The Busa Family In Lexington 
The Busa family can trace its beginnings to a small town in Sicily on the outskirts of Messina called Santo Stefano di Briga. In the late 1800's Guiseppe Busa and Gaetanna Smedile had eight children, Antonio, Francesco , Gaetanno , Giovanni , Gaetanna, Maria, Angelo and Antonino. Little is known about Guiseppe's father Antonio or where he came from or what his real name was. There's a story that he was originally from southeastern Europe and was in the German army in the early 1800's and came to Sicily and changed his to name Busa. I'm not sure about that but many in the family are much taller with lighter skin and hair than most native Sicilians and there are blue eyed traits as well. Busa is a common name in Hungary and Romania so there might be some merit to the story.
Because of the financial condition of the times and the family, the oldest boys decided to emigrate to America. Their father had come to Boston a few months earlier to visit a cousin and pave the way for his sons arrival .In those days you needed to declare a destination and who you were staying with to immigrate to America. Antonio and Francesco were the first to arrive in 1906 at Ellis Island. The teenage boys found their way in the Boston area and started working for the local farms and businesses. Their early contacts were friends and relatives from Santo Stephano who lived in nearby Belmont or the Waverly area , as it was called then .In 1912, Gaetanno arrived in Boston and Giovanni in 1914 to join their brothers when they each were 18 . They moved to East Lexington and Americanized their names being known as Anthony (Tony), Frank, Guy and John. Together they started renting this farm from a man named William Shay in 1916 .In a few years they managed to save and borrow enough money to buy the farm in 1919.
The 12 acre parcel had a barn and some storage buildings and a colonial era farm house . It had been idle for short time and mostly used for pasture. They had to clear and recondition the land for vegetable farming ,cutting down some small trees and brush and moved tons of rocks. They were in business together at first. Only Tony was married then and they all lived together in the old farm house. There was no central heating or water then. There was a large hearth in the cellar and wood stoves .The bathroom was out side. Guy got married next and both he and Tony ( family portrait) had very large families. This is shown in the 1920 census . In 1923 They built another house and John and Frank lived together with their new families .By 1930 there were twenty two people , eight adults and fourteen children, living in the two houses.(1930 census) .In 1932 John built another house and shared it with Frank. Guy lived in the old farm house and Tony moved into the second house.
As their families grew they had to divide the farm into four parcels. Tony had the land at the top of the hill back towards Monroe brook. Frank took the center section down to Arlington Reservoir. John and Guy had the back sections next to Reed Dairy and the lower land along Lowell street. John's property also gerrymandered around to include land in the south corner next to the Reservoir as well .Guy decided to sell his share to John in 1934 and moved his expanding family to Woburn and started a farm on Wyman street .This left John with all the land along Lowell street. There was also a land swap in 1960 between John and Tony for a corner lot on Lowell street in exchange for Tony's larger greenhouse and more acreage along the back of the farm.
The Busa brothers specialized in fresh vegetables for the local markets and restaurants. Most in demand at that time were tomatoes and celery but they grew lettuce , cucumbers, squash, beans , beets ,chicory escarole radishes and peppers. Celery grew particularly well due to the deep rich topsoil in the low areas of the farm.. Known as " Boston Celery" it was quite a bit different than today's varieties. The Summer Pascal strain was taller , thinner and sweeter than today's California dark green giants .About two to three weeks before harvest it was blanched either with long boards pressed close to the sides of each row or tar paper held in place by wire hoops. It was cut by hand and bunched in twos or threes , packed in ice and sent off to the Fanueil Hall produce center or picked up by local stores and restaurants. Developing their own strains and seeds, they all won awards for quality at Waltham Field Station and Farm Bureau Trials for both celery and tomatoes .(more on early farming methods)
. Tony also had land adjacent to the farm which later was developed by two of his sons, Alfred and Daniel. They built houses and created Lillian, Anthony, Sheila, Circle and Farm roads and became important business and civic leaders in the town.
Frank died from a stroke in 1949 but his wife and children continued farming until 1975.John's second wife Rosina bought their share in 1994.
A younger brother ,Angelo arrived from Italy in 1930 and established Oak Park Farm on Grant street on the other side of town. In the 1950's he was one of the first to establish a roadside stand in the area and became famous for his sweet corn and marketing ideas.
John had four sons , Joseph( all the original brothers named their first born son after their father and first born daughter Gaetanna after their mother), John, Guy and Anthony but his wife Anna died in 1939.Joseph ran the farm with his father until 1964 when he moved to Concord and established Wayside Florist. He was important for the addition of adding cut flowers and annuals to the product line and opening the stand in 1959.John remarried in1948 to Rosina .Rosina's brother Joseph Romano rented Tony's parcel in 1959 and ran the farm for John from 1965 to 1971.He continued to rent and farm Tony's land until his death in 2001 John and Rosina's children Trudy ,Dennis and Francis ran the farm and greenhouses and stand as Busa Farm Inc. until 2009. .Trudy is semi retired from farming and Fran is renting land in Concord .Today I rent the land from the Town of Lexington and run the farm alone and the farm is named Busa Farm and Garden but it is the continuation of the business John Busa started in 1920.
More on the farm and its operation and changes and some interesting pictures can be found on this page : Aerials
