History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 33

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1196

USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 33

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

There are a few crops which were grown by our forefathers which are now seldom found. The passing of the buckwheat patch has been men- tioned; but along with it has gone flax, sorghum and tobacco. In 1864 there were 12,976 bushels of flax seed grown in the county, but in 1916 there were only three acres reported. Fifty years ago a sorghum patch was thought as essential to the family welfare as a potato patch, and it is hard to see why this saccharine plant has disappeared from the family garden. In 1864. 17.570 gallons of sorghum molasses were produced, but in 1916 there were only about one thousand gallons produced. Rush township was formerly a sorghum center and in the southwestern corner of the town- ship was located the largest sorghum factory in the county, and to this day its importance is recognized by the general public in the calling of the cross roads where it was located "Sorghum Corners." There was once a sorghum mill at Urbana and another at Cable, but these two have long since disap- peared.

The discussion of sorghum naturally recalls to the mind of the early pioneer the maple industry, that is, the products of the maple tree. Seventy- five years ago maple sugar was the only sweetening the average family had, and many families not only made enough molasses and sugar for their own use, but sold enough to make substantial additions to the family larder of other necessary commodities. In 1864 there was reported maple sugar to the amount of 128,662 pounds, or about sixty-five tons. In addition there were 8,086 gallons of syrup. There was no return made of the number of trees tapped in any of the early reports, but in 1916 the report gives 16,923 in the various "camps" of the county, Wayne township having 12.750 of the total number. The output for 1916 amounted to 2,683 gallons of syrup and 355 pounds of sugar.

TOBACCO AND FORAGE CROPS.

Tobacco was commonly grown in all parts of the county before the Civil War, nearly all of the Virginians having a patch of tobacco every

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year. In 1864 there were 52,417 pounds of tobacco raised in the county, but this did not by any means include the hundreds of small patches which were to be found scattered all over the county. The production fell off after the war and by 1875 it had dropped to nearly a thousand pounds. While there are a number of small patches of tobacco grown each year in the county at the present time the aggregate does not amount to more than a ton. There was only one farmer in the county in 1915 who raised tobacco for the market-John W. Anderson, of Johnson township, who had twenty acres of tobacco which yielded 18,500 pounds. There are half a dozen cigar factories in Urbana, but none of these use the homegrown product.

The forage crops of the county are a most important factor in the agricultural side of the county's growth. There was a time when the farmer turned his hogs loose in the woods in order to fatten them, and trusted to the bountiful supply of acorns and beechnuts to fatten them. Likewise in former years it was possible to turn cattle, sheep, hogs and all live stock into the woods and let them forage at will, and feel that they would find enough to eat. But land has increased in value since those days, and it is not profitable to raise sheep on land worth two hundred dollars an acre. That is the reason why the county in 1916 had only about 15,000 sheep, whereas forty years ago it supported 150,000. The same factor has been one of the causes in reducing the number of hogs raised and has its share in reducing the 175,000 raised in 1880 to 36,000 in 1916.

Hence, there has come into use many different kinds of forage crops. Ingenuity has devised a method of grinding corn and wheat in order to separate the parts fit for man and brute. The mast-fed porker of our grand- father is now replaced by the porker fattened on "shorts." The silo has made its appearance and at least one hundred and fifty of these conserva- tors of food have been built in the county during the past two decades. The report for 1916 gives 144 as being in operation in 1915. Distributed by townships, they are scattered over the county as follows: Adams, 5; Con- cord, 5; Goshen, 10; Harrison, 7: Jackson, 3; Johnson, o; Mad River, 11; Rush, 14; Salem, 40; Union, 7; Urbana, 30; Wayne, 12.

A number of forage crops are used as ensilage. It has been mentioned that the county produced 585 acres of ensilage corn in 1915. In addition the farmers use ordinary field corn, sweet corn, pea vines and alfalfa for silage. Alfalfa is a crop of the past few years, but has already proved its value as a forage crop. In 1915, 3,852 acres produced 8,768 tons, but this tonnage evidently does not represent the total of the three cuttings, which most of the alfalfa grown in this latitude will stand. The late Joseph Wing,

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of Mechanicsburg, was a great advocate of alfalfa and did more to intro- duce it into Champaign county than any other man. The use of soy beans as a forage crop has come within the past decade. In 1915 there were 132 acres of this legume, producing a total of twenty-four tons of hay and 117 bushels for seed. Beets and rape are grown in some townships for stock food, but their use is limited. Clover claimed 15,999 acres in 1915, but only 12,556 acres were cut for hay. The total amount of hay was 11,767 tons, while there were 1,040 bushels of clover seed produced. A consider- able amount of clover is plowed under each year and farmers are beginning to realize more than ever before the value of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria of the legumes.

