I Remember Chesterfield

I Remember Chesterfield is a vividly recalled memoirabout a way of life that no longer exists. From the 1890's until the 1920's, asmall enclave of 50 immigrant Russian Jewish families purchased worn-out Yankee farmland in Chesterfield,Connecticut with assistance from the Baron Maurice de Hirsch Fund. Supplementing their poor livelihoods as farmers, they enterprisingly becamesmall traders, dairymen, pants stitchers, and summer boarding house owners. Ifthey recreated a little European stetl (italics) in turn of the century ruralAmerica, they were also fiercelydetermined to acculturate, and in 1892incorporated as the New England Hebrew Farmers Association.Savin, the oldest living great grandchild of community leader Harris Kaplan, passionatelyand lovingly chronicles life in Chesterfield. She recalls the halcyon days at hergrandparents' farm where she picked sun kissed blueberries, bathed inKosofsky's clear, cool brook, visitedher Grandfather's general store, and attended the little Chesterfield synagoguethat unified the community through its traditional customs, and rituals. Although it remained a formative influencethroughout her life, the ChesterfieldSavin once knew knew and loved has longdisappeared. In this wonderful book, but it lives again, timeless and compelling.