130 cows, historic barn lost in Percy farm fire

By a quarter after midnight, the structure had collapsed.

“All I could think of really, the first thing, was all those beautiful Jerseys in there, trapped,” she said. “It was just tragic to see, because I knew when I looked at it, there was nothing that could be done, it was so engulfed at that time.”

Hovey was the first to witness the terrible end of a barn that had stood at the corner of Percy Hill and Weeks Hill roads for over a century and the 130 Jersey cows housed inside, a quick and stunning blow to one of Stowe’s last and largest remaining dairy farms.

There was little to do but watch as the building collapsed into itself, its residents having likely suffered a mercifully quick and relatively painless death from smoke inhalation before the flames could touch them.

Ryan Percy, who oversees most of the farm’s daily operations, braved the blaze to save seven calves, just 3 months old, who happened to be kept in a smaller holding area next to the main barn. As he and his stepbrother Mark Hovey worked to load them into his truck, Jason Wells, Ryan’s friend since childhood, arrived to lend him a hand.

Wells had been working overnight at Trapp Family Lodge where he manages livestock and happened to spot the flames arcing into the night sky from the top of Trapp Hill. When he got close enough to see it was the Percy family’s barn, he watched in disbelief for a moment before resolving to do whatever he could to help.

“That’s the worst thing that can ever happen to a farmer,” Wells said. “You don’t just lose your family history in many intangible and tangible ways, you lose so many souls, animals you’ve raised and bred for your work, that you’ve developed for years from a young age. To lose so many of them is just unfathomable and gut wrenching.”

Firefighters from nine towns across the region — led by Stowe Fire Department and including Waterbury, Morrisville, Johnson and others — arrived on the scene, coordinated by the Lamoille sheriff’s dispatch center and supported by Stowe Police, EMS and more.

Through their efforts and a lucky break in the direction of the wind, the fire was contained to the barn and never crossed the road to the Percy family home, where the immense heat from the flames could be felt by Hovey’s mother, Lee Percy, in the home’s front room. What Ann Marie thought at first was rain streaking the windows of the home was actually snow melting off the roof.

Paul Percy, the family patriarch, was away in Florida, but spent a sleepless night in constant contact with the family and took an early Thursday morning flight back north. By the time he arrived home, a cold rain was falling over the barn’s ruins.

State fire marshals and Stowe firefighters sifted through the debris searching for clues as to a cause. The blackened remains of a favored tractor stood whole but destroyed among the charred timber. The smoke from still-smoldering spots among the wreckage were nearly indistinguishable from the mist that rose off the snow.

A pair of bouquets had been left on a dirty snowbank by early mourners.

Fire marshals told Ryan Percy that the cause of the fire was almost certainly a front loader. The machine had generated excess heat or a small spark, all that was needed to slowly set the building ablaze.

Percy said marshals compared it to fires caused by the embers of a neglected cigarette. The front loader had been used that afternoon, but the fire took hours to take hold. The machine had been used often since its purchase around the time of the barn’s last remodel in 1999 with no prior signs of trouble.

The original sections of the barn had been constructed in 1860 by Civil War veteran George A. Cheney, according to a historic survey conducted by the town in 2005, and predated the Percy’s home by 20 years. The survey described it as “an extremely well-preserved farmstead,” which was “unusual” for the area.

The barn had seen extensive renovations and expansions over the years, the most recent one at the turn of the 21st century, but had been used in some capacity by the Percy family since they took over farming operations on the property in the 1940s. It was the barn Paul and his brother Dale, who died in 2020, had milked cows in since childhood.

Despite the history and memories, the cows were the greater loss.

A full herd of Jersey cattle, lanky, tender and curious, were kept separate from the Holsteins on another Percy property, of which about 800 remain. The Jersey herd accounted for about 10 percent of the Percy farm’s total number of cattle and were responsible for nearly one fifth of the farm’s total milk production. Ryan placed their market value conservatively at $1,200 each. Though insured, the loss in livestock alone amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention the family’s emotional investment in the animals.

Of the cows lost, 100 were active milking cows, 20 were dry and 10 more were heifers, recently brought into the barn as they were nearly ready to calve.

Though the outpouring of sympathy for the Percy’s loss has been immense, it may have been superseded by the Stowe community’s collective grief at losing the Jersey herd, which had become nearly as iconic as the barn where they lived.

In the aftermath of the fire, neighbors, friends and strangers to the Percys have rallied together to support the family and their farm. Two fundraising efforts are underway; one from the Stowe Community Fund has raised over $100,000 for the family and another fundraiser managed by LeeLee and Gregg Goodson has raised over $60,000.

At least three different Stowe businesses — Idletyme, Stowe Cider and Piecasso — have held or plan to hold fundraisers for the Percy family, with a certain percentage of sales during a specific period of time going to benefit the family.

“They have lost more than a hundred Jersey cows, their home-farm barn and equipment. But beyond that, I believe our community owes the Percy family a debt of gratitude for keeping land in agriculture and preserving what remains of the rural, pastoral character of town,” said LeeLee, who also noted she felt a personal sense of gratitude to the family for allowing her and her family to ride their horses on their land for nearly 60 years.

“You just don’t know what a special community we have until everyone bands together, but then to hear from all over,” Ann Marie said, “it shows what a treasure Stowe is and what a treasure that barn was, and this family farm is.”

On behalf of the entire family, Ryan expressed a deep gratitude for the fire and rescue departments and the support from the community for the cows and Percy family.

The lost Jersey herd will also be making its own posthumous contribution to the continued sustainability of the farm. The day after the fire, the Agency of Agriculture reached out to Ryan and began making plans to assist him in composting the cows, a process in which their corpses will be laid out on the land between layers of wood chips to enrich the soil.

“I like the thought of the natural process, that these nutrients that are inside these animals then go back onto the field, which will help grow feed that will help grow and produce milk for the next generation,” Ryan said.

While the community rallies to help get the Percy family back on their feet, the trauma and loss of the fire will linger. Ryan had difficulty sleeping the night after the fire and woke Friday morning with plenty of plowing and other work to be done.

The daily demands of the farm will continue, which Ryan will continue to manage with the help of his longtime farmhands, in particular Mark “Fuzzy” Levaggi, who has worked for the family for over 23 years and runs the Percy farm along Bouchard Road.

Though Paul has seen the loss of his barn that he has lived next to for 80 years and a large section of his herd, he has responded to its loss with the stoic resolve common to seasoned Vermonters.

“He’s always looking at what you have to deal with in front of you, not what happened in the past,” Ryan said.

With much of the debris from the fire still in the process of being cleared, it’s still too early for the Percys to contemplate reconstruction or replacing the Jersey herd, but Ryan has always thought that the cows were what made the view from that hill one of the best in Stowe.

“There are other places that could have a view just as good, but they don’t have the cows, so their views aren’t as good.” he said. “The cows are what make the view so good, because otherwise it’d be a bunch of trees and there’d be too many trees to appreciate the view.”