USA > Ohio > Portage County > Portage heritage; a history of Portage County, Ohio; its towns and townships and the men and women who have developed them; its life, institutions and biographies, facts and lore > Part 20
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The rise of these "fundamentalist" sects in recent years may be a sign of dissatisfaction with older, larger, and more "respectable" churches. Many may also enjoy smaller groups for the independence enjoyed. Their emotion- alism and literalism may be a relief to some who would find formal liturgy and reasoned creeds and doctrines un- suitable to their needs. A letter to the editor in 1953 may in part voice the feeling which sustains the fundament- alist sects and which makes some dis- satisfied in the better known church- es. The writer of the letter described himself as a lifelong Methodist, age 85:
Modernism has sidetracked true evangel- ism as practiced by John the Baptist and the disciples and is substituting moral character and good works ... When our clergy return to the text 'Repentance' (that was so popular with the disciples) and recognize the fact that the success of the entire program hinges on a change of heart the glow of real spiritual life will again manifest itself in our churches .*
*Letters to the Editor, Kent-Ravenna Courier Tribune, March 6, 1953, (J. W. Grider, Ravenna).
Salary Was Grain Fed
The first minister of the Aurora Congregational Church was Rev. John Seward. He was a brilliant young graduate of Williams College and a member of the "Haystack" group there which fostered the first foreign missionary movement in America. His pay for his first year in Aurora was a living for himself and his horse and two hundred dollars per year" to be paid annually on the first day of January in grain at cash price." He was a strict church disciplinarian and for some reason gained the nickname of "Priest" Seward. He was severe in his denunciation of dancing but met his match in Huldah Harmon, who loved dancing, and had her father's silent approval. He was also instrumental in the excommunication of members for various violations of church regulations. Seward served the church for 32 years beginning in 1814. He was also one of the founders of Western Reserve College at Hudson. He organized the Randolph Congregational Church in 1812, previous to his Aurora ministry.
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This church in Southwest Portage is on the site of the first Catholic church in the county at St. Joseph's.
CHANGE TO LIBERALISM
There is space here for only one ex- ample of that moderate type of theo- logical liberalism which has played such an important role in Methodist, Congregational, and Disciples church- es in the past half century. The Rev. M. B. Derthick was pastor of the Hill- top Christian Church in Mantua from 1919 to 1937. From 1943 through 1950 he similarly served the historic Mantua Center Disciples Church. Al- though Rev. Derthick would disclaim credit for it, both churches were greatly strengthened by his combina- tion of liberalism in matters of ritual and membership with conservatism in respect to the Gospel. These churches opened their membership to members of other denominations, without mak- ing mode of baptism a test of mem- bership. At Hilltop Church since 1919 (though not at Mantua Center) com- munion has been monthly instead of weekly. These practices have helped to make both churches community churches. People of many denomina- tions have affiliated with them. Bap- tism by immersion was continued for
those entering by confession of faith. Rev. Derthick's social liberalism ap- pears from his refusing in the early 1920's the use of Hilltop Church to KKK members in masks and regalia.
The Hilltop Disciples Church was a pioneer in the county in its liberal rules of membership. It was not until 1944 that the Ravenna Christian Church adopted a similar ruling. Un- dergirding Rev. Derthick's view was his conviction that
the Church is a divine institution. Man cannot admit or exclude. He can preach the Gospel and administer the ordinance of baptism, but the Lord adds men to the church ... the Lord will add all to His church who have lived up to their light in the Gospel.
STAND ON ISSUES
In various controversial social is- sues the churches were often forums for discussion and became opinion- forming agencies. Anti-slavery, anti- liquor, anti-war and pro-war agita- tions have drawn strength from church support in the county. Bap- tists believed their church at Garretts- ville was blown up in 1881 by the saloon interests in retaliation for their anti-drink campaign. There was strong anti-Masonic feeling among the churches in the 1830's and 1840's. Over one hundred persons attended an anti-Masonic convention at Ravenna, April 23, 1830, and Baptists at Brim- field resolved in 1844 that church membership should be denied to Ma- sons. It was in line with this tendency to take sides in social issues for a Mantua pastor in 1952 to criticize lack of discipline in the present school status quo by supporting a Mantua teacher under fire for trying to up- hold discipline.
