It Happened in Hillsborough: Clover Hill Silver Fox Farm

You could drive down Amwell Road towards Clover Hill one hundred times - and for ninety-nine, you
would miss the narrow lane off to the left, nestled between the driveways of five houses from the 60s
and 70s, that leads back to one of the oldest farm properties in Hillsborough.

Clover Hill Silver Fox Farm

After three-quarters of a mile, the drive spans the Neshanic River at a small bridge to come to the
homestead farm of Abraham Schenck. Schenck was willed the 162-acre property upon the death of his
grandfather Peter Clover in 1822. He built the house, which dates to that time, and farmed the land for
three decades before selling it to Cornelius C. Polhemus in the 1850s. Three generations of the
Polhemus family ran the farm until 1927 when the Watertown Silver Black Fox Company came to town.
The Watertown company got its start in 1923 in Wisconsin when four men sought to capitalize on the
growing silver fox fur craze by importing foxes from Canada and beginning a breeding program. Before
long, they had nine "ranches" set up and were looking to expand into New Jersey. How they found the
property in Clover Hill is unknown, but before long they had set up an office in East Orange and sent
veterinarian Dr. Leslie Wright from Wisconsin to prepare the Clover Hill farm to receive foxes.

A silver fox is actually the same species as a red fox - the largest of the foxes - but with a variation in
coloring from an ashen gray to silver to black. The fur of the silver fox - trapped in the wild for centuries
before the advent of fox farming - is the most prized of the fox furs, worn by royalty throughout Europe
and Asia. Foxes began to arrive at Clover Hill in 1928, quickly growing from 80 to 400 in about 18
months. As the farm grew to be the largest silver fox breeding operation in New Jersey, Dr. Wright
became a popular speaker at many area functions.

Even after Dr. Wright died unexpectedly in 1930, the farm continued to prosper. It was also a popular
destination for class trips, Boy Scout outings, and the like. At its peak in the mid-1930s, there were 2,000
foxes on the ranch.

Around 1935, fox breeding ceased at the farm, and the foxes were shipped to the Poconos, where it was
believed the climate would be better. The Clover Hill Farm then briefly experimented with raising
turkeys before switching back to foxes with a new breeding pair in 1938. Through the ordinary nature of
things, there were soon eight foxes, but it appears that the renewed operation was not a success.

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Gregory Gillette has been writing about local history for 20 years, starting with his Courier News column
“Gillette on Hillsborough” and continuing today with a Facebook page of the same name. A recipient of
the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission History Award for Education/Leadership in
2018, he was named as Hillsborough’s first Local Historian in 2025.