The question of fertilizers has come to the front within the past few years. The farmer has learned by sad experience that his land has to be fed as regularly as he feeds his cattle and hogs. Crop rotation partially solves the problem of soil fertility, but it will not keep all kinds of soil in condition for producing good crops. In 1915 the farmers of Champaign county used 4,436,721 pounds of commercial fertilizer and in addition eighty-eight tons of lime, the total cost amounting to $41,290. The use of stable manure and green forage crops had been in vogue since the days of the Civil War, but commercial fertilizer is an innovation of the past few years. The liming of wet and sour soils has proved so satisfactory that an increasing amount of lime is being used every year. Lime has been used to a limited extent for forty years.

ORCHARD AND GARDEN FRUITS.

The major crops raised by the farmers in the county have been noticed in the preceding paragraphs and before taking up an analysis of the live- stock industry there are a few other crops of general interest to farmers to be noticed. Small fruits such as berries of all kinds-raspberries, black- berries, strawberries, gooseberries and currants-are found in practically every garden in the county, but there has never been any large growers of any small fruits. Grapes of various kinds are also found on most of the farms of the county, but. like the small fruits, they are not grown commer- cially. There were formerly cranberry marshes in the county, but the draining of the swamps has brought about their disappearance.

Orchard products are well worth the attention of every farmer in the county. Every farm should have its orchard of apples, peaches, pears, cherries and plums. The persimmon, pecan and chestnut can be grown to

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a good advantage in Champaign county, but little effort has been made to introduce them. Certainly the chestnut could be grown as profitably as the catalpa. The chestnut makes a better fence post than the catalpa, and most people prefer the fruit of the chestnut to that of the catalpa. The three trees-persimmon, pecan and chestnut-are handsome shade trees, quick growers and should be more widely cultivated in the county.

Several men have claimed the honor of introducing the apple tree into Champaign county. Many of the early settlers brought apple and peach trees with them and there was hardly a family which did not set out at least a few apple trees immediately after getting settled. In fact. there were more apples grown seventy-five years ago in Champaign county than there are today. The apple brings to mind the story of one of the interesting characters of early Ohio and Indiana.

GOOD WORK OF JONATHAN CHAPMAN.

"Johnny Appleseed" has been immortalized in prose and verse and shares with Burbank the honor of doing a great deal of the pioneer work in fruit propagation. Jonathan Chapman, nicknamed "Johnny Appleseed," is one of the unique characters of the West. Born in Massachusetts in 1775, he was known to be in Ohio about 1800 and history records that his first apple orchard was started in Licking county. From that year until his death near Ft. Wayne, Indiana. in 1847. "Appleseed" wandered up and down Ohio and northern Indiana, always walking, always with a bag of apple seeds on his back, always giving them away. A volume has been written by Eleanor Atkinson, an Indiana writer, entitled "Johnny Apple- seed," and in this is given a full account of the life of this pioneer orchard- ist. In 1916 a monument over his grave in Indiana was unveiled with appro- priate ceremonies.

ORCHARD STATISTICS.

Apples are being looked upon as a food and medicine, physicians of today crediting them with a certain medicinal value. In 1915, Champaign county reported 143,525 bushels of apples grown on 1,025 acres. The chief varieties grown at the present time in the county are the Rambo, Rhode Island Greening, Bellflower, Fall Pippin, Ben Davis, Baldwin, Northern Spy, Grimes Golden, Yellow June, Astrakan, Maiden Blush, Jonathan, Rus- set, Smith Cider, Winesap and Tulpehocken.

