William Henry Miner was born in Juneau, Wisconsin in 1862. By the age of 10, he was an orphan so he lived with his Uncle John and Aunt Huldah in Chazy until graduating school. After which, he worked his way up in the railroad industry, eventually settling in Chicago. There, he met Alice Emma Trainer and the pair were married in 1895. After the loss of their first and only child two weeks after his birth, the Miners moved in 1903 back east to Chazy. Uncle John had passed about a decade ago leaving the 144 acre family homestead to William.
With many years of incredible success with his railroad
business behind him, William expanded his focus to
agriculture and began developing Heart's Delight Farm.
Renovations began almost immediately on William and Alice's home, the 47 room Heart's Delight Cottage. The original farmhouse that belonged to his aunt and uncle was not torn down but instead expanded upon. Close by, new house was built for Aunt Huldah. Happy Hours Cottage had room enough for her as well as several boarders if she wished.
Aside from housing dedicated to his family and guests, William also saw to the construction of a number of cottages for various farm employees. Harmony Hall was built to house guests who visited the farm. The main floor housed a theater large enough to accommodate 300 people. Here, the Miners hosted a Christmas party every year for the employees plus their families. The upper two floors had ten bedrooms apiece, each with an attached bathroom. William was a large proponent of indoor plumbing. Each building that required water was supplied by the farm's two water towers, the House Tower and the Steel Tower.
At its height, Heart's Delight Farm employed 800 people and was 15,000 acres of land. Most of the acreage was expansive woodland, with around 4,000 acres being tillable farmland and around 2,000 acres serving as pasture for the livestock. Among the 300 quickly constructed buildings were a complete dairy, a grist mill, a natatorium, a box factory, an ice house, and six sugar houses. Only a handful of original buildings still exist on what is now William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute land. One is the original dairy barn, built in 1906, which had electricity before the governor's mansion in Albany. The extensive variety of livestock included beef and dairy cattle, horses, sheep, pig, chickens, turkeys, brook trout, buffalo, and Japanese deer. The farm remained under William's watchful eye until 1930 when, he suddenly passed at the age of 68 during an elective tonsillectomy. Alice continued to live on at Heart's Delight until her passing in 1950. Shortly thereafter, William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute was founded which is still operational to this day.
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