USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 34
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THE PATIENT HEN.
One more of the domesticated creatures remains to be discussed-the chicken. The patient hen in 1916 produced about a million dozen of eggs
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in Champaign county, which, at twenty-five cents a dozen, would bring a quarter of a million dollars. Eggs alone brought in a revenue to the farmers of the county more than equal to the total value of the wool clip, plus the value of the sheep. This does not count the value of the hens themselves, and 123,193 hens were reported on April 1. 1916. The county has several chicken fanciers, the most prominent of these being Donna Hanley, of Mechanicsburg. She has exhibited her main breed, Partridge Rocks, all over the United States. She has carried off ribbons in exhibits from coast to coast and finds a ready sale for her birds in all parts of the United States. Loren Harner, a clerk in Hatton's Drug Store, at Urbana, is a chicken raiser, but has earned his greatest reputation as a poultry judge. He has officiated at the chicken shows in many parts of the country. Homer Crum- rine raises Buff Orpingtons and has won a large number of prizes with his birds. John Linville, of Cable, is another chicken fancier of the county who has won several premiums. In addition to the chickens raised in the county many farmers raise turkeys, ducks, geese and guineas, all of which are readily marketable. Separate returns are not made by the assessors for these latter.
AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS FOR MAY 1. 1917.
The report to the county auditor on May 1, 1917, of the agricultural statistics furnishes an interesting study in comparison with the crops of a year ago. Never before in the history of the United States has there been such an effort to induce the farmers to grow large crops. Never before has the nation at large taken up the question of the food supply with the earnestness it did in the spring of 1917. Champaign county was flooded with literature asking the farmers of the county "to do their bit" and a glance at the following report shows that they were planning for larger crops for 1917 than ever before. The following synopsis is compiled from the report of the auditor which in turn was compiled by his office from the report of the township assessors :
As opposed to 1916, 51,967 acres in corn, 55,030 are planted to corn in 1917. As opposed to 23,842 acres sown for wheat in 1916, there are 25.724 acres in 1917. A comparison of figures of last year and this shows rye on the increase over the county and oats on the decrease. The rye figures are 3.218 acres in 1916 and 5,087 acres in 1917. Oats figures show 15.264 acres of oats in 1916 and 12,961 in 1917.
The report shows that honey bees in the county last year produced
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13,653 pounds of honey. There were, at the end of April, 1917, 18,912 head of cattle in the county, and hogs being made ready for summer mar- kets numbered 12,430 at the end of April.
The report shows that 318 sheep were lost to sheep-killing dogs and 129.902 pounds of tobacco were produced during 1916. It also shows that 96 farmers retired in 1916, leaving their farms and going into villages to live. One hundred and thirty farms in the county are rented and 187 persons work for wages on the farms.
PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY
The beginning of the Patrons of Husbandry dates back to the year following the close of the Civil War. The department of agriculture had sent an agent to the Southern states to investigate farming conditions and found them in such a wretched state that it was deemed advisable to or- ganize some kind of a movement which should enlist all the farmers of the country. As first outlined the Patrons of Husbandry, as the organization was called. had some of the features of a secret society; there were signs, words, degrees and a beautifully worked out ritual. With the backing of the national government it was soon put in a position where it commanded the attention of the leading farmers of the country.
Its purpose was stated in a very brief preamble: "To secure a more social intercourse; to encourage a more thorough education, and a more general diffusion of knowledge; to promote the thrift of the farmers by broader knowledge, by higher farming and by all legitimate means that indi- viduals or communities may of right do; to build up a nobler and better manhood and womanhood in the agricultural class," Men and women were admitted to membership on an equal basis. Originally it planned to be a' lodge, lyceum, debating society, farmers' club and an exchange. The latter meant the installation of a store or some sort of a co-operative buying agency to which all the members might belong. With such aims and pur- poses the Patrons of Husbandry appealed for support to the farmers of the United States, a non-political support, and a support which on the face of it meant everything to the farmer. And it prospered exceedingly until pol- itics entered the organization in the latter part of the seventies.