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Apples are subject to many diseases and there are many insect enemies in 1917 which were totally unknown in ante-bellum days. In the early history of the county thousands of gallons of cider were made every year and a number of cider-mills were found scattered over the county. Today there is not one left. In those early days apple-butter was found on every table-and it was homemade-but now if it is found it is but a feeble imita- tion of the brand made by our grandmothers. Many a kitchen was decor- ated in the olden days with strings of dried apples and every family larder was well stocked with an ample supply. But this, too, is all changed and very few housewives dry apples at the present time. It might be mentioned in this connection that our grandmothers not only dried apples, but they also dried raspberries, blackberries, pumpkin, corn-and even beef.

Peaches, pears, cherries, plums and quinces are found on most of the farms of the county. Probably the largest orchard of these fruits is the Winder orchard, in Rush township, near North Lewisburg. Peaches, like apples, are not as numerously grown as in former years. Pears, peaches and plums are used largely for canning purposes and to make jellies, but- ters, jams, preserves and pickles and for pastry purposes. Quinces are used for butter and preserves. The 1916 agricultural report gives the following returns of orchard fruits : Peaches, 58 acres, 2,456 bushels ; pears, 13 acres, 218 bushels; cherries, 33 acres, 717 bushels ; plums, 116 acres, 335 bushels. Other small fruit, 10 acres, 898 bushels. No separate returns are made for berries of any kind.

LIVE STOCK.

It would be interesting to be able to trace the growth of the live-stock industry in Champaign county, but the absence of reliable statistics renders it impossible. For twenty-five to thirty years after the county was organ- izen oxen were universally used, not only for plowing and doing the heavy hauling on the farm, but the ox-team was the only team many farmers owned and had to do the service of horses. Oxen were in constant use all over the county until the time of the Mexican War in the latter part of the forties, and even up to the time of the Civil War there were ox-teams to be found in some parts of the county.

Horses of uncertain breed and more useful than ornamental have been found in the county since Pierre Dugan's time. No effort was made to improve the breed of horses until about the fifties. Pedigreed stallions were unknown before that time. The credit for bringing the first imported stal-

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lion in Champaign county belongs to Erastus Martin, of Woodstock. In 1851 he bought a Norman stallion in France for two hundred and fifty dol- lars, as fine a stallion as money could buy in those days, and it was shipped direct to Woodstock, the freight amounting to only fifty dollars. This horse bore the name of "Napoleon," and after a few years' service he was sold for ten thousand dollars. Governor Vance, who was always interested in farming and stock-raising, was one of the early breeders of pedigreed stock, and is usually associated with the beginning of the breeding of short- horn cattle in the county. The establishment of the county fair in 1856 and the interest taken in the exhibition of horses at the county fairs of the state was a very prominent factor in improving the breed of horses in the county. Abraham Miller, a hardware merchant of Urbana, is considered the best judge of horses in the county. For several years he was in the employ of a Columbus firm, and was sent to Europe to buy pedigreed horses. The number of horses in the county has remained practically stationary for fifty years. In 1870 there were 9,190 horses and on April 1, 1916, there were 10,739.

THE CATTLE INDUSTRY.

Cattle have been associated with the history of the county since the first ox-team pulled a Conestoga into the county. The days of the ox have gone forever, but the day of the Jersey cow was never so prosperous as today. The old ox plowed the fields and for years was the main beast of burden of the county, but he was gradually succeeded by the horse and few oxen have been used since the Civil War. The first cattle entitled to a distinct name were the shorthorns, and among the early breeders of this breed may be mentioned Governor Vance, Rowland C. Moulton, Charles Lincoln, Samuel Cheney, Parker Bryan and Oliver Taylor. The shorthorn and nondescript had the field to themselves until after the Civil War and it was not until several years later that Jerseys, Herefords, Galloways, Polled Angus, Red Polled, Guernseys, Holsteins, Dutch Belted and Durhams became known to the farmers of Champaign county.

