The ell of this house, possibly the original structure on this property, was occupied by Abel Warner (1763-1837) and his wife, Sara Cook Warner (1764-1850) in 1787. In 1800, he served on a committee charged with securing provisions for soldiers training at the General Muster in Northampton. After his death, the house was occupied by his son, Justus Warner (1796-1834), who served the town of Plainfield as selectman in 1825 and as town clerk in 1828. The inventory of his estate, filed in Northampton, gives a valuation of over four thousand dollars for the farm and equipment, and among its items are forty books, a possession which, in those days, would indicate a man of more than ordinary interests.
Abel’s daughter, Polly Warner (1790-1869), married Leonard Joy (1790-1881) on November 19, 1811. One of their sons, Francis W. Joy (1822-1887), became a carpenter and was active in town affairs, including overseeing the relocation of local schoolhouses. He lived in this house in the late 1800s.
Justus’s son—and Abel’s grandson—Charles Dudley Warner was born in this house on September 12, 1829. He lived here until the age of six, when his family moved to nearby Charlemont. Warner went on to become a distinguished author and literary editor. From 1861 to 1884, he served as co-editor of the Hartford Courant, and he co-authored the novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today with Mark Twain, who was then living in Hartford. Two of Warner’s early works, My Summer in a Garden and Being a Boy, draw upon his boyhood experiences in Plainfield and Charlemont.
After his father’s death, Warner spent much of his childhood on a relative’s farm in Charlemont, possible his uncle’s, Allen Warner (1840-1902), where he developed a lasting appreciation for the natural world—an influence that would shape much of his later writing. Following his graduation from Hamilton College, he worked briefly in real estate, earned a law degree, and traveled extensively before settling in Hartford. After two unsuccessful years practicing law, he turned fully to writing, the pursuit that would define his career.
Warner’s literary career began in 1860 when his friend Joseph Roswell Hawley (1826–1905) invited him to serve as assistant editor at The Evening Press. During the Civil War, he wrote light, conversational essays meant to lift the spirits of anxious readers. When the paper merged with The Hartford Courant in 1867, Warner and Hawley became co-editors, and Warner continued writing prolifically. His popular series of reflections on gardening and outdoor life was compiled into My Summer in a Garden, a charming, humorous collection that became a bestseller and secured his reputation as one of the nation’s most beloved writers by the early 1870s.
Early Career in Journalism: Author, Critic, and Lecturer
Beyond journalism, Warner wrote numerous travel books—including Saunterings, In the Levant, and On Horseback—inspired by his own adventures. His essays appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, and Scribner’s, and he was a sought-after lecturer, speaking on topics such as prison reform and other social efforts aimed at improving public life. His memoir Being a Boy, recalling his youth in western Massachusetts, charmed readers with its warmth and wit.
Life at Nook Farm
Charles Dudley Warner married Susan Sophia Lee Warner (1834-1921) They were classmates at a seminary and married in 1856.The couple did not have children. In Hartford, Warner and his wife Susan helped establish Nook Farm, a vibrant writers’ colony on Farmington Avenue. Known for their generosity and hospitality, the Warners often welcomed neighbors and fellow authors, including Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain. During the turbulent post–Civil War era, while religious and reform movements surged around them, Warner continued to delight readers with his familiar themes of nature, home, and memory.
A friendly challenge between the Warners and the Twains—after the two men complained about the thinness of contemporary literature—inspired a collaboration that would bring Warner lasting fame.
His Victorian-era mansion on Hawthorn Street was erected in 1870. The Queen Anne Revival home also had English Tudor themes. It was once capped with seven gables – a unique feature at the time. Warner’s mansion sold to the family of the activist and actress Katharine Hepburn. However, the house proved difficult to preserve as it fell into disrepair and was then demolished in 1960.