The "grange" reached Champaign county in 1873. the same year that the movement was inaugurated in the state. Seth H. Ellis was the first state master : John W. Ogden, of Urbana, was the first state lecturer; P. W.
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Gunkel was deputy master: Simeon Taylor, of Westville, was one of the most active leaders in the organization of the first granges in the county.
Every township in the county had a grange before the end of 1873 and within the next five years grange halls had sprung up all over the county. By the end of the seventies the grange had nearly run its race, and for thirty years it lay dormant. Many reasons have been advanced to explain the cause for the downfall of the grange in the eighties, but it is safe to say that its interference with political affairs was the beginning of its downfall. Another cause for its decline was the fact that it promised more than it was able to fulfill. with the result that within five years after it was organized it had lost half of its membership in this county. The rise of the Farmers' Alliance, a political organization, attracted many of the leading farmers and during the eighties the grange movement was com- pletely overshadowed and lost sight of in the Farmers' Alliance and its successor. the People's Party.
From 1880 to about 1910 the grange, or Patrons of Husbandry, was dormant all over the country. During the past ten years there has been a renewed interest in the grange and it has again become a very active organization in behalf of the farmers. The present state officers are as follows: L. W. Tabor, master: Mrs. Harriet Dickson, lecturer; W. G. Vandenbark, secretary: O. J. Demuth, treasurer. A deputy master has general charge of all of the granges of the county and Harmon Harlan, of Woodstock, is now serving in this capacity for Champaign county.
The report of Deputy Master Harlan on June 1, 1917, gives the fol- lowing statistics for the grange in Champaign county: One fifth-degree grange, Pomona Grrange No. 2; seven fourth-degree granges, and one juve- nile grange, under the auspices of Sunrise Grange No. 1550.
ENUMERATION OF GRANGES.
Pomona Grange is composed of the fourth-degree members of the subordinate granges and meets quarterly : that is, alternately with the other granges of the county. The juvenile grange is connected with Sunrise Grange No. 1550, the Rush township grange. It is composed of children under fourteen years of age.
The seven fourth-degree granges are as follows: Westville Grange No. 1625. which meets in that village; Sunrise Grange No. 1550, which meets in the southern part of Rush township; Up-to-Date Grange No. 1873. Crayon: Tri-county No. 1881. North Lewisburg; Advance No. 1882, Me-
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chanicsburg; Salem No. 1918, Kings Creek; Union No. 1995, and Rey- nolds, in the northern part of Union township. The total membership of these seven granges in January. 1917, was eight hundred and seventy-six. The most flourishing grange is Sunrise Grange, which owns a hall of sev- eral rooms, an abandoned schoolhouse, and an acre of ground. There is a fine grove on the land and it is a favorite picnicing ground. The school- house which the grange owns was formerly the Sodom schoolhouse. The Westville grange of the seventies built a large two-story brick building, which it still standing.
In the seventies the grange planned to do co-operative buying and sell- ing and the plan was tried out in this county, but it never became a success. The grange at North Lewisburg once bought coal for its members, and Sunrise Grange built a grange hall with the intention of having a store in it. The grange is active in furthering the interests of the farmers in the Legislature. Deputy Master Harlan, the head of the grange in Champaign county, sums up the place of the grange in the life of the farmer in the following words: "They work for better crops, better schools, better roads, better churches, better neighbors and better morals. In a community where there is a good grange the people and their children are much better in- formed on everything. In a financial way the producer and consumer are brought so much nearer together that thousands of dollars are kept in their pockets that would go off in some other channel, if not for the grange."
THE COUNTY FAIR.