Statistics for 1870 give a total of 18,128 cattle and for 1915, a total of 18,065, while on April 1, 1916, there were only 15,815 cattle reported. The statement is often made that there were more cattle in the early days of the country than at the present time, but the number has remained practically the same for the last half century. The high price of cattle during the last year has been responsible for increasing the number raised, and conversely, the

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cause of a decrease in the total number. More calves are sold for veal now than ever before and there have even been efforts to have the Legislature intervene in behalf of the calf. There are a number of large cattle feeders in the country, among them being W. O. Wing, Taylor & Son, Quinn Yocum, George McCrery, Byron Hawley and Charles Johnson. John Bar- nett is the most prominent Polled Angus breeder in the county and J. S. Neer is the leader of the full-blooded Jersey breeders. Neer keeps from fifty to seventy-five Jerseys on his farm and ships them to all parts of the United States. John W. Evans and son, of Goshen, are the leaders of the Shorthorn breeders of the county. They sold a bull in the spring of 1917 for fifteen hundred dollars.

CREAMERY AND DAIRY STATISTICS.

An important factor in the raising of cattle in the county has been the introduction of the creamery. There are now four creameries in the county -at Urbana, Thackery, Mingo and Mechanicsburg-and all of them are doing a flourishing business. There was formerly one at Woodstock, but it has been discontinued. The effect of these creameries upon the breeding of milk cattle has been very pronounced. There are hundreds of farmers in this county who are raising more and better cows because of the cream- ery. One farmer made the statement to the historian in the spring of 1917 that a good Jersey cow would yield about a hundred dollars' worth of milk and butter in a year. A number of farmers have installed separators and sell the cream, feeding the milk to their calves or pigs. The creameries send automobile trucks over the county to collect the milk. Milk is now selling in Urbana at five cents a pint or eight cents a quart. The dairy statistics for 1915 present the following interesting facts: Milk sold for family use, 172,172 gallons ; milk sold to creameries, 275,720 gallons : cream sold to creameries, 241,560 gallons : butter made at home, 313,450 pounds; creamery-made butter. 97.972 pounds; homemade cheese. 2.038 pounds; factory-made cheese, 2.700 pounds.

THE STORY OF THE PIG.

The story of the pig in Champaign county might easily be drawn out to the length of a volume. There are pigs and pigs and there is as much difference between the pig of a hundred years ago and his descendant of today as there is between the wild plum of the forest and the luscious

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· damson. The pig of the thirties was a thin, cadaverous looking creature, constructed for speed, and produced a quality of bacon and ham in keeping with his general tough and wiry appearance. With an alimentary canal only about five times his length, this creature was able to extract fairly well all the nutrition from his scanty food supply. His improved de- scendant, with an alimentary canal about ten times his length, is able to consume many times as much food, then lie down, and get from the food an even larger proportion of nourishment.

Many stories have been preserved of the famous hog drives to market in the early days. It is certain that the four-hundred-pound porker of 1917 could not make the long trip on foot to Toledo or Cincinnati as did his long- legged, long-snouted, long-tailed, long-bristled, slabsided brother of the twenties and thirties. This early porker bore the name of "elm peeler," "razor back," "rail splitter," (smaller varieties were known as "sapling splitters") ; names which were graphically descriptive of his anatomical structure. It is said that one of these porkers could outrun the fleetest horse for a mile, and that a sow with a brood was a fiercer animal to meet in the woods than a wolf.

DESCRIPTION OF A HOG DRIVE.

The hog buyers bought up all the hogs they could find in a given neighborhood and rendezvoused them at a central station. There were men trained as special pig drivers, (it seemed to have been a knack), and as many as five thousand hogs would be driven in one drove from Urbana to Toledo. More than one drove was driven from Urbana to Baltimore, every foot of the distance being covered by the porkers on foot. It is small wonder that they were, as the old settlers said, "built for speed and endur- ance." The following account of one of these hog drives is given by an early writer :

It was not uncommon to see a drove of hogs driven into the public square to be weighed. preparatory to starting them on their long journey. As each porker was caught it was thrust into a kind of leather receptacle, commonly called the harness breeching, which was suspended to steelyards. As soon as the hog was fairly in the breeching the whole was lifted from the ground, and thus one by one the drove was weighed and a minute made of each, and with a pair of shears a patch of bristles was cut from the bindquarters ns evidence of the fact that the pig had been weighed. Two or three days drive made the bogs quiet enough to be driven along the high- way without trouble, moving along at an average galt of eight to ten miles a day. Much difficulty was experienced in keeping together in berds the hogs bought in distant

