Family Farm

Mary Clyde Streett, who helped operate a once-thriving Harford County tomato cannery, died of dementia Dec. 26 at the Bel Air Convalescent Center. She was 98. Born Mary Clyde Spencer in Forest Hill, she worked alongside her father in his canning operation in Frogtown, between Bel Air and Forest Hill. Their Spenceola Farm was once a well-known tomato-canning hub. Before graduating from Bel Air High School in 1929, she rode to classes in a horse-drawn buggy.

Mary Clyde Streett, who helped operate a once-thriving Harford County tomato cannery, died of dementia Dec. 26 at the Bel Air Convalescent Center. She was 98. Born Mary Clyde Spencer in Forest Hill, she worked alongside her father in his canning operation in Frogtown, between Bel Air and Forest Hill. Their Spenceola Farm was once a well-known tomato-canning hub. Before graduating from Bel Air High School in 1929, she rode to classes in a horse-drawn buggy. "Her yearbook called her the 'bright light' of the class," said her son, Dr. Richard P. Streett Jr. of Churchville.

Bobby and Pam Prigel are moving forward with construction of a creamery on their Long Green Valley property, where they will sell organic dairy products made from milk produced by their herd at Bellevale Farms. A $250,000 low-interest loan from Baltimore County, announced Tuesday, will help them complete and equip a 10,000-square-foot pole barn on Long Green Road. "This puts the finishing touches on this project," Bobby Prigel told a gathering of officials and friends at the farm, promising to invite them back next spring for ice cream.

Margaret H. James, a homemaker who enjoyed maintaining her 17th-century farm in Havre de Grace, died March 11 of heart failure at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center. She was 88. Margaret Higinbothom was born in Ellicott City and moved to Bel Air with her family in 1921. After graduating from Bel Air High School in 1936, she enrolled at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1940. During World War II, she worked as an executive medical secretary for a general at Edgewood Arsenal.

James Joseph Clements, a retired businessman and decorated World War II infantryman who fought in Europe with Maryland's famed 29th Division, died of pneumonia Nov. 1 at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin. The Ocean City resident was 86. Mr. Clements was born in Pikesville. After his mother died and his father abandoned the family, he was placed in an orphanage. "He lived at St. Mary's Industrial School until he was 13, when he was sent to the Breeding family farm in Louisville, Carroll County, where he lived and worked," said a son, Garry Clements of Eldersburg.

Anyone who travels through Baltimore County's Long Green Valley on a regular basis has to stop now and then so that Bobby Prigel's cows can cross the road. Prigel is a dairy farmer who produces milk the old-fashioned way, moving his herd from pasture to pasture, on both sides of Long Green Road, letting the cows actually walk and chew grass at the same time. Prigel's fourth-generation family farm, Bellevale, is the only organic dairy farm in the county. Unfortunately, you can't buy Prigel's milk.

John Streett "Jack" Davis, founder and developer of Harford County's first public golf course, died of cancer Feb. 11 at his home in Street. He was 81. Mr. Davis was born and lived his entire life at Geneva Farm, his family's Harford County dairy and later truck farm. He was a descendant of Col. John Streett, who led the Harford Militia against the British at the Battle of North Point during the War of 1812. "He never lived anywhere else," said his daughter, Kelly Louise Davis of Street.

Florence Elizabeth Strohmer, a retired nurse who helped run a family farm in Woodstock, died of lung disease Monday at Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown. She was 77. Florence Vesper was born in Essex and spent most of her childhood on her family's produce farm. She was a 1946 graduate of Kenwood High School and then received a nursing degree from the old Church Home and Hospital. She worked as a registered nurse at Johns Hopkins and St.

Next year, bulldozers are to knock down the 82-year-old pale green farmhouse overlooking Rogers Avenue just east of U.S. 40 in Ellicott City and slice 15 feet off the crest of the hill on which it sits. Rising there will be four-story apartment buildings surrounding a landscaped courtyard and pond that will obliterate the last remnant of an earlier, rural way of life. The apartments will house 152 upscale tenants age 55 or older. It is an old story in post-World War II Howard County, where a mostly rural population of 36,172 people in 1960 had exploded by last year to 272,452 people living in mostly suburban surroundings, according to census figures.

Lewis E. Pearce Sr., a retired Baltimore County herb farmer who ascribed his longevity to his wife's cooking - and especially her homemade fudge - died Saturday of congestive heart failure at his Glen Arm home. He was 107. Mr. Pearce was born at home in Glen Arm, and then moved to a 12-acre farm that his parents had purchased in 1906, where he would live and work for the rest of his life. "He was born Jan. 12, 1900, and often joked that if only his mother had gone into labor 12 days earlier, he could say that he had lived in three centuries," said Elaine Pearce, a daughter-in-law.