The legacy from the Christian churches to the county is beyond cal- culation. They have exerted artistic
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and educational influences along with the religious and ethical. Many pas- tors once conducted schools, as did "Father" John Seward during his more than thirty years pastoriate in Aurora. Sunday schools, first frowned upon, developed libraries and orches- tras. There were flourishing church choirs, as early as the 1870s Frank Plum's choir from the Mantua Center church was known throughout the county. Beautiful Greek-revival style church structures, which still grace. their communities, were built by the Congregationalists in Freedom (1832) and Atwater (1842), and by the Bap- tists in Streetsboro (1851.) The brick Gothic St. Patrick's church in Kent (1867) and the Methodist brick Goth- ic in Deerfield (1873) were long a source of pride. Impressive Roman- esque structures were St. Joseph's in Randolph, dedicated in 1905, and Christ Episcopal church in Kent, as remodelled in 1928. Many new archi- tectural plans for churches have re- cently been realized, as, for example, in the case of the new St. Patrick's church in Kent, dedicated in 1953.
As far as known here there have been so far no Jewish churches, or synagogues, in the county, members of that faith worshipping in nearby localities where organization has been effected.
Other than the German church mentioned previously, one other church held services in a foreign language, this being the Welsh Bap- tist church in Wayland by Rev. David Davis.
The Friends, or Quakers were once quite numerous in the southeastern part of the county and today they still have a church in Deerfield.
In late years a number of churches for Negroes have been established in Ravenna and Kent.
A Spiritualist church has existed at Brady Lake for many years and Spirit- ualist camp meetings were also held there for a long time. There was a Spiritualist camp in Mantua follow- ing 1881, known as Maple Dell Park.
In late years there has been activity here and services held by members of the Re-Organized Church of Latter Day Saints.
In Windham's early days, a young man on his way to escort a young lady, would stop at a hickory tree and peel off enough bark for a torch. With this, he would light her way. Without this, when afoot, progress was nearly impossible and the torch also kept wild animals away.
To change the name of Franklin Mills to that of Kent required a little maneuvering. What is now called Freedom Station bore the name of Kent from 1863 but in the follow- ing year people wanted Franklin Mills to be changed to "Kent" so that the Freedom location was also re-named. The postoffice at Freedom was also called Kent.
Before 1900 owners of cows were allowed to pasture them along roadsides during the day, as plenty of grass grew there. Little boys received 2-1/2 cents to take cows to and from pastures.
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Paying For The Road
First state laws governing the construction of improved roads, provided that the cost of new roads be divided among the state, county, township and abutting property owners. When the section of present Route 88 from Freedom Center southwest to the Ravenna line was built in 1915, Clinton Cowen, state highway commissioner, rendered a statement of its cost as follows:
The following is a statement as required by law, of the cost and expense of the construction of Portage County Highway G, Petition No. 753, Contract No. 32, known as the Ravenna-Parkman road in Freedom township, and a statement showing the foot frontage of the property owners whose lands abut on said section of land and the dis- tribution of cost and expense.
Cost of Construction $46,000.00
Expense
1,436.02
Total
$47,436.02
Share of State $20,000
Share of Portage Co. 15,767.82
Share, Freedom Twp. 7,001.04
Share, Abutting Property
4,667.36
Total
$47,436.02
WEST SIDE
EAST SIDE
Name
Ft. Frontage
Name
Ft. Frontage
J. H. Glick
1278
Rev. Strawman 1278
J. A. Derthick 739
Will James 1141
C. J. Moore 425
Jane Thomas
484
Ward Diehl 194
Cyril Maur 203
M. E. Church
345
F. M. Joiner 147
Ernest Moore
1566
P. C. Hawley
2079
David Norris
924
J. C. Chance
2524
J. C. Poe
1607
Eli Tuttle
1159
F. C. Slagle 1452
Fred Slagle
938
Township School
287
J. C. Chance
1522
Ralph Slagle
64
J. O. Poe 1607
E. P. Pardee 1739
L. G. Hewins 1804
George Klooz
1311
Nettie M. Stanley 3308
With a total road frontage of about 41,000 feet, the cost to property owners figures out about 11 cents a foot. A man with a half mile frontage had a pretty good sized bill to pay, though costs were distributed over a term of years.
