Sarah Orne Jewett House
Cows Downtown
This photograph shows a very different kind of traffic crowding South Berwick’s Portland and Main Streets in front of Jewett’s house.
Dairy farming was an important industry in nineteenth century Maine. While produce farms were hurt by the advent of the railroad and ensuing competition from the Midwest, railroad transport helped Maine dairy farms with refrigerated cars, so farmers could send products farther than had previously been possible.