Among the variety of historic homes in Newtown is a charming farm located just a few minutes from the Main Street flagpole.

On Currituck Road, Tina (Sedor) Benhardt is back living in her childhood home, now with her husband Terry, and has the task of sifting through more than a century's worth of possessions accumulated from her family line.

"Believe it or not, only two families have ever owned this property," Mrs Benhardt said while sitting at her kitchen table, sipping freshly brewed tea.

The house was built in 1712 and was originally owned by the Wheeler family. Even though the layout of the home has changed some, many features, such as the wooden floors and fireplace, remain like a time capsule to the era.

Her grandfather, Stephen Sedor, emigrated from Austria and lived in surrounding states before saving enough money to come to Connecticut. He purchased the six-acre farm in 1910, when the Wheelers moved next door, and started buying property nearby when it became available.

"We call the land across the street 'Uncle Paul's Hill,' because my Uncle Paul had that land. My Uncle Mike lived across the way, too," Mrs Benhardt said of the family's accumulation of up to 32 acres of property that many of her relatives utilized.

Her grandfather raised ten children in the home - nine boys and one girl - and when he died he passed the farm down to Mrs Benhardt's father, Andrew Sedor.

When her father took over the farm it was during World War II, and he worked mainly milking cows. But, she says, he always sought after innovative machinery, like pipeline milking, to be as efficient as possible on the farm.

"During his prime, he had about 500 head [of cattle]. He used to raise calves, heifers, and cows and sell the herd," she said.

Mrs Benhardt said her father even won different accolades during his farming years, including earning the title of Corn King of Fairfield County from the Connecticut Farm Bureau for planting the most corn in the area.

Her mother, Josephine "Jo" Sedor, equally contributed to success of the farm by taking care of the business's books, as well as being in charge of gardening, canning, and driving to pick up parts for the farm's machinery.

"We had organic before people talked about organic," Mrs Benhardt said. "And if anybody worked on our farm, they could have breakfast, lunch, and dinner."

She recalled how most of the year there would be two workers living in a nearby cabin and working on the property, but that come summertime there would be more people helping hay the fields.

ra, to which her father's newer barn was attached, that burned down in the 1980s. Overall, though, she remembers happy times growing up on the Sedor family farm in Newtown.

As time went on, the layout of the farm began to change, including one of the original barns on the property from her grandfather's e

"We had a good life living on the farm," she said. "I had a pony named Tony Bologna. We had a mule, a donkey, and I had my horse. I even had my wedding reception here; my son got married and had his reception here."

When her mother and father died - after 87 years of farming the land - Mrs Benhardt and her sister, Paula Collins, of Colorado, were left to care for their childhood home.

"My sister and I own [the property] together… We are trying to think of the future for it and figure out what to do," she explained.

Since 2001, they all have been working together to go through all the family's items.

"I couldn't be doing it all without my husband, Terry... I was a teacher for 43 years, and when we retired we were the weekend warriors for close to 15 years with George [Birch]'s help - he watched over the farm when we weren't here. We sold our house and came down here to archive things and go through the attic," Mrs Benhardt said.

She has found that her mother saved everything, from the girls' prom dresses to old milk cans.

"We are going through everything nice and carefully and getting it all to the right spots," she said. "We are going through it with love and care."

Even though the farm has changed and no longer has cows out in the pastures, Mrs Benhardt continues to cherish her childhood home and the contents that are preserved inside.

This summer, she looks forward to her son, Andrew, who is named after her father, and her 9-year-old granddaughter, Alta, coming to visit from Oregon to enjoy the Sedor family farm as she and many other relatives did before her.