USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 31
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The horse was not emancipated because the machines were run by four, six and ten horses with the grain in the straw as it came from the field, the stack or the mow being fed into them. The straw was stacked
THERE ARE MANY SMALL FLOCKS
by hand, and where is the man or boy who enjoyed working at the tail of the machine, swallowing all of the dust? Finally came the straw- stacker, and the dusty job was not half so disagreeable-the stacker shifted the straw, and the wind had separated the dust before the men handled the straw. While the wheat separators had blower attachments, there was sometimes work for the fanning mill and the men of today remember turning it; they also turned the grindstone in sharpening the blades for harvest. It is said that Michael Leatherman manufactured and David Roberts owned the first threshing machine used in the Welsh settlement ; this was in 1853, and it was perhaps the first threshing machine in Allen County. While the separator today measures its own grain, there was a time when the man who sacked it kept the count by moving a peg in a board, and later they counted the bags to check up on him. However, the honesty of a workman was seldom questioned; while the farmer and his wife have all kinds of improved machinery to relieve them of the drudgery, they must remain at home while it is in operation.
When each consumer was also a producer, political economy was not the problem it is today; when the father and mother each operated a
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
manufacturing industry at home, the middle man had no rake-off from the fund-each helped the other, and simple life described it. It is the inclination of persons in position to follow the selfish trail that leads to the precipice of destruction, below which lies the graveyard of the nations that works havoc today. Failure always results from selfish motives in community affairs. Some one has said this is an excessive nation-exces- sive in everything, and there is no such thing as conservation. Profligacy characterizes the nation. "Wilful waste makes woeful want," and in the wake of the waste of timber there is a fuel shortage. When the timber cumbered the ground there was no market for it, and what could the settler do but destroy it? The first principle is life; the second is its maintenance, and the thing of greatest human interest and importance, therefore, is the production and distribution of food-the manufacture and distribution of life's necessities.
Under the changed situation in the whole world today, the once famil- iar couplet reads :
"Home, home, sweet, sweet name, Be it ever so humble- Pay rent just the same,"
and the question arises-what has become of the old fashioned American home life, when the mothers did Saturday baking and there was always something in the cupboard ?
CHAPTER XX SOME ADJUNCTS OF AGRICULTURE
One Allen County rural enthusiast said there is a progressive spirit among local agriculturists-that they are given to experiment, and will apply the acid test to everything. Another man who has sold implements to farmers for many years declared they were conservative, and inclined to cling to the time-tried methods in agriculture. While some of them farm like the patriarchs, since live stock and animal husbandry go hand in hand with agriculture, "the cattle on a thousand hills"-rather, in the fields of Allen County, belong to the hustling up-to-the-minute farmers. They seek to maintain land fertility and productiveness, and crop rotation is practiced by all of them.
The rural firesides-the furnace heated home, is still the hope of the country, notwithstanding some of the political spellbinders seeking the vote of the factory men. There are many rural homes perched high on natural building sites where drainage is not a problem, and the dooryards and barn lots are dry because of natural conditions. While the pioneers lacked vision in clearing the Allen County farms, and few of them left some of the original forest to shade their future dwellings, there is a civic spirit manifest today and people are inclined to beautify their sur- . soundings, both in town and country. While Arbor Day is sometimes observed, there is also some inclination to reforestration ; black locust and catalpa groves are not unusual, and living fence posts are to be seen here and there about the country. While now and then a staked-and-ridered fence may be seen, where, oh, where is the rail-splitter of yesterday? While there are regulation fences: "Hog tight, horse high and bull strong," they are usually built of wire, and what does the youngster of today know about fence worms? What does he know of the requisite skill in building a straight rail fence, the eye of the builder the only plumb bob or spirit level used in doing it?
