The Story of Stutzman's Farm

The story of Stutzman’s Farm begins back at the turn of the 20th century when a young Lithuanian immigrant named John Miller came here after landing at Ellis Island. An educated man, John Miller worked his way through a series of jobs as a book keeper in New York City and Boston until he had earned enough money to fulfill his dream of buying a farm. He chose central Maine because it had a similar climate and growing condition to his native land of Lithuania.

He achieved his dream with the acquisition of a farm in Sangerville, Maine.  He married and had nine children when his wife passed away. Looking                     John Miller working in the field                   for companionship and a partner to help on the farm,  to find a wife. He found such a person in Mary Stutzman, then a Cajun living in Louisiana. Her husband and the father of her child, Otto Stutzman, had died that spring. They wrote back and forth for many months before she came to Maine and became his wife. Young Otto became the 10th and youngest member of the family and eventually the owner of the family farm which raised livestock, potatoes, and other vegetables.

Otto married and had three sons. The youngest, Sidney, is the present owner of the farm. After working as apprentices under Sid’s Father for several years, Sid with his wife Lorraine, also a Lithuanian from another local farm family, had the opportunity to take over the farm when Otto passed away unexpectedly in the fall of 1978. Taking a leave of absence from his job at Agway Inc. where Sid worked as a Building Material Specialist, he and Rainie leased the farm for one year from his Mother and that fall decided to become the owners and sole proprietors.  Today they run the farm full time and grow potatoes, assorted vegetables, and fruits which they sell wholesale to local grocery stores and retail from their roadside farm store. Both Sid and Rainie have worked in the agriculture business for most of their lives.