No one has ever figured out how the word "fair" came to be applied to the function as it is understood today. For seventy-five years Cham- paign county has had a fair of some kind although for a number of years it was a small affair. The first fair was held on the farm of John Reynolds, north of town and immediately south of the present tract of land occupied by the Illinois Car Company. There were no buildings of any kind and the stock on exhibition was tied to the stake-and-rider fence which sur- rounded the field. The grains, fruits, textiles and other things on exhi- bition were displayed in the court house which had just been completed the previous summer. This first fair opened on October 28, 1841. A prelimi- nary meeting had been held by a number of interested citizens on the 25th of the previous month and they had drawn up a few rules to govern the management of the proposed fair. A scale of premiums was arranged
(23)
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amounting to a total of sixty-seven dollars. When this amount is com- pared with the generous awards of 1917 it will be seen that there is con- siderable difference between the fair of 1841 and one of 1917. The first officers of the Champaign County Agricultural Society, the name by which the fair association was then known and by which it still is known, were as follows: Joseph Vance, president: Smith Minturn, Joel Funk, vice-pres- idents ; Joseph C. Brand, secretary ; S. C. Ward, treasurer.
The records for the first eight years of this organization (1841-49) have been lost and it is not possible to trace the year-by-year history of the fair. However. they had no grounds of their own until 1858. Prior to that year the fair was not what is now known by that name. There was no horse racing: the stock exhibited was tied in some grove and was on exhibition only one day; the farm products and the ladies' handiwork was usually placed on exhibition in the court house. Sometimes the exhibits were shown in one of the groves adjoining the town where the live stock was also lined up for review.
OLD GROUNDS ABANDONED.
The first permanent fair grounds were located south of town on a twenty-two acre tract now owned by A. F. Vance, Jr. This tract adjoins the corporation on the south on the west side of South Main street. Thirteen acres of this tract was bought on January 8, 1858, from John H. Young and on the same day nine acres were purchased from S. A. Winslow, the whole tract costing five thousand one hundred and eight dollars. On this tract of land a race track was laid out, buildings were erected and annual fairs were held from the fall of 1858 to the fall of 1889. In 1861 the county commissioners joined with the county fair board in erecting some buildings for the use of the soldiers who were in camp there during the fall and winter of 1861-62. These buildings were used by the fair associa- tion after the war and remained standing until torn down at the tin. present fair grounds were bought.
All of the older citizens of the county recall the fairs held on the old fair ground. Owing to the limited space the track had to be made three laps for the mile and this was far from a satisfactory arrangement. By the latter part of the eighties the buildings were getting badly in need of repair and this fact combined with the very evident fact that the grounds were too small resulted in a decision on the part of the board to abandon the old grounds. It was impossible to secure additional land adjoining the
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ground and this made it necessary to secure a new site. A purchaser for the old grounds was found in the person of A. F. Vance, Jr., and then came the question of a new site.
A DIVISION OF OPINION.
The selection of a site was then a question that divided the city of Urbana and the country immediately surrounding it into two well divided parties. Three sites were proposed for the grounds. One in the Reynolds woods, two miles north of Urbana ; another, the present site of the Children's Home; and the third, the present site of the fair grounds. The Children's Home site did not receive much consideration and the fight settled down to a struggle between the proponents of the Reynolds' woods site and the present fair grounds site. Considerable electioneering was done by th"" interested and one man even went so far as to offer President Ganson five hundred dollars in cash for his influence if he would use it to further the prospects of the Reynolds woods site. Ganson was in favor of the present site because it was more easily reached by the citizens of Urbana. He explained that many of the people who attend the fair came from Urbana and walked to the grounds.
It was explained to Ganson in rebuttal by those in favor of the Rey- nolds woods site that he should be interested in locating the grounds at some little distance from the city because it would help his livery business, but he was not influenced by these mercenary arguments. He thought that the matter of a selection of a site should be left to the people who would attend the fairs. When the fair board met to dispose of the site question the vote was a tie. An even number had voted for the Reynolds woods site and the present site, and it was up to the president to cast the deciding vote. Mr. Ganson stated that he would not decide the matter and the meet- ing was adjourned without any decision being made. When the board met two weeks later the question was again brought up and the present site car- ried by a majority of six votes.
