USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vo. I > Part 19
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as a religious duty, thinking it to be his especial mission.
He
had, it is said, been disappointed in his youth in a love affair, and came west about 1800, and ever after followed his singular life. He was extensively known, was quite harmless, very patient, and did, without doubt. much good. IIe died in 1847, at the house of a Mr. Worth, near Fort Wayne. Indiana, who had long known him, and often befriended him. He was a minister in the Sweden- borgian church, and, in his own way, a zealous worker.
JOHNNY APPLESEED.
The settlers of the Western Reserve, coming from New Eng- land, chiefly from Connecticut, brought all varieties of fruit known in their old homes. These. whether seeds or grafts, were planted in gardens, and as soon as an orchard could be cleared on some favorable hillside. the young trees were transplanted there, and in time an orchard was the result. Much confusion regarding the kinds of fruits thus produced arose, partly from the fact that the trees grown from seeds did not always prove to be of the same Vol. I-11
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quality as the seeds. Climate, soil and surroundings often change the character of such fruits. Many new varieties, unknown to the growers, were the result. The fruit thus produced was often of an inferior growth. and when grafts were brought from the old New England home and grafted into the Ohio trees, an improve- ment as well as the old home fruit was the result. After the orchards in the Reserve began to bear, the fruit was very often taken to the Ohio river for shipment, and thence found its way to the southern and eastern seaboard cities.
Among the individuals prominent in introducing fruits into the state, were Mr. Dille, of Euclid, Judge Fuller, Judge Whittle- 'sey, and Mr. Lindley. George Hoadly was also very prominent and energetic in the matter, and was, perhaps the first to introduce the pear to any extent. He was one of the most persistent and enthusiastic amateurs in horticulture and pomology in the west.
About the year 1810. Dr. Jared Kirtland, father of Prof. J. P. Kirtland. so favorably known among horticulturists and pomo- logists, came from Connecticut and settled in Poland, Mahoning county, with his family. This family has done more than any other in the state, perhaps, to advance fruit culture. About the year 1824, Prof. J. P. Kirtland. in connection with his brother, established a nursery at Poland, then in Trumbull county, and brought on from New England about a hundred of their best varie- ties of apples, cherries, peaches, pears, and smaller fruits, and a year or two after brought from New Jersey a hundred of the best varieties of that state; others were obtained in New York, so that they possessed the largest and most varied stock in the western country. These two men gave a great impetus to fruit culture in the west, and did more than any others of that day to introduce improved kinds of all fruits in that part of the United States.
Another prominent man in this branch of industry was Mr. Andrew H. Ernst. of Cincinnati. Although not so early a settler as the Kirtlands, he was. like them, an ardent student and propa- gator of fine fruits. He introduced more than six hundred varie- ties of apples and seven hundred of pears. both native and foreign. His object was to test by actual experience the most valuable sorts for the diversified soil and climate of the western country.
The name of Nicholas Longworth, also of Cincinnati. is one of the most extensively known of any in the science of horticulture and pomology. For more than fifty years he made these his especial delight. Having a large tract of land in the lower part of Cincinnati. he established nurseries, and planted and dissemi- nated every variety of fruit that could be found in the United States-east or west-making occasional importations from Euro- pean countries of such varieties as were thought to be adapted to
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the western climate. His success has been variable, governed by the season, and in a measure by his numerous experiments. His vineyards, cultivated by tenants, generally Germans, on the Euro- pean plan, during the latter years of his experience paid him a handsome revenue. He introduced the famous Catawba grape, the standard grape of the west. It is stated that Mr. Longworth bears the same relation to vineyard culture that Fulton did to steam
navigation.
Others made earlier effort, but he was the first to
establish it on a permanent basis. He has also been eminently successful in the cultivation of the strawberry, and was the first to firmly establish it on western soil. £ He also brought the Ohio everbearing raspberry into notice in the state, and widely dis- seminated it throughout the country.
Other smaller fruits were brought out to the west like those mentioned. In some cases fruits indigenous to the soil were culti- vated and improved, and as improved fruits, are known favorably wherever used.
