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The Miner Institute Online Archives is a historical collection focused on William Henry and Alice Trainer Miner, their beloved Heart’s Delight Farm, and their philanthropic acts. The collection is an accompaniment to the Heart’s Delight Farm Heritage Exhibit located at Miner Institute in Chazy, NY.

William Miner was a self-made millionaire, inventor, and entrepreneur. Miner’s innovative railroad appliances have been installed on thousands rail cars since his first patent in 1891. In 1903 the Miners established Heart’s Delight Farm in Chazy, NY on William’s ancestral homestead. The modest 144-acre farm with a handful of buildings was transformed into a 15,000-acre demonstration farm with property stretching from the shores of Lake Champlain to Chazy Lake in the northern Adirondack mountains.  Approximately 300 buildings were erected and/or renovated, many during the farm’s first ten years and about 800 employees were employed by Heart’s Delight Farm. The farm had a wide array of domestic and wild animals, crops, and hydroelectric power projects. Heart’s Delight Farm was recognized as a model farm attracting visitors from around the world.

Both William and Alice were orphans with no surviving children. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, the Miners sought to improve the life of rural upstate New York. In 1916, the Miners established one of New York State’s first centralized school districts and helped fund the construction and running of a state-of-the-art hospital in Plattsburgh. The Alice T. Miner Museum in Chazy and the Kent-Delord House in Plattsburgh, both still in operation today, were  also founded by Alice and William Miner.

In 1923, William Miner signed a document creating The William H. Miner Charitable trust which was later renamed The William H. Miner Foundation. The foundation provided a permanent endowment for three institutions that Miner created: Physicians’ Hospital in Plattsburgh, Chazy Central Rural School (CCRS), and an agricultural experimental college built at Heart’s Delight Farm in Chazy which became the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute.

The William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute was founded in 1951 as a manifestation of William Miner’s philosophy and principles once embodied on Heart’s Delight Farm and outlined in the trust: “The college shall embody in its curriculum courses on both practical and theoretical farming and provide opportunities for experimental and research work to train worthy young men and women to advance the science of agriculture.” 

 

Browse the Miner Institute Online Archives.

For an in depth look at special topics, visit our Curated Collections.