TOOK A VOTE ON CREATING EXPENSE FUND.
It should be mentioned that Ganson prevailed upon the county cont- missioners to allow the people of the county to vote on the question of tax- ing themselves to the amount of ten thousand dollars to help purchase the grounds and erect the necessary buildings. The fair board first bought
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forty-one and nine-tenths acres for $6,433.77 and in 1893 paid one thou- sand dollars for an additional five and seven-tenths acres. No ground has been added since that year.
Work was immediately started on improving the grounds. Some of the old buildings were moved to the new grounds, and stalls were built. For the first few years a number of stalls were privately owned, but title to these buildings has since been granted to the fair board. President Ganson was very enthusiastic in the improvement of the new site and he himself with his plow and team helped grade the race track and level it off.
The grand stand is three hundred and twenty feet in length; the exhi- bition enclosure is flanked by a substantial amphitheatre which will hold several hundred; the fine-arts hall and merchants' and manufacturers' pavil- ion are large and conveniently arranged structures ; dining hall, barns, stables and other buildings make up a complement of buildings which provide ample quarters for the display and housing of everything which goes to make a fair in a county the size of Champaign. In the summer of 1917 extensive improvements were made by the fair association in the way of repairing the old buildings and erecting a row of new stalls. The fair has been con- ducted on a high plane and is primarily for the benefit of the people of the county. Farmers of the county and local manufacturers are encouraged to make exhibits and the variety and value of premiums offered are made sufficiently attractive to insure a good line of exhibits.
The officials in 1917 are as follows: T. B. Owen, president; John W. Crowl, secretary; George Couchman, treasurer. In addition there are two managers for each township in the county.
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CHAPTER XX.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
The followers of Esculapius have been found in Champaign county from the beginning of its history. No class of men endured more hard- ships and performed more useful work in the early history of the county than its faithful band of family physicians. In those days of a hundred years ago the physician occupied a closer and more intimate place in the life of the community than does the practitioner of today. He was held in as much reverence and affection as the minister of the gospel.
Diseases were more widely prevalent in early times than at the present day, owing to the swamps and lowlands which were to be found on every hand. Mad river, valuable as it was and still is as a drainage feature of the county, was the cause of countless thousands of cases of ague and chills in the early days of the county. Then again the conditions in the pioneers' homes were not as sanitary as they are today; screen doors were unknown until after the Civil War; the existence of our fashionable germs, microbes. bacilli, etc., were unknown to our good forefathers; few of our modern high-priced diseases had appeared. The wonder is that so many of the common ills of an early day were not fatal. The open, outdoor life of the people, together with their simple and wholesome food, however, was usually a sufficient barrier against most of their ordinary ailments. Every family had its medicine chest; every grandmother was a skilled pharmacist in her way; every ordinary disease had its particular root or herb with which it was to be treated; yellow root, blood root, black root, etc., were always found in the pioncer pharmacopcia.
For many years after the organization of Champaign county the physicians to be found within its limits were probably the hardest working class of men in the county. They were always ready to answer calls night and day, in winter and in summer, in all kinds of weather-and often called out for trips of many miles when they knew that the poor people they were going to attend would never be able to pay for their services. Pioneer physicians have often remarked that they scarcely ever collected more than half of the accounts they had on their records. It seems that with the
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ordinary man the doctor's bill is about the last one to be paid, and with many of the old pioneer physicians this proved so distressingly true th: they had to make frequent appeals through the local papers for their patrons to settle their accounts.
FIRST PHYSICIAN TO LOCATE AT URBANA.
It is not certain who was the first physician in Champaign county, but it is fairly well established that James Davidson was the first to locate in Urbana. There may have been some in Springfield before Davidson located in Urbana, and there probably was, but they are not taken into considera- tion in speaking of the county. It is true that Springfield and Bellefontaine were both in Champaign county until 1818, but the discussion of physicians is limited to those who settled within the limits of the county as it is con- stituted today.
