Ed Kearns was born on July 4, 1932. In 1936, his family moved to the area of Osborne Hill Road and bought a piece of farmland. That farmland has been known as Kearns Farm ever since.

Ed was only 4 when he moved, and he started working right away. Kearns Farm was a dairy farm back then, with several cows in the barn. Kearns was not the only dairy farm in the area, either. Dairy farms lined the road that is now known as Bennetts Bridge Road. Cows would often be seen crossing the street, and farmers and neighbors would often share their yards for each other to use.

In 1941, the cattle barn at Kearns Farm burned down. Ed explained that when that happened, the cows stayed at Lacatosh Farm down the road while the new barn was being built. The borrowed barn had a milk machine. Ed said that the new barn eventually had one, too, but not immediately.

“It was a hassle,” Ed said, referring to moving the cows between barns. When Ed was 16, his father passed away while moving the cows back into the new barn. Ed then left school and started working on the farm.

His two brothers, Tom and Jim, helped a bit. Jim joined the Navy, and Tom became more of a partner to Ed.

A few years later, Ed met someone who changed the trajectory of his life: Lucille. In the 1950s, Ed drove himself from Newtown to Ridgefield for a night of square dancing. His son, Eddy, pointed out that Interstate 84 was not built then. The drive from Newtown to Ridgefield was a long one. Lucille said the drive was “worth it.”

Ed originally thought Lucille was with someone else. Lucille explained that when someone asked her to dance, she danced with them. So, Ed asked her.

“It felt good dancing with her,” he joked. By 1956, the two were married. This year, they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.

Lucille was a working woman. She worked at a few places in Danbury, but retired and worked on the farm for a while. Ed said she “worked the best on the farm,” though.

There were about 50 cows on the farm, as well as chickens, pigs, and some pet ducks, and vegetables.

Ed said, “We had a big garden every year.” They grew tomatoes, potatoes, peas, cabbage, lettuce, and more. “Any vegetable, we had it.”

The pair also grew cow corn for the cows, and lots of hay. The family baled 10,000 bales of hay some years, which became a common occurrence at Kearns Farm.

Ed remarked how, “finally,” he had gotten a baler. Before that, each bale was baled by hand.

“We picked a lot of stones,” Ed joked. He called it more of a “stone” farm than anything else, which is typical in New England. His son called it a “glacier dumping ground.”

Lucille helped with the hay, too. She picked stones out, and would put the bales in the barn and help stack them.

Ed cared for the cows until he sold them when he was 65. He kept baling hay until he was 84, though, which was ten years ago. Kearns Farm was a family endeavor. Eddy, Ed and Lucille’s son, worked with them for a long time. When he turned 16, though, Ed forced him out to go get a job. Ed wanted his son to have vacation time and benefits, which is not something farming gives. Livestock farming is a 24/7, 365-days-a-year job.

Despite Ed banishing him from farming, Eddy explained that he “never knew [he] had everything … and [he] never knew [he] had nothing.”

“It wasn’t work,” Eddy said. He started driving the tractor when he was about 4. Eddy was always by his mother’s side on the farm, too.

Ed was ready to sell the farmland around 2014. Yvonne Grimes, a neighbor, said she was running in the neighborhood when she saw Ed nailing in a “For Sale” sign on the farm property.

Grimes shared her reaction: “I said, ‘Ed, what are you doing? You can’t sell the farm!’” She told him to hold on and ran back to her house. She told her husband, Kevin, that they were buying the farm next door. That was 12 years ago. Now, a New York native is preserving the farmland that has been around for 150 years, 90 of them as Kearns Farm.

“She just was a gift from God to buy the farm,” Ed said. Grimes held back tears as he said this. Ed said later on that she “got right on the tractor and started mowing.”

“It was important for us to keep the farm a farm,” Grimes explained. Grimes did not want to see the land be developed and turned into apartments or another housing development. From that point on, she became the farmer behind Kearns Farm — she always wanted the property to stay “Kearns Farm,” to keep it “just the way it is.”

Grimes worked very closely with Ed and Lucille, asking them questions and calling them her “encyclopedias.”

“He told me how to do everything,” Grimes said. Ed and Grimes baled hay for about two years before he eventually put the rake down. Now, Grimes raises goats instead of cows, but she still keeps chickens to keep Ed’s mother’s “chicken legacy” going. There are about six chicken houses on the farm now.

“She’s done a great job,” Ed said. “I’m proud of her. She’s done a great job here.”

Grimes has started selling a few items from the farm, like eggs and veggies. She has hired a few local teenagers to help on the farm through the years. Watching them learn how to work the land and learn where their food comes from has been rewarding for Grimes.

“When they bring potatoes home, they’re so proud,” Grimes said. While she has a special eye for what Newtown was like 90 years ago, she said that “people have to know their history.”

“When you live somewhere, you have to know the history of the place. Those are the best stories,” Grimes said.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.