After gasoline and license tax money became available, the county-township-property owners system was abandoned and state or county took over the work.
T. Slope 166
O. F. Hunt
345
Ernest Moore
735
L. G. Hewins 1804
George Klooz 1671
Nettie M. Stanley
2948
Cyril Maur 1780
C. B. Mason 284
Cyril Maur 348
T. Slope 291
Ernest Moore 1099
CHAPTER XII Agriculture In Portage County
By BENJAMIN M. DERTHICK
The first crop raised by white men in Portage County was wheat, sown by Abraham Honey in 1798 on his small clearing in Mantua. The wheat was harvested by his brother-in-law, Rufus Edwards, who built the coun- ty's first grist mill in 1799. It was op- erated by hand.
Other settlers followed Abraham Honey. In June, 1799, Elias Harmon planted potatoes and peas on the Hon- ey clearing. In the fall of 1799 wheat was sown by Lewis Ely and Lewis and Horatio Day in Deerfield Township and by David Daniels in Palmyra. Al- so in 1799, Ebenezer Sheldon sent Eben Blair from Connecticut to settle on his land in Aurora Township. Blair bought a peck of grass seed in Pittsburgh and carried it to Aurora on his back. There his employer join- ed him and they made a clearing which was sown with wheat and the grass seed.
Water powered grist mills began to appear. One was built on the Mahon- ing River in Deerfield in 1801 by James Laughlin, one on Breakneck Creek in Ravenna in 1802 by Alex McWhorter, and one in Garretts- ville in 1803 by John Garrett .*
After building a temporary shelter, a settler's first need was to clear a little plot to raise food, usually corn or wheat. The initial step was to girdle the trees. Then underbrush was burned. Five to fifteen acres might be prepared and planted the first season.
Crops matured early in the fertile soil. Roasting ears ripened by August 1. Meal was made by pounding corn with a pestle in a hollowed out block or stump called a "hominy block."
SHEEP BROUGHT IN
The settlers soon brought in cows, hogs and a few horses. Oxen, how- ever, were the chief beasts of burden. Sheep provided wool for homespun clothing, but a handicap in keeping sheep was the wolves.
In 1806 H. W. Whittlesey and Jere- miah Jones of Atwater Township purchased twelve sheep in George- town, Pa. Reaching home with them at night and having no other place to keep them safe from the wolves, Whittlesey shut the sheep in his kit- chen. In 1813 Erastus Carter bought six sheep. They were watched through the day by his son John and shut in a log stable at night. One night the Carters let the sheep roam and wolves killed every one. The Carters gather- ed enough remnants of fleece to make John his first homespun wool pants.
Grain was harvested with sickle and cradle. The cradle was similar to a scythe but had spindles attached to the handle. They caught the stalks in each sweep and laid them in a swath. A man with a hand rake gathered the stalks into bundles and bound them with a twist of straw. Grain was beat- en out of the straw with a flail, a club swung from a long handle to which it was attached by a thong. The chaff was blown away as the grain was tossed in the wind. The plows of the
*History of the Western Reserve by Harriet Taylor Upton. History of Portage County by R. C. Brown. Portage County Atlas by H. L. Everts.
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Engine used by Thomas Roosa to supply power for his Shalersville threshing outfit.
early settlers were of wood, except for the iron share and clevis. The har- row was a fork of a tree with the branches left about a foot long to serve as teeth.
The hog of pioneer days was the "razor back", long-legged and able to defend itself as it foraged in the forest. After two or more years of roughing it, such hogs were ready for the home smoke house or to drive to market in Pittsburgh.
PRODUCTION, THEN AND NOW
Milch cows were brought into the county for milk, butter and cheese. Butter was churned with a dasher in a crock or in a small barrel turned with a crank. The first cheese making was laborious. The curd was stirred in a tub on the floor.