The student of medical lore is surprised at the large number of physi- cians in Urbana in its early history. Within a decade after the county was organized, and at the time the town could hardly have contained more than a few hundred souls. there were no fewer than a dozen physicians. The presence of this seemingly large number may be accounted for in part by remembering that they traveled over the whole county and that there was much more sickness then than at the present time. Under the first state constitution the Legislature passed an act providing for a tax on physicians and for the two decades prior to 1851 they had to pay an annual tax ranging from fifty cents to three dollars. In 1849 there were thirty- five physicians who paid a fee to practice their profession in the county. Their names and the amounts they contributed to the county treasury are found in the records of the county commissioners, and are enumerated later in this chapter.
Doctor Davidson was soon joined by other practitioners and by the close of the first decade of the county's history there had been at least a dozen to locate for a time at least in the county seat. Among these early physicians may be enumerated Doctors Bonner, Case, Collins, Conkright and Mendenhall. It does not appear that any of this number remained in the village for many years: at least, they are not found among the old records as having been employed as poor physicians, or as having received any money from the county for various kinds of medical services. The names of nearly all the early physicians appear time and again in the county commissioners' records, and many of them appear in no other place.
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In 1814 appeared one of the best known of the pioneer physicians of Urbana. Dr. Joseph S. Carter, who came to the county seat in that year, was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, was educated at Lexington and was later graduated from the medical department of the University of Penn- sylvania. His connection with Urbana was a direct result of the War of 1812. He was appointed surgeon of a Kentucky regiment at the opening of the war and came with the regiment to Urbana. He became enamoured with the community and later resigned his commission in the army, returned to Kentucky and brought his family back with him to Urbana. He con- tinued in active practice in Urbana from 1814 until his death in 1852, at the age of sixty-two. He probably had the largest practice of any physician in the county for many years, but while he had such an extensive practice, he never desired to accumulate property. He married a daughter of M. W. Fisher, of Springfield, and they became the parents of eight children. One son. Joseph S. Carter, Jr., followed in his father's footsteps, was grad- uated from Ohio Medical College in 1850, practiced until 1870 and then retired from active work and became general manager of the Western Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Urbana.
SHIPWRECK ALTERED HIS CAREER.
The other leading physician of Urbana in its ante-bellum period was Dr. Adam Mosgrove, who located in the village of 1818, four years after Doctor Carter. Doctor Mosgrove was born in Ireland, August 12, 1790, and was graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons at. Dublin, Ireland, on April 7. 1814. He was immediately commissioned as a surgeon in the British navy and served in that capacity until the spring of 1816. On Easter Monday he left Ireland on board the ship "Charlotte" for the United States. When that vessel was wrecked in the Bay of Delaware, a dispute arose between the ship's officers and the British government, with the result that all of the officers resigned their commissions-and this is how Dr. Adam Mosgrove became identified with the United States.
The doctor had good health. Irish wit, a good medical education, and seventy guineas. He started West and first located at Lancaster, Penn- sylvania, later at Elizabethtown in the same state. In the latter village he was married in 1817 to Mary Miller, whose brother, Lawrence, later lived in Urbana. Doctor Mosgrove first heard of Urbana through George Moore. an Irishman from his own home village, who had located in Urbana. The desire to be near the friend of his boyhood days led the doctor to come to
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the city where he was destined to spend the remainder of his days. Doctor Mosgrove and his young wife made the overland trip to Urbana in June, 1818. She died in 1833 and in the following year he married Frances A. Foley. He died on March 10, 1875, in his eighty-fifth year and his widow passed away on September 1, 1879. For many years Doctor Mosgrove and Doctor Carter were in partnership and they continued to practice together until Doctor Carter's death in 1852. Doctor Mosgrove had three sons, John A., Dr. James M. and Col W. F .- children by the first marriage. It is not too much to say that he was better and more widely known than any physician who has ever practiced in Champaign county. He was kind, sympathetic and possessed a solicitude for his patients which made him beloved by everyone.
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