Before the Revolutionary War, most of the Northern Catskills were a part of Albany County, and the territory where Lazy Day Farm was started was a district called Coxsackie, a Dutch translation of Algonkin meaning “land of owls”.

Built in 1755, The Reed Farm was very remote for its time. Mohawk were everywhere. The Catskill Creek provided limited transportation to “civilization” along the Hudson, and a very small road from Catskill led to Middleburgh, a mountain valley settlement known for its fertile farming, right past the house. Originally, possibly, the farm could have been a simple trading post, resting stop, or quaint farm. There are very limited records of the Reed family. There are three gravestones on the property that read as follows:

1. In Memory of Phoebe, w/o William H. Reed, who died August 26, 1827, aged 42y

2. In Memory of Eliza, w/o James Crane, who died March 13, 1829, aged 40y1m5d

3. In Memory of Clarissa P. Reed, died September 11, 1831, aged 13y

Nonetheless, in 1790, the land was relieved from the town of Coxsackie to form the town of Durham, established, in 1802. As the local lore goes . . . the original founders of the town settled on meeting house hill (across the street from the farm) at a high elevation to witness Mohawk before they could pillage. HOWEVER, the wind was brutal, and the cold made it worse. Half the settlers died that winter, and the remaining either returned to Boston where they came, or stayed to settle the Town of Durham, albeit in the valley away from the winds.

One of the families that stayed were the Hull family. Roughly around 1802, when the town was officially chartered, a member of the Hull family married a daughter of the Reed family down the hill, thus forming the Reed-Hull Farm, eventually becoming the Hull Farm once more family members arrived to “help” settle the land.

At this point it would be easy to confuse this side of the Hull family with the Hull-O-Farm side of the family on the other side of meeting house hill. They are cousins.

Two of these helpers were the great aunts of Ralph Hull (who we will get to later). The women paid for an extension of the farmhouse, and a massive new barn for the enterprise of dairy, both built roughly in 1820. In exchange, they had their side of the house all to themselves.

The farm eventually became known as “Pa John’s” and became an anchor for the community. One of John Hull’s last children of 14 was Ralph Hull. Making a very long story short, Ralph grew up in the farmhouse with all his sisters and brothers, saw Route 145 become a real road, saw automobiles drive past his family home for the very first time, there are scribbles in one shed that counted steer during World War II, and eventually Ralph saw computers come into this world. Ralph and his family sold the farmhouse to Kiley Thompson (the second owner) in 2011 under the condition he would bring the farm back to glory. Ralph died a few years later, but Kiley keeps his promises.

Nearly 90% renovated, the farmhouse is reaching its glory days again. In 2021, Lazy Day Farm became incorporated as a business, and the future of the farm is looking brighter and brighter as the days keep moving forward. Established in 1755, Lazy Day Farm may be one of the oldest farms still around in Greene County.