Many are familiar with the old saying, "You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy." In a way, this was true about Francis Wayland Ayer, the founder of the former Meridale Farms, in the town of Meredith. Part of the grounds is home to next weekend’s Meredith Dairy Fest.

Ayer was a successful businessman in Philadelphia, founder of N.W. Ayer & Son, an advertising firm Francis named as a tribute to his father. In the late 1800s, Francis was visiting a relative in Meridale and apparently became so enthralled with the beauty of the area, he took an interest in breeding cattle and became a part-time resident, in addition to his firm in Philadelphia.

Francis W. Ayer was born in 1848 in Lee, Mass., but the family moved to Dundee, near Cayuga Lake, when he was a boy. When he was 3, his mother died. His father re-married three years later to Harriet Post, who had the relative in Meridale.

At age 14, Ayer was offered a schoolmaster position at a country school near Dundee. His father practiced law but later quit to teach school and in 1867 opened a private school for girls in Philadelphia. Francis, with the money he earned teaching school, enrolled at the University of Rochester but had to quit after a year when his savings were depleted.

In 1868, Ayer then went to Philadelphia where he taught school part time. It was at that time he was offered a job in advertising sales. Only a year later, Ayer opened N.W. Ayer & Son, having said farewell to $700 a year to teach. His agency prospered quickly, and became one of the largest ad agencies in the U.S. in the late 19th century.

Ayer came to visit his uncle, the Rev. Mr. Post in Meridale in 1888. He soon had a country home and developed his hobby of cattle breeding. By 1898, he purchased what was known as the Center Farm, which dated back to 1799, purchased at that time by Samuel Law. Law was a lawyer and land agent for the Franklin Patent and was instrumental in getting the town of Meredith formed in 1800, as well as getting the Susquehanna/Catskill Turnpike routed through Meredith.

Ayer convinced his advertising partner, Henry Nelson McKinney and a few other investors to transform Meridale Farms from a summer hobby into a dairy industry standard of excellence in breeding and butter production.

Meridale Farms had nearly 2,500 acres at its peak. At one time, nearly 600 thoroughbred Jersey cows made a herd. Their creamery, named Meridale Dairies, was so successful that it was moved first to Delhi and then to Oneonta at the turn of the 20th century.

Ayer continued to work part of the year in Philadelphia, but it became a summer tradition for several years to bring many of his employees at the agency to Meridale. They stayed at the Meredith Inn, which Ayer had started in 1913. The four-story frame building was destroyed by fire in March 1922. Ayer passed away in March 1923, and the Meridale Farms and Meredith Inn were continued by his daughter and son-in-law.

Anna and Wilfred Fry then remodeled the Ayer summer home, called Hillcrest, into a new Meredith Inn. From 1923 to 1945, this was a preferred vacation destination. The food was home-grown, and guests could enjoy many recreational activities or leisurely read and play games in a log cabin that had a large fireplace at each end. Once Mr. and Mrs. Fry passed away, the farm was divided and sold. Wilfred Fry had also carried on his late father-in-law’s ad agency.

By April 1948, stock, machinery and equipment had been sold in an auction. In June 1953, fire struck again, leveling the former home of Francis and Martha Ayer. Ayer’s first wife had died, and he remarried Miss Martha Lawson.

In years since, the land has been divided into private ownerships.

On Monday: Yolanda Vega was just a kid when the first lottery started in New York State in 1967.

City Historian Mark Simonson’s column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.