)

West End Dairy founder, farmer dies at age 95 (1/7/06)

Barczewski bucked era's idea of the role of women

By ROBIN BROWN
The News Journal

01/07/2006

Anne M. Barczewski was a hardworking farmer and a woman of refinement.

The petite powerhouse was as at ease with cows and chain saws as she was with getting her nails done, going to Mass, growing prize roses or decorating her historic home with antiques of museum quality.

Hers was a first-generation American success story -- and a good, long run that ended Friday when she died at age 95.

Born in Wilmington in 1910 to Polish immigrant parents, Barczewski survived the Depression, overcame her limited education and grew graceful enduring hardscrabble times.

A young American woman before the era of liberation, she was her husband's business partner, and an award-winning cook and farmer who shifted from dairy farming to tree farm management.

In her elder years, civic leaders of the Bear-Glasgow region she loved called her a treasure. And for decades, hers was the last working farm in Glasgow.

Once, nearly a decade ago, she strolled the 236-acre farm and said that, no matter what else happened, she could not have asked for a better life, or a better time or place to live it.

"She was a beloved daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, grandmother and great-grandmother," said granddaughter Susan Arday of Laurel, Md.

She had many good years before Alzheimer's disease began her fade from the life she loved.

She moved in 2002 to Manor Care Pike Creek Nursing Home, where she died. Arrangements were being finalized Friday.

Historic La Grange farm

In 1930, Steven Barczewski Jr. and Anne Martha Napolski married at St. Hedwig's Catholic Church in Wilmington.

They both grew up on farms. And they chose that hard but satisfying life for themselves and their family, which grew to include sons George A., of Glasgow, Steven J., of Georgia, and daughter Jo-Anne K. Barczewski Lewis, of Lincoln University, Pa.

The Barczewskis were founding owners of West End Dairy in Wilmington for years before buying their Glasgow farm, called La Grange, in 1942. They raised cows and produced Golden Guernsey bottled milk and dairy products that were West End's trademark along the East Coast. They also restored the house, built in 1815 for prominent local doctor Samuel Henry Black.

Anne Barczewski was a whiz in the kitchen, and her original-recipe Delawine broiled chicken won the 1954 Delmarva Chicken Cooking Contest adult division.

"She also was active in the Antique Auto Club of America and thoroughly enjoyed displaying her 1959 Cadillac, which she bought new," said son George.

She was a founder of the Delaware Rose Society, won numerous honors for her roses and served as a show judge for the American Rose Society. She also tested roses for Jackson Perkins nursery and was noted for her dramatic floral arrangements.

She was a leader in green-thumb groups, such as Delaware Federation of Garden Clubs, and chaired the state flower show.

After her husband died in 1958, she beat the era's odds against women and kept the dairy going with her kids' help.

La Grange later was named a Delaware Farm of Distinction and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Age didn't stop her from wielding chain saw

Leaders flocked to La Grange in 1997 to honor her as Delaware Tree Farmer of the Year. Her prizes included safety gear and a big Husqvarna chain saw. Then 87, she covered her 5-foot-3 frame in the gear, hefted the saw and growled "vroom vroom" to amuse the crowd. After speeches, tours and refreshments, she walked quietly in patchy sun filtering through trees. That's when she said she couldn't have had a better life.

She said her husband was laughing from heaven at her chain-saw antics. And she hoped she'd done him and their many relatives proud that day.

But she added that, with God as her witness, all her awards meant little compared with her love of her land, home, country or -- most of all -- her family.

Contact robin brown at 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com.

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West End Dairy founder, farmer dies at age 95 (1/7/06)
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