Who said anything about laying the fence worm in the light of the moon, or was it laid in the dark of the moon to keep the timber from decay? At any rate a wire fence does not shelter the cattle in time of a storm, and lightning sometimes strikes them when they are near it. Allen County farmers of today would make slow progress with the imple- ments of yesterday. The reap hook and the cradle had their day in the harvest fields of Allen County, as well as the rest of the world. The Armstrong mower-Old Father Time is always caricatured with the mowing scythe, but the Allen County farmer of today has all the advan- tages of labor-saving machinery. The modern hay loader combines so many of the old-time operations that Maud Muller is left out of the ques- tion, and when one has been in different environment for a while. it is like as if he never had lived in the country at all. That old couplet :
"Early to bed and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,"
obviates the daylight-saving question. Some one has written : "The murmuring grass and the waving trees- Their leaf-harps sound unto the breeze- And water-tones and tinkle near, Blend their sweet music to my ear ;
And by the changing shades alone, The passage of the hour is known," and that seems an excellent way of marking time in Allen County.
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
The year A. D. 1920, was an unusual season in Allen County agri- culture. It was a backward spring and a cold summer, but there never was so much fall pasture. There was more hay in the second than in the first crop on Allen County meadows; it is reported that A. J. Laman of Amanda Township cut fall hay from the spring sowing of grass seed in his oats, and the yield was excellent. It was an unusual thing. The cold spring and late planting exemplified the Bible promise about seed time and harvest, and "When the frost is on the pumpkin and the fod- der's in the shock," is an opportune time to note results. With many October is the chosen month in all the changing year, and the orchards and the fields had all been productive; it was an old-time year in Allen County.
On November 11, 1833, was the meteoric shower-the time when the stars fell, and there has never been a repetition of that phenomenon; in 1859, the great comet was visible to Allen County sky-gazers; and June 6, 1859, there was a frost that killed the wheat and other grain; Janu- ary 1, 1864, is still recounted as the Cold New Year in the annals of Allen County ; the eclipse of the sun, August 7, 1869, was almost total and chickens went to roost in the middle of the afternoon, remaining there only a short time; there was cold weather in January, 1918, and that summer there was much injury from frost in different localities. The practical minded settler had a formulae for a short winter-borrow money in the fall that comes due in the spring, in harmony with the Benjamin Franklin philosophy :
"Whistle and hoe, sing as you go, Shorten your row by the songs you know,"
and while some one remarked that Allen County frequently gets summer and winter in the same twenty-four hours, and there was a December gale in 1920 traveling sixty miles an hour-the whole range of climatic conditions frequently visited upon the county, the Sunshine Philosophy of James Whitcomb Riley is :
"Whatever the weather may be, whatever the weather- It's the song ye sing and the smile ye wear, That's a makin' the sunshine everywhere."
While there used to be corn shocks standing in some of the fields until corn planting time again, with the silos and the cribs, that rule does not hold in Allen County. A recent writer declares the novelist is sure of the reader's tears when he describes the farmhand who pitches hay all day long under the hot sun, or the woman who is compelled to mend her children's clothes, wash the dishes and make the beds-noth- ing to do but work, but the sentiment wanes when one learns the philos- ophy: "Grin and bear it." The fact remains that the happiest folk in the world are those who work, and the twentieth century dames who breakfast in bed and work only when they feel like it, are designated by "trouble-shooters" as the bane of society. Few of them live in the rural communities. The pioneers were busy folk-busy all day long, and while there may be advantages in poverty and deceitfulness in riches, most Allen County citizens make some effort to corner the coin of the realm, and it is said that whenever a man is born into the world there is a job awaiting him.
The Bible says: "My Father worketh hitherto and I work," and nature works all of the time. The sunshine and the showers are all in the interest of Allen County agriculture.