In chronology and importance, of all the cereals, corn stands foremost. During the early pioneer period, it was the staple article of food for both man and beast. It could be made into a variety of forms of food, and as such was not only palatable but highly nutritious and strengthening.
It is very difficult to determine whether corn originated in America or in the old world. Many prominent botanists assert it is a native of Turkey, and orginally was known as "Turkey wheat." Still others claimed to have found mention of maize in Chinese writings antedating the Turkish discovery. . Grains of maize were found in an Egyptian mummy. which goes to prove to many the cereal was known in Africa since the earliest times. Maize was found in America when first visited by white men, but of its origin Indians could give no account. It had always been known among them. and constituted their chief article of vegetable diet. It was cultivated exclusively by their squaws. the men con- sidering it beneath their dignity to engage in any manual labor. It is altogether probable corn was known in the Old World long before the new was discovered. The Arabs or Crusaders probably introduced it into Europe. How it was introduced into America will, in all probability, remain unknown. It may have been an in- digenous plant. like many others. Its introduction into Ohio dates with the settlement of the whites, especially its cultivation and use as an article of trade. True, the Indians had cultivated it in small quantities: each lodge a little for itself. but no effort to make of it a national support began until the civilization of the white race became established. From that time on, the increase in crops has grown with the state. and, excepting the great corn states of the west, Ohio produces an amount equal to any state in
0
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the Union. The statistical tables printed in agricultural reports show the acres planted, and bushels grown. Figures speak an un- answerable logic.
Wheat is probably the next in importance of the cereals in the state. Its origin, like corn, is lost in the mists of antiquity. Its berry was no doubt used as food by the ancients for ages anterior to any historical records. It is often called corn in old writings, and under that name is frequently mentioned in the Bible.
"As far back in the vistas of ages as human records go, we find that wheat has been cultivated, and, with corn, aside from animal food, has formed one of the chief alimentary articles of all nations; but as the wheat plant has nowhere been found wild, or in a state of nature, the inference has been drawn by men of un- questioned scientific ability, that the original plant from which wheat has been derived was either totally annihilated, or else cul- tivation has wrought so great a change. that the original is by no means, obvious, or manifest to botanists."
It is suposed by many, wheat originated in Persia. Others affirm it was known and cultivated in Egypt long ere it found its way to Persia. It was certainly grown on the Nile ages ago, and among the tombs are found grains of wheat in a perfectly sound condition, that unquestionably have been buried thousands of years. It may be, however, that wheat was grown in Persia first, and thence found its way into Egypt and Africa. or. vice versa. It grew first in Egypt and Africa and thence crossed into Persia, and from there found its way into India and all parts of Asia.
It is also claimed that wheat is indigenous to the island of Sicily, and that from there it spread along the shores of the Mediter- ranean into Asia Minor and Egypt, and, as communities advanced, it was cultivated, not only to a greater extent, but with greater success.
The goddess of agriculture, more especially of grains, who. by the Greeks was called Demeter, and by the Romans, Ceres- hence the name cereals-was said to have her home at Enna, a fertile region of that island , thus indicating the source from which the Greeks and Romans derived their ceralia. Homer mentions wheat and spelt as bread, also corn and barley, and describes his heroes as using them as fodder for their horses. as the people in the south of Europe do at present. Rye was in- troduced into Greece from Thrace, or by way of Thrace, in the time of Galen. In Caesar's time the Romans grew a species of wheat enveloped in a husk, like barley, and by them called "Far."
During the excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii, wheat. in an excellent state of preservation. was frequently found.
Dr. Anson Hart, superintendent, at one time, of Indian Affairs in Oregon, states that he found numerous patches of wheat and
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flax growing wild in the Yackemas country, in upper Oregon. There is but little doubt that both cereals were introduced in to Oregon at an early period by the Hudson Bay, or other fur com- panies. Wheat was also found by Dr. Boyle, of Columbus, Ohio, growing in a similar state in the Carson valley. It was, doubt- less, brought there by the early Spaniards. In 1530, one of Cortez's slaves found several grains of wheat accidentally mixed with the rice. The careful negro planted the handful of grains, and succeeding years saw a wheat crop in Mexico, which found its way northward, probably into California.