Eventually the commercial cheese factory was established. To it the farmer took his milk and from it he
had whey, a byproduct of cheese mak- ing, to feed his hogs. Some factories were run much as co-operatives are today, with a number of farmers par- ticipating. Each factory had a cheese maker and a manager who sold the product.
In 1885 the county had about 30 factories, some of which also made butter. From 1860 to 1864, Portage ranked third and fourth respectively among Ohio counties in production of cheese and butter. The average an- nual Portage production in this period was 2,933,471 pounds of cheese and 872,234 of butter. Skimmed milk, half-cream and full-cream cheeses were made.
The writer remembers that in the 1880s the evening's milk was set in pans. In the morning the cream was skimmed. The milk that remained was mixed with new milk and de-
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livered to the cheese factory on the farm of the the writer's father, F. A. Derthick of Mantua. Here it was made into half-cream cheese.
CITIES DEMAND MILK
As the 19th century ended, the cheese factories began to close. Farm- ers were delivering their milk to trains that took it to city dairy com- panies for processing and distribution. Early in the present century, operators of motor trucks began to pick up milk at the farmer's gate and the milk trains were discontinued.
The 1920s saw the beginning of regulation of the production and processing of milk to protect the con- sumer's health. Milk that was to be shipped was required to be cooled outside the stable. Inspection of barns for light and cleanliness and insistence on cement floors followed. Milk was tested to determine the butter fat content and the bacteria count. To- day cows must be tuberculin tested if their milk is sold to the public.
The predominately summer dairy of early days when farmers depended largely on pasture for feeding cows being milked has all but disappeared. Today a uniform flow of milk through the year is desired. In cold weather the dairy is kept in a stable with a drinking fountain in reach of each cow. Corn or alfalfa ensilage pro- vides succulent feed, supplemented by ground grain mixtures and protein concentrates. Scientific care, feeding and breeding have greatly increased both quality and quantity of milk per
cow. At the same time labor has been saved through the introduction of milking machines.
Poultry raising has become impor- tant in Portage County. Broilers, fat hens, roosters and heavy capons are grown. Some farms produce eggs on a large scale. A branch of the North- east Ohio Poultry Association at Gar- rettsville grades eggs for producers. Also, about 25,000 turkeys were raised in 1954.
Hogs are produced but not exten- sively. A 1953 census listed this source as 7% of farm income.
SYRUP PRODUCTION DECLINES
Fruits and berries do well in Port- age. The 1950 census reported 71,166 apple trees with a crop valued at $208,952. Peach trees totaled 18,357 with fruit valued at $13,579.
The county produces maple syrup of a quality that ranks with the best. However, syrup production is declin- ing. As maple trees die the new grow- th that would replace them is being destroyed by cattle pastured in wood- lands. Also, due to high cost of opera- tion, some bushes are closed. The 1950 census gave production in 1940 as 13,500 gallons.
Sweet corn has been raised exten- sively in recent years, some farmers specializing in it on a large scale. The proximity of cities affords a quick market by truck. Numerous roadside stands also sell corn as well as syrup, fruits, vegetables, flowers and eggs.
Potatoes have been raised in the county since its early days. Average yield per acre in 1860 was 69 bushels.
One of the first nurserymen of the county was George W. Dean, who had his place of business on the Kent-Ravenna road in Franklin township, starting in 1864. He was also a student of the natural sciences and had a collection of 1350 marine and fresh water shells. Mr. Dean's daughter, Lillian, was long chief operator of the telephone company at Ravenna and both were active in the Horticultural Society.
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In 1870 it was 79, and in 1919 it was 85.2. From 1930 to 1939 the yield in- creased to 114.7. The figures are from the County Agricultural Extension Service.
The small yields in early years were due to insects, blight, drouth and lack of fertility and humus. Humus has been increased by plowing under soy beans, rye or clover. Commercial fer- tilizers are used heavily. Drouth is partly offset by level cultivation. Some of the larger growers irrigate. Blight and insects are controlled by power spraying. As a result, yields of 500 bushels per acre are quite com- mon. No official average for today's yield per acre is available, but well in- formed growers estimate it at 275 bushels. The 1950 census gave the total yield for the county in 1949 as 394,347 bushels. While potatoes are planted, sprayed and dug by machin- ery, they still must be picked by hand.