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
THE ALLEN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
The Ohio argicultural report of 1852 says: "In pursuance of previous notice, a meeting of the citizens of Allen County was held in Lima on Saturday, January 11, 1851, for the purpose of forming an agricultural society. The first Allen County fair, October 21, 1851, was largely attended, the number of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs far surpassing the most sanguine expectations, and there was better quality." While the balloon used to be an inducement to attract visitors to the Allen County fair, the aeroplane is now "so outrageously common" that it is the fair itself that is the attraction. It has gained for itself an enviable reputa- tion ; its stock exhibit, race program, grange display, etc., have all received the highest commendations, and A. D. 1920, the class premiums and purses offered and paid, were the largest in the history of the county. There are thirty-six acres of land in Allen County fair grounds, and since the lease expires March 1, 1923, an effort is being made to have the
FLAX-BRAKE
county commissioners buy it. The fair is spoken of as the one place where all classes of citizens congregate in social intercourse, and the community is inclined to perpetuate it.
In 1916, C. A. Graham, who for ten years has been secretary of the Board of Agriculture, prepared a comprehensive history covering its development, grouping the different fairs as to time and location. There were five fairs held in Lima from 1851 to 1855, and the second group of seven fairs was held on the Terry farm later known as the Faurot farm, southwest of town-the site now near the center of Lima, being bounded by Spring, Metcalf, North Shore Drive and McDonel streets. Begin- ning with 1867, the third group of fairs has been held at the Roberts farm, the present Allen County fair grounds. Mr. Graham gives the organization of the society from the records, year after year. An item from the second annual report reads: "The cattle exhibited were gener- ally of better blood, and in better condition than those usually presented on such occasions, in new counties ; it was an advance of last year ; some fine specimens of swine were exhibited; there were but few sheep on the ground," and from the drift of conversation the foregoing was rather an accurate forecast of the future in local animal husbandry. Perhaps
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
the horse received more attention. From the third annual report is gleaned the statement: "The entries far exceed those of last year. * * * Already our farmers are visiting the fairs of other and older counties, and returning with improved stock and enlarged ideas of the dignity of labor."
In the 50's Allen County farmers were studying the cost of produc- tion, and 1920 methods seem unchanged in the comparison. The first premium of one acre of corn was awarded to A. Standiford, with the cost of producing ninety-four bushels amounting to $3.40, but that long ago nothing was said about wornout farm land or conservation of soil fertility; it was virgin soil. The second award went to Aaron Osman who produced 8414 bushels of corn on one acre at an outlay of $7.25 in producing it. George Rankins received the premium on clover seed, securing eleven bushels from two acres; all competitors for premiums were members of the local society. The ground and the produce were measured by disinterested parties who verified their reports by affi- davits. Notwithstanding the foregoing flattering results, the fair was allowed to lapse for a few years. The farmers were reproached by the citizens generally, and an editorial of the day: "Agriculture will never hold anywhere its due place, till those who make it their business learn to know each other. * * An Agricultural Society affords opportu- * nity for intercourse, comparison and improvement. It, too, if rightly conducted and comprehended, gives respect for an employment the noblest on earth," and as a result of similar agitation there was a second group in the history of Allen County fairs. There was a meeting in the Allen County courthouse, May 3, 1860, which resulted in reorganization of the agricultural society.
The reorganization did not depend alone upon the farmers. I. S. Pillars, chairman of the Committee on Constitution and By-Laws, was an attorney; Thomas K. Jacobs, its president, was a business man of Lima, and Dr. R. E. Jones was an official in the organization. The place of exhibit was secured, and the fair was held in October. An editorial of the day: "The attention given to the improvement of farm crops and stock is the measure of advancement of Allen County in wealth and intelligence. It is useless to say that poor farmers can become really intelligent men, or that farming does not admit of the exercise of the highest faculties," and thus the agricultural society was a means of educa- tion. The first fair under the new regime was held October 4 and 5, 1860, on the Terry or Faurot farm now within the City of Lima. It was reported a success, although most of the live stock was only exhibited the first day. There was a good exhibit of horses, cattle and hogs with but few sheep; there were but few fowls, but the assortment of fruits was excellent. There was a variety of seeds. There was a fine display of car- riages. "The varieties of mechanical and agricultural machines and imple- ments was first rate, abundant and excellent." The fairs were held on the Faurot farm as long as it was available, when the present location was chosen, and since 1867, has been the site of the exhibits.