“The Gilded Age”
Published in 1873, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today was a satirical novel that skewered the greed, corruption, and excess of the era. Twain wrote the first eleven chapters, Warner the next twelve, and the remaining forty were co-written. The novel’s intertwining storylines examine politics, society, and wealth in Washington, D.C., blending sharp critique with the authors’ characteristic humor. Its title, borrowed from King John—“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily… is wasteful and ridiculous excess”—later became the defining label for the late 19th century.
Legacy
Warner is remembered for his memorable quips, including the frequently misattributed “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” and “Politics makes strange bedfellows,” found in My Summer in a Garden. His blend of humor, nostalgia, and gentle social commentary earned him a devoted readership during a time of rapid societal change. Historian Kenneth R. Andrews described Warner’s work as “a recall to the good life—as if that life had once been a reality in the earlier days of the nation.”
Charles Dudley Warner died on October 20, 1900, after collapsing during a walk near his Hartford home. He was laid to rest in Cedar Hill Cemetery, with his longtime friend and co-author Mark Twain serving as a pallbearer.
Warner’s birthplace is on 8 Warner Hill Road in Plainfield and was built in 1803.
The Warner Homestead
Slide show on the history of Charles Dudley Warner by current owner, Beverly Woolf
This is an adapted essay on the Charles Dudley Warner House written in 1960 by William (Bill) Theodore Packard(1902-1975)
This is an interesting farm. It was settled about 1785 by Abel Warner(1763-1837) and his wife, the former Sally (Sarah) Cook (1764-1850). Amongst their nine children, the sixth, Justus Warner (1796-1834), married Sylvia Russel Hitchcock(1799-1866) in 1825 and together they had two children, of whom the eldest was Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900), later to become well known as a writer and editor.
Justus died in 1834, aged 38 years. The son [Charles] from thence was brought up in Charlemont, Massachusetts, where the family had moved. Charles graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, studied law at the University of Pennsylvania, practiced in Chicago until 1860, was editor of the Hartford Courant, Harper’s Magazine and wrote several books.
To return to the old homestead in Plainfield, sister of Justus, Polly (1790-1869), married Leonard Joy(1790-1881), whose son, Francis W. Joy (1822-1887) ran the farm for many years. During the ownership of Francis Joy the place grew to be one of the larger farms in the town. In 1935 was held in these fields, which were still cleared at the time, the greater part of the pageant which commemorated the 150th anniversary of the founding of Plainfield.
In later years it was owned by Amos Cooley, who kept it up rather well, and improved it some. For quite a few years the place has been owned by George, son of Amos Cooley. In recent years, as he became older, the place ran down some, and the fields have grown to brush.
The place has now (1960) been purchased by Ashley Dewey Burt(1898-1967), who will repair and improve the place in its time. The house stands near the summit of Warner Hill, one of the highest points in Plainfield. From the highest point of the fields, before they grew to brush, a beautiful view is, or was, to be had to the north and northeastward, into Vermont. It is hoped that this view will be opened again.
In the History of the Town of Plainfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts: from its settlement to 1891, Charles N.Dyer writes of Warner Hill, “Two ranges of hills traverse the town from north to south on each side of Mill Brook, the highest points of these ranges being about equi-distant from the brook and the eastern and western boundaries of the town. The west range is considerably higher than the east, the highest points being named as follows, beginning at the north. The heights given are from the late official survey. Beals Hill, 1980 feet high, the summit of which is just across the line in Hawley, derived its name from the fact that Samuel Beals, one of the early settlers lived on it, well up toward the summit, as well as his son Dennis, who spent his life on the same spot. This house we believe is still standing; the town line runs through it. The Beals however always claimed their residence and voted in Plainfield. South of this is Bond Hill, the origin of the name being unknown. Then West Mountain, 2160 ft. — the highest point in Western Hampshire. Further south is Deer Hill, 2020 feet high, so called, tradition says, because large numbers of deer made it their headquarters in the earlier times. Magnificent views are to be obtained from their summits, particularly from West and Deer Hills, and our summer residents never fail to visit one or more of them for that purpose. Standing on these hills, one may see Haystack Mt. in Vt. on the north, Monadnock in N. H. in the north-east, Mt. Lincoln in Pelham on the east, Chester and Blandford on the south, Saddle Mt. in the north-west and Hoosac Mt., under which passes the famous Hoosac Tunnel. With a good field-glass one may discover many other points of interest. The east range is much broader than the west, forming a gently undulating table land, which decreases in breadth towarThe east range is much broader than the west, forming a gently undulating table land, which decreases in breadth toward the south part, and ends abruptly near the Cummington line. The only abrupt elevation on this range, and even this slopes gently south and east, is at the north end of the range. It is proposed to name this elevation, which is 1900 feet high, Mt. Warner, in honor of Charles Dudley Warner, who was born, and reared on its heights. From this east range the town undoubtedly derives its name. It is nearly two miles in breadth at the widest part, and falls toward the south at the rate of about 100 feet to the mile.”