Corn, oats and wheat have been raised from the days of the first set- tlers. Scientific farming has increased yields and reduced crop failures. The 1950 census reported the 1949 wheat crop as 469,823 bushels, corn as grain, 947,738 bushels, and corn ensilage as 47,731 tons. Oats yielded 559,620 bushels, barley 13,094 and buckwheat 8,812. Five hundred acres of soy beans yielded an average of 19 bushels per acre. Figures are from the County Agricultural Extension Service, Roger M. Thomas, agent.
The largest muck land crop area is 480 acres north of Mantua Center on Center Road. About 45 families en- gaged in gardening live there the year
round. Chief crops are carrots, endive, lettuce, green onions and radishes. Celery, once a major crop, has been discontinued. Smaller areas of muck are in Shalersville, Kent, Ravenna, Franklin and Randolph Townships.
POWER AND MACHINERY
In the early days, plodding oxen hauled wagons, carts and sleds. As farmers could afford them, the faster moving horses took over. There were draft horses weighing up to 1,900 pounds for the heaviest work and horses weighing around 1,000 for general purposes including travel by carriage or in saddle.
But as the horse took the place of the ox, so the gasoline tractor took the place of the horse. Manufacturing of tractors on a large scale nationally is considered to have begun in 1906. While records of their first use in the county are not available, it was not uncommon to see them around 1920. The 1950 census listed 1,098 farm trucks and 2,648 tractors in Portage. There are many more as of this writ- ing, when a work horse is seldom seen and when farms that used to have one or two teams now have one to three tractors.
The first threshing machine appear- ed in the county in 1830. It was oper- ated by horse power. A tread mill or sweep was the means of powering early machines with horses. To work a tread mill a horse was hitched in a stall, the floor of which was an end- less inclined belt that slid under the horse as he kept moving his feet and thus turned a power take-off pulley.
In the spring of 1824, the Isaac Streators built a cabin in Streetsboro, cleared four acres and planted a crop. They then returned to Aurora leaving their 16-year old daughter Susan alone to care for the crop and drive away wild animals. Wolves howled around her door at nights. The family returned to Streetsboro for good in the fall.
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A sweep was a long lever, one end of which was fastened to a stand. On the stand were gears that transmitted power as it was turned by a horse hitched to the free end of the sweep and driven round the stand in a circle. The writer remembers such an outfit operating a corn sheller in his father's yard in the 1880s. In the early 1900s, on this same farm as on others in the county, stationary gasoline engines were shelling and grinding corn, pumping water, sawing wood and do- ing other work. And now these en- gines are giving way to electric motors.
COMBINES ARRIVE
By 1850, steam engines, drawn by oxen or horses, were turning the threshing machines, or separators as they came to be called. Soon these en- gines were self propelled but required a team harnessed to a tongue on the front axle to guide them. Next the engine had its own steering wheel and was hauling the separator. With the coming of gasoline power in the 1900s, the steam engine gradually gave way to the tractor and went the way of the draft horse.
The first crude reapers were re- placing the grain cradle about the time the first threshers replaced the flail. Early reapers formed bundles and dumped them to be tied by hand. In 1878 a self binder that used twine appeared. The next great step in local harvesting was the development of the one-man light combine, suitable for Portage County farms. Such a ma- chine, which cuts, threshes and feeds
the grain into sacks, appeared in 1935. It was hauled by a tractor. In 1938 self-propelled models were available. No records show the date the first combine came into the county, but the 1950 census found 302 in use. There are many more as of this writ- ing.
The harvesting of corn has also been mechanized. Years ago on all farms the stalks were slashed down with a hand-swung hooked knife and stacked in the orderly rows of teepee- like shocks occasionally seen today. Ears were ripped out of the husks with a hardwood husking pin held in the band. Now a corn picker, hauled along a row of corn by a tractor, rips the ear off the stalk, husks it and drops it into a wagon. For silage, a harvester cuts the standing corn, chops it ready for the silo and feeds it into a wagon. When the wagon is full it is hauled to the silo by a tractor that has brought an empty wagon to the harvester. The chopped fodder is blown into the silo. All this elimi- nates