From the beginning in 1867, until 1881, the ground was rented from J. B. Roberts. On September 3, 1881, the society purchased the tract; on January 21, 1887, the property was conveyed to the Allen County com- missioners because of indebtedness incurred on it, and the Board of Commissioners sold it to W. H. Duffield, who immediately transferred the title to the Lima Driving Park Company. Before the advent of the automobile there was more interest in such things. When the Lima Driv- ing Park Company acquired the property it entered into a twenty year lease with the agricultural society, granting the use of the grounds two
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
weeks each year at an annual $500 rental; when the company acquired an additional six-acre adjoining tract, the lease was changed to cover it, and $650 became the annuity for it. The affairs of the society are under the direct control or management of a board of fifteen directors, and again the ownership of the property is under consideration. There is a feeling that Allen County should own the fair grounds.
The street fairs have been in popular favor in Lima and some of the other towns. The midwinter fair in Bluffton attracts live stock and fine exhibits in domestic science and household arts. The poultry and grain entries were satisfactory, and the whole thing ended up with an excel- lent parade of live stock. The Bluffton fair attracts exhibits from other
PIONEER FIREPLACE
counties. Like the Allen County fair it is open to the world. In the dif- ferent communities the local banks and business houses frequently devote their window space to agricultural and horticultural exhibits. In a meas- ure, better farming movements and overcoming the influx from the farm to the factory. While the people in all of the towns decry the high cost of living, there is no apparent migration toward the farms; the fact remains, however, that tenant farmers of the past are land owners today. As tenants they earned the money with which they bought the land, and scientific agriculture is increasing soil production instead of reducing it.
The line of demarcation between town and country should never be apparent ; the social advantages of the town are now available to all who live in the country. The lazy man has at last come into his own, students of economics agreeing that he instinctively finds the short method of
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
doing things, thereby insuring both conservation of time and increased production. It is said the simpler and easier ways come naturally to the constitutionally lazy man or woman. David Harum of "horsetrader" fame in fiction, says : "There's as much human nature in some folks as in others, if not more," and the historian of today finds all sorts of char- acters in Allen County. While some are born great and others achieve greatness, still others have it thrust upon them, and the social instinct is part of the human organism. When the pioneers would meet, they would talk about the number of acres of cleared land they had-so much land clear of all stumps, the land still in timber being a detriment to them. As yet they had no community organizations-there were no wornout farms to reclaim, and community problems did not perplex them.
Time was in Allen County when men who did not own land were welcome visitors if they would cut and haul away the wood, and thus help to clear the forest; it is difficult to think of those wilderness con- ditions under the changed environment of today. Under the pioneer con- ception of things, a man's chances in life depended upon whether or not he was a good chopper-how many cords of wood he could chop and pile in a given length of time, and the man who could ruthlessly destroy the most timber was the hero of the community. The element of waste was not considered at all, in ridding the land of the valuable timber encum- bering it. While the pioneers came together and "talked their heads off" about their everyday observations, there came a time when the settler began the study of economic conditions.
POMONA GRANGE
When the Grange started in Allen County it was a farmers' business organization-a buyers' protective association, and as such it ran along for years, building halls in different localities and finally it became more of a social organization. Under the latter status more people affiliated with it. Such was the sentiment overheard about the time honored farmer organization-Pomona Grange in Allen County. The "Sage of Shawnee" declares: "Nearly all the rural subscribers to the Allen County History are members of the Grange, and they want to see a full history of the order," and William Rusler supplies the following data : "The idea of creating an organization limited to those engaged in agricultural pur- suits originated with Oliver Hudson Kelley; he was born in Boston in 1826, and was educated in the public schools of that city. When a young man, Mr. Kelley worked as a reporter on The Chicago Tribune, and later as a telegraph operator.
