I Remember Chesterfield

I Remember Chesterfield is a vividly recalled memoir
about a way of life that no longer exists. From the 1890's until the 1920's, a
small 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 became
small traders, dairymen, pants stitchers, and summer boarding house owners. If
they recreated a little European stetl (italics) in turn of the century rural
America, they were also fiercely
determined to acculturate, and in 1892
incorporated as the New England Hebrew Farmers Association.

Savin, the oldest living great grandchild of community leader Harris Kaplan, passionately
and lovingly chronicles life in Chesterfield. She recalls the halcyon days at her
grandparents' farm where she picked sun kissed blueberries, bathed in
Kosofsky's clear, cool brook, visited
her Grandfather's general store, and attended the little Chesterfield synagogue
that unified the community through its traditional customs, and rituals.
Although it remained a formative influence
throughout her life, the Chesterfield
Savin once knew knew and loved has long
disappeared. In this wonderful book, but it lives again, timeless and compelling.