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and sparsely settled neighborhoods, where they were but little handled and rarely fed. The highways, even when well opened, led through hazel brush and fallen timber, and even down to a late day were rarely fenced on both sides. Every strange sight and sound gave an alarm, and the hogs scattered In every direction, to be gathered together again at their former haunts. This difficulty was obviated, we are informed, by John Earson, an old settler who engaged in collecting hogs from distant settle- ments Into one drove, by enticing them into a pen and then running a "stitch" through the eye lids and securing the same by a knot. Thus blinded the hogs seemed in- stinctively to keep the road, and once started could easily be driven by a person on horseback. Two or three days drive made them comparatively quiet and tractable, and reaching their destination a clip of the scissors or knife made all things right again. Another pioneer adds to this statement that In order to catch the hogs shelled corn was trailed from the brush into a strong rall pen having a "slip-gap." As soon as the hogs were in the pen the gap was closed, and by means of a long pole with a hood on the end, which was made to catch behind the foreshoulder of the leg, the bog was drawn to a convenient place; a strap with a slipnoose, which was placed just behind the tushes of the upper jaw, drew the animal to the desired spot, when the stitches were made without further trouble and the brute then released.

STATISTICS RELATING TO SWINE.

The difference between the price of hogs of 1817 and 1917 is no less striking than the difference in their appearance. Records of early prices- up to 1840, even-never show the price above three cents and a half a pound, although it was more often in the neighborhood of two cents. Many a hog was driven out of Champaign county at a dollar and a quarter a hundred. The Toledo market on June 1. 1917. quoted hogs at $15 to $16.50 per hundred.

. On April 1, 1916, there were 35.868 hogs reported in the county and, as far as statistics show, if their reliability can be depended upon, this was a lighter production than the county has had in any year during the past seventy-five years. In 1860 the county had over 100,000 hogs, and by 1870 the number had leaped to 164.709. The highwater mark was reached in 1880 when there were 175,160 hogs reported. The cholera came like a thief in the night in the nineties and spread death and destruction on every hand. Thousands of hogs were lost and many farmers quit raising them alto- gether. The disease has persisted to the present time and in 1915, 5.795 hogs (valued at $38,899) were lost by disease. This deplorable state of affairs is directly responsible for the sharp decrease in the number of hogs. It will be noticed that about one hog out of about every six died in 1915.

The prevailing breeds of hogs grown in the county now are Poland China and Berkshires. In addition to these two main breeds there are Chester Whites, Duroc-Jerseys, Hampshires and Mulefoots. The latter

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class are supposed to be immune from cholera, but they have other char- acteristics which have kept them from being widely raised. The Hamp- shires are grown by a number of farmers in the county, one of the large raisers of this breed being Luther Gaver. J. C. Stuckey and George Lincoln have Duroc-Jerseys.

THE VARIABLE HISTORY OF THE SHEEP.

There is no domestic animal raised in the county that has had such a variable history as the sheep. In the early history of the county nearly every family made their own cloth from either woolen and flax, or a mix- ture of both (linsey-woolsey), and this necessitated the raising of sheep. Then there was a woolen factory in Urbana for a hundred years and this also stimulated the production of wool. One of the factors which has tended to decrease the number of sheep raised in the county is the rise in the price of land. When land was worth from two to ten dollars an acre. it could profitably be used for grazing, but it can not when it is worth two hundred dollars an acre. The high tide of the sheep industry in Cham- paign county was in the early seventies. In the middle of this decade there were 153,132 sheep reported, but on April 1, 1916, there were only 15.350. Another factor which has discouraged sheep raising is the damage done the flock by dogs. In 1915 there were 144 sheep killed by dogs and 278 in- jured, with a total loss of $1,152. During the same period 443 sheep died of disease, entailing an additional loss of $2.161. And finally the tariff must be charged with being an important factor in the decline of sheep raising.

The Merino sheep were the first raised in the county and for many years was the only breed. Later came in the Delaine Merinos and the French Merinos ( Rambouillet ), Cotswolds, Hampshire Downs, Oxford Downs. South Downs. Shropshire Downs. Lincolns. Leicesters, Dorset Horned, Cheviot and Tunis. The largest Rambouillet breeder for many years was Dwight Lincoln, but he is now retired. O. M. Clark, of Cable, is now the leading Rambouillet breeder of the county and ships his stock to all corners of the United States.

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History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 33

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1196