John Martin (1823-1904) was about 10 years old when he built his own plow and had his own garden on the land his family rented in Hampden.

Martin, who became an accountant, shopkeeper, and dance enthusiast, illustrated and explained the plow on page 66 of a journal he began writing in 1864 as he reflected on and documented his life and experiences.

He wrote of the plow that he "went into the woods and found a pine tree with a root running out like a plough shear and I made a plough and covered the moulboard with hoop iron taken from iron hooped barrels the two prongs which I made the handles of started from the maine stump about a foot from the bottom of the root."

From the time he was 10, he was proud of his gardening and farming prowess and often wrote in his journal and other accounts about his gardens and plantings.