Turn where we may, wherever the foot of civilization has trod, there will we find this wheat plant, which, like a monument, has perpetuated the memory of the event; but nowhere do we find the plant wild. It is the result of cultivation in bygone ages, and has been produced by "progressive development."
It is beyond the limit and province of these pages to discuss the composition of this important cereal; only its historic pro- perties can be noticed. With the advent of the white men in America, wheat, like corn, came to be one of the staple products of life. It followed the pioneer over the mountains westward, where, in the rich Mississippi and Illinois bottoms, it has been culti- vated by the French since 1690. When the hardy New England- ers came to the alluvial lands adjoining the Ohio, Muskingum or Miami rivers, they brought with them this "staff of life," and forth- with began its cultivation. Who sowed the first wheat in Ohio, is a question Mr. A. S. Guthrie answers, in a letter published in the Agricultural Report of 1857, as follows :
"My father, Thomas Guthrie, emigrated to the Northwest Territory in the year 1788, and arrived at the mouth of the Musk- ingum in July, about three months after General Putnam had ar- rived with the first pioneers of Ohio. My father brought a bushel of wheat with him from one of the frontier counties of Pennsyl- vania, which he sowed on a lot of land in Marietta, which he cleared for that purpose, on the second bottom or plain, in the neighbor- hood of where the court house now stands."
Mr. Guthrie's opinion is corroborated by Dr. Samuel P. Hild- reth, in his "Pioneer Settlers of Ohio," and is, no doubt, correct.
From that date on down through the years of Ohio's growth, the crops of wheat have kept pace with the advance and growth of civilization. The soil is admirably adapted to the growth of this cereal, a large number of varieties being grown, and an excel- lent quality produced. It is firm in body, and, in many cases, is a successful rival of wheat produced in the great wheat-producing regions of the United States-Minnesota, and the farther north- west.
Oats, rye, barley, and other grains were also brought to Ohio
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from the Atlantic coast, though some of them had been cultivated by the French in Illinois and about Detroit. They were at first used only as food for home consumption, and, until the successful attempts at river and canal navigation were brought about, but little was ever sent to market.
Of all the root erops known to man, the potato is probably the most valuable. Next to wheat, it is claimed by many as the staff of life. In some localities, this assumption is undoubtedly true. What would Ireland have done in her famines but for this simple vegetable ? The potato is a native of the mountainous districts of tropical and subtropical America, probably from Chili to Mexico; but there is considerable difficulty in deciding where it is really indigenous, and where it has spread after being introduced by man. Humboldt, the learned savant, doubted if it had ever been found wild, but scholars no less famous, and of late date, have expressed an opposite opinion. In the wild plant, as in all others, the tubers are smaller than in the cultivated. The potato had been cultivated in America, and its tubers used for food, long before the advent of the Europeans. It seems to have been first brought to Europe by the Spaniards. from the neighborhood of Quito, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and spread through Spain, the Netherlands, Burgundy and Italy, cultivated in gardens as an ornament only and not for an article of food. It long received through European countries the same name with the batatas-sweet potato, which is the plant meant by all English writers down to the seventeenth century.
It appears that the potato was brought from Virginia to Ire- land by Hawkins. a slave-trader, in 1565, and to England by Sir Francis Drake, twenty years later. It did not at first attract much notice, and not until it was a third time imported from America, in 1623, by Sir Walter Raleigh, did the Europeans make a practical use of it. Even then it was a long time before it was extensively cultivated. It is noticed in agricultural journals as food for cattle only as late as 1719. Poor people began using it, however, and finding it highly nutritious, the Royal Geographical Society, in 1663, adopted measures for its propagation. About this time it began to be used in Ireland as food, and from the beginning of the · eighteenth century, its use has never declined. It is now known in every quarter of the world, and has, by cultivation, been greatly improved.
