Meet Wells Farm: Riverhead’s oldest farming family, rooted since 1661

Wells Farm has survived the Revolutionary War, the Industrial Revolution, two World Wars and the population boom that has squeezed the North Fork’s agricultural heritage.

Now, Riverhead’s oldest farming family faces the challenge of rebuilding after last week’s fire caused more than $2 million in damage.

The farm traces its roots back 364 years to Nov. 20, 1661, a year after 13 Puritan families from the New Haven Colony in Connecticut came across the Long Island Sound to live among the native Shinnecock tribe.

The Puritans formed Southold Town, whose elders established Aquebogue with 40 lots the following year. Three of those were allotted to William Wells for his family to farm near Phillips Lane on Sound Avenue, now part of Northville on the Riverhead border.

“The original deed went from the Sound to the bay, and over the generations, quite a bit of it got sold off, and then different family members got different portions,” said Eric Wells Sr. of Wells Farm, located at 4976 Sound Ave. “We’re lucky enough to have this section [on Sound Avenue] still, and some cousins of ours have another section. We’re still able to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Wells Farm, which has grown to about 300 acres over the centuries, is the only property to keep its original name from its inception, according to a 1937 article in the County Review, an earlier version of this publication.

Mr. Wells is a 12th-generation farmer and operates one portion with his parents, Todd and Laura Wells, and his wife, Darlyn. They sell livestock to the public, and sell grain and potatoes wholesale. 

The other portion is run by Matt Wells, one of the sons of the late Lyle Wells, who died in an equipment accident in January 2018. His Wells Homestead Acres at 4549 Sound Ave. is Long Island’s largest asparagus producer and also grows squash, zucchini and cut flowers.

To ensure the land was preserved as farmland, as their father would have wanted, the siblings sold the development rights to 11.16 acres of the Wells farmland along Phillips Lane in 2021.