08/12/2026
In this 11th Installment of From Our Homestead, we return to the decades when family dairy farms shaped everyday life across Peru and the Champlain Valley. Hill-Lee Acres, founded by Leeward Babbie in 1961, stands as a vivid reminder of that era, when hard work, community, and the rhythm of the milking parlor defined rural life.
🌾 From Our Homestead – Installment No. 11
Hill-Lee Acres and the Era of Family Dairy Farms in Peru, New York
From the early 1900s through the 1990s, the town of Peru and the surrounding Champlain Valley were shaped by a way of life that is now almost gone: the family dairy farm. At one time, Peru alone had more than 40 operating dairy farms, and Clinton County counted well over 300. Nearly every back road held a barn, a silo, a herd in the pasture, and a family whose daily rhythm was set by the milking parlor and the seasons.
Among those farms was Hill-Lee Acres, founded in 1961 by Leeward C. Babbie. What began as a modest operation—just 12 cows and 180 acres—grew over four decades into one of the region’s most productive dairy farms. By the time the farm was sold in the early 2000s, Hill-Lee Acres had expanded to 420 cows and 800 acres, a testament to hard work, careful stewardship, and a deep love of the land.
Hill-Lee Acres became known for its Ayrshire dairy herd, earning recognition from the National Ayrshire Committee for having the highest producing Ayrshire herd in the Northeast. But its significance reached far beyond production numbers. Like so many farms of its era, Hill-Lee Acres was a place where children learned responsibility, neighbors helped neighbors, and the community’s identity was tied to agriculture.
During these decades, dairy farming wasn’t just an occupation, it was the backbone of rural life. Families rose before dawn, worked through bitter winters and humid summers, and relied on one another in ways that defined the North Country’s character. The Babbie family was part of that fabric. Leeward served in agricultural cooperatives, supported youth through 4-H, drove school bus for Peru Central School, and contributed to town governance. His farm was one of many that kept the region’s agricultural heritage alive.
As the 1990s gave way to the 2000s, the number of family dairy farms in the Champlain Valley began to decline. Economic pressures, consolidation, and changing markets reshaped the landscape. Today, only a handful of those once numerous farms remain. But their legacy endures in the stories, tools, barns, and memories preserved at the Babbie Rural & Farm Learning Museum.
Hill-Lee Acres stands as a reminder of that era: a time when Peru’s back roads echoed with the sounds of cattle, tractors, and families working together. It is part of the heritage we honor, preserve, and share one story at a time from our homestead to yours.