The inhabitants of America learned its use from the Indians, who cultivated it and other root crops-rutabagas, radishes, etc., and taught the whites their value. When the pioneers of Ohio came to its fertile valleys, they brought improved species with them, which by cultivation and soil. are now greatly increased, and are among the standard crops of the state.
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The cucurbitaceous plants, squashes, etc., were like the potato and similar root crops, indigenous to America-others, like the melons, to Asia-and were among the staple foods of the original inhabitants. The early French missionaries of the west speak of both root crops and cucurbitaceous plants as in use among the aboriginal inhabitants. "They are very sweet and wholesome." wrote Marquette. Others speak in the same terms, though some of the plants in this order had found their way to these valleys through the Spaniards and others through early Atlantic coast and Mexican inhabitants. Their use by the settlers of the west, especially Ohio, is traced to New England, as the first settlers came from that portion of the Union. They grow well in all parts of the state, and by cultivation have been greatly improved in quality
. and variety. All cucurbitaceous plants require a rich, porous soil, and by proper attention to their cultivation, excellent results can be attained.
Probably the earliest and most important implement of hus- bandry known is the plow. Grain, plants and roots will not grow well unless the soil in which they are planted be properly stirred, hence the first requirement was an instrument that would fulfill such conditions.
The first implements were rude indeed; generally, stout wooden sticks, drawn through the earth by thongs attached to rude ox-yokes, or fastened to the animal's horns. Such plows were in use among the ancient Egyptians, and may vet be found among uncivilized nations. The Old Testament furnishes numerous in- stances of the use of the plow, while, on the ruins of ancient cities and among the pyramids of Egypt, and on the buried walls of Babylon, and other extinet cities, are rude drawings of this useful implement. As the use of iron became apparent and general, it was utilized for plow points, where the wood alone would not
penetrate the earth. They got their plow-shares sharpened in Old Testament days, also coulters, which shows, beyond a doubt, that iron pointed plows were then in use. From times mentioned in the Bible, on heathen tombs, and like catacombs, the improve- ment of the plow, like other farming tools, went on, as the race of man grew in intelligence. Extensive manors in the old country required increased means of turning the ground, and, to meet these demands, ingenious mechanics, from time to time, invented im- proved plows. Strange to say, however, no improvement was ever made by the farmer himself. This is accounted for in his habits of life, and, too often. the disposition to "take things as they are." When America was settled. the plow had become an implement .capable of turning two or three acres per day. Still, and for many years, and even until lately, the mold-board was entirely wooden, the point. only iron. Later developments changed the wood for
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steel, which now alone is used. Still later, especially in prairie states, riding plows are used. Like all other improvements, they were obliged to combat an obtuse public mind among the ruralists, who surely combat almost every move made to better their condi- tion. In many places in America, wooden plows, straight ax handles, and a stone in one end of the bag, to balance the grist in the other, are the rule, and for no other reason in the world are they maintained than the laconic answer :
"My father did so, and why should not I ? Am I better than he ?"
After the plow comes the harrow, but little changed, save in lightness and beauty. Formerly, a log of wood, or a brush har- row, supplied its place, but in the state of Ohio, the toothed instru- ment has nearly always been used.
The hoe is lighter made than formerly, and is now made of steel. At first, the common iron hoe, sharpened by the blacksmith, was in constant use. Now, it is rarely seen outside of the south- ern states, where it has long been the chief implement in agri- culture.
The various small plows for the cultivation of corn and such other crops as necessitated their use are all the result of modern civilization. Now, their number is large, and, in many places, there are two or more attached to one carriage. whose operator rides. These kinds are much used in the western states, whose rootless and stoneless soil is admirably adapted to such machinery.
When the grain became ripe, implements to cut it were in de- mand. In ancient times, the sickle was the only instrument used. It was a short, curved iron, whose inner edge was sharpened and serrated. In its most ancient form. it is doubtful if the edge was . but little, if any, serrated. It is mentioned in all ancient works, and in the Bible is frequently referred to.
"Thrust in the sickle. for the harvest is ripe," wrote the sacred New Testament, while the old chronicles as early as the time of Moses : "As thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn."