Charles Dudley Warner, in reply to an invitation to be present at the Centennial of the Plainfield Church in 1880, wrote as follows, “I was very young when I left Plainfield and I have only occasionally visited of late years, but it has an interest for me that no other place on Earth has. The older I grow the more grateful I am that I was born in Massachusetts and in that particular hill-town. I think I owe to its pure air, its noble scenery, the early and honorable God-fearing ancestry, the best that is in my life. I was baptized by the splendid old Puritan pastor of that day, Parson Hallock. He was in the best sense the conscience of the town. Scholar, minister, pastor, counselor, who can measure the influence of such a man of his generation! There is the old red house. I should advise everybody to be born in a red house such as that in which I was born, with its rows of fruit trees, its maple orchard, its sunny fields, and the stone walls that speak as a fence of wood never can, of security and home.”
On November 30,1891, in a letter in response to being told of a resolution to name the hill behind the home of his birthplace would be named in his family’s honor, Warner Hill, wrote the following letter to Charles N. Dyer:
Dear Sir,
By your kindness I find on my return from Europe the very complimentary resolutions in regard to myself on the 3rd of November. I hardly know how to properly thank the citizens of Plainfield for the honor done me. Very grateful as I am for the esteem of my countrymen anywhere, it is especially satisfactory to have such a testimony from my dear birthplace.
I most hardly thank the voters of the Town of Plainfield: and though it may be hard to live up to the reputation of a hill 1900 ft high, I hope I shall do nothing to make the hill shrink under the new name.
As the books for the town library were ordered to be sent to you while I was in Europe, I shall be obliged to you for a list of them, so that I may supply any of mine that you have not.
Yours sincerely,
Charles Dudley Warner
The home is currently owned by Beverly and Stephen Woolf.
More on Charles Dudley Warner in Plainfield
Archetectual Description
This is a significantly altered center chimney Cape, but it is a good example of how Plainfield’s early residents situated their houses to take advantage of the town’s rolling hills. The house is a Cape which should place its main entry on the long side or east facade, but it was also close to a road, now discontinued, that passed a short distance away from its north facade. In fact, the main entry is in the north gable end. While this is unusual, it is not unheard of. In fact, there are several examples in the hilltowns, namely Worthington and Chesterfield, which can be documented as original. Remaining in the gable end are the fixed light windows that were used by Plainfield’s early builders. The house is one-and-a-half stories and has a reduced center chimney. There is an added fieldstone chimney on the exterior south wall. There is a wrap around porch on east and north facades and an ell on the west that attaches to a perpendicular garage. A shed roof dormer was added across the east side of the roof, which has boxed eaves that continue in the gable ends. The main entry surround has pilasters enclosing 3/4 length sidelights. The ell has two picture windows and a board and batten type of siding. The attached garage has barn siding on its north side. Sash in the house is mostly replacement 1/1.
This project was partially funded by the Plainfield Cultural Council and the Plainfield Historical Society