"In the early 50's, Mr. Kelley took up farming as his life work; he entered a farm from the United States Government near Itasca, Minne- sota ; in 1864, he was appointed to a clerkship in the department of agriculture at Washington; in 1866, he was made an agent of that department to investigate farming conditions in the southern states just beginning to recover from the effects of the Civil war. He found condi- tions very discouraging, both in the south and the middle west, and west- ern states. Mr. Kelley writes: 'I find there is a great lack of interest on the part of the farmers; a visible want of energy on their part to favor progressive agriculture ; where we find one who reads agricultural books and papers, there are ten who consider "book farming" as nonsense. After making a general investigation, I found the circulation of purely agricultural papers was but one to every 230 inhabitants; their system of farming was the same as that handed down by the generations gone by; of the science of agriculture, the natural laws that govern the growth
Vol. I-16
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HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY
of plants, there were ninety per cent who were totally ignorant; there is nothing now that binds the farmers together, and I think such an order (the Grange) would act with the most cheerful results.'"
The Hon. John W. Stokes, acting commissioner of agriculture, very heartily endorsed this work; in 1868, Mr. Kelley, backed by fewer than a dozen prominent farmers, commenced the organization in the different states of subordinate lodges of the Patrons of Husbandry, now known and spoken of as the Grange. The work was slow in starting, but at the end of four years-December, 1872-there were more than 11,000 sub- ordinate Granges, and twenty-two state organizations; in January, 1873, the National Grange was organized in Georgetown, District of Columbia, with Dudley W. Adams of Iowa as master ; Thomas Taylor, South Caro- lina, overseer; F. M. McDowell, New York, treasurer; O. H. Kelley, Washington, District of Columbia, secretary, and an executive committee : William Saunders, Washington, District of Columbia; D. Wyatt Aiken, South Carolina, and E. R. Shankland, Iowa. From that time until the. present, the Grange has been a factor in all the efforts made to better the condition of the agriculturist.
"Father Kelley" died in 1913, after the success of his labors had become a certainty ; he saw accomplished by the Grange many things of untold value to the people, among them: the recognition of the equality of women in all walks of life; they were admitted to the Grange in full membership and powers with the men; the enacting of laws for the crea- tion of farming experiment stations which now dot every state in the Union ; the present rural free delivery of mail service; the building up of the system of farmers' institutes, and the teaching of agriculture in the public schools; in short, many advances in rural life are due to. the Grange. It is the rural community center ; the members meet and dis- cuss issues, formulate petitions and if necessary ask for favors. When farmers band themselves together and ask for a measure, it means more to a community than individual effort ; the grange is non-partisan, non- sectarian and open to all rural families.
The first local Grange in Allen County was Allen Grange; it was organized in 1871, north from Spencerville ; it prospered for several years when finally its building was burned and the lodge disbanded; its mem- bers affiliated with other organizations; the official roster was destroyed, but among the prominent members were: Rev. George Wolford, Rev. William Moorman, Jacob Book and J. N. Bailey. Other Granges organ- ized in quick succession that fall were: Shawnee Grange, J. H. Berry- man, master; German (now American) Grange, Jacob Crites, master ; Amanda Grange, Jacob Frye, master; Marion Grange, W. E. Watkins, master ; all told there have been twenty-two subordinate lodges organized in the county, distributed as follows: Amanda Township, two; Auglaize, two; Bath, two; American, three; Jackson, three; Marion, two; Monroe, two; Perry, two; Richland, one; Spencer, two, and Shawnee, one. Jack- son Grange No. 341, organized January 6, 1874, at the residence of David Fisher with thirty-seven charter members is considered the banner Grange of Allen County ; for a time this Grange met in a schoolhouse, but it was interrupted by outsiders until it finally built its own hall which ยท was soon to small to accommodate its members; the second building is two stories high, the upper rooms used by the Grange, and the lower for business purposes ; the members of this Grange transact much of their own business through the organization, thereby saving to themselves the profits of the middle man.
The first officers of Jackson Grange were: John Austin, master; John W. Helser, overseer ; John B. Grubb, lecturer ; Solomon D. Snyder,
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