In more modern times, the handle of the sickle was lengthened. then the blade, which in time led to the seythe. Both are yet in use in many parts of the world. The use of the scythe led some thinking person to add a "'finger" or two, and to change the shape of the handle. The old cradle was the result. At first it met con- siderable opposition from the laborers, who brought forward the old-time argument of ignorance. that it would cheapen labor.
Whether the cradle is a native of America or Europe is not accurately decided; probably of the mother country. It came into common use about 1818, and in a few years had found its way into the wheat-producing regions of the west. Where small crops are raised, the cradle is vet much used .. A man can cut from two to
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four acres per day, hence, it is much cheaper than a reaper, where the crop is small.
The mower and reaper are comparatively modern inventions. A rude reaping machine is mentioned by Pliny in the first century. It was pushed by an ox through the standing grain. On its front was a sharp edge, which cut the grain. It was, however. impracticable, as it cut only a portion of the grain, and the peas- antry preferred the sickle. Other and later attempts to make reapers do not seem to have been successful, and not till the pres- ent century was a machine made that would do the work required. In 1826, Mr. Bell, of Scotland, constructed a machine which is yet used in many parts of that country. In America, Mr. Hussey and
Mr. McCormick took out patents for reaping machines of superior character in 1833 and 1834. At first the cutters of these machines were various contrivances. but both manufacturers soon adopted a serrated knife, triangular shaped, attached to a bar, and driven through "finger guards" attached to it. by a forward and backward motion. These are the common ones now in use, save that all do not use serrated knives. Since these pioneer machines were in- troduced into the harvest fields they have been greatly improved and changed. Of late years they have been constructed so as to bind the sheaves, and now a good stout boy, and a team with a "harvester," will do as much as many men could do a few years ago, and with much greater ease.
As was expected by the inventors of reapers they met with a determined resistance from those, who in former times, made their living by harvesting. It was again absurdly argued that they would cheapen labor, and hence were an injury to the laboring man. Indeed, when the first machines were brought into Ohio. many of them were torn to pieces by the ignorant hands. Others left fields in a body when the proprietor brought a reaper to his farm. Like all such fallacies. these, in time. passed away, leav- ing only their stain.
Following the reaper came the thresher. As the country filled with inhabitants, and men increased their possessions, more rapid means than the old flail or roller method were demanded. At first the grain was trodden out by horses driven over the bundles, which were laid in a circular inclosure. The old flail, the tramp- ing-out by horses, and the cleaning by the sheet, or throwing the grain up against a current of air, were too slow, and machines were the result of the demand.
In Ohio the manufacture of threshers began in 1846, in the southwestern part. Isaac Tobias, who came to Hamilton from Miamisburg that year, commenced building the threshers then in use. They were without the cleaning attachment. and simply hulled the grain. Two years later .. he began manufacturing the
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combined thresher and cleaner, which were then coming into use. He continued in business till 1851. Four years after, the increased demand for such machines, consequent upon the increased agricul- tural products, induced the firm of Owens. Lane & Dver to fit their establishment for the manufacture of threshers. They afterward added the manufacture of steam engines to be used in the place of horse power. Since then the manufacture of these machines. as well as that of all other agricultural machinery, has greatly multiplied and improved, until now it seems as though but little room for improvement remains. One of the largest firms engaged in the manufacture of threshers and their component machinery is located at Mansfield-the Aultman & Taylor Co. Others are at Massillon, and at other cities in the west.
Modern times and modern enterprise have developed a mar- velous variety of agricultural implements-too many to be men- tioned in a volume like this. Under special subjects they will oe- casionally be found. The farmer's life, so cheerless in pioneer times, and so full of weary labor, is daily becoming less laborious, until, if they as a class profit by the advances, they can find a life of ease in farm pursuits, not attainable in any other profession. Now machines do almost all the work. They sow, cultivate, cut. bind. thresh, winnow and carry the grain. They cut, rake, load. mow and dry the hay. They husk, shell and clean the corn. They cut and split the wood. They do almost all; until it seems as though the day may come when the farmer can sit in his house and simply guide the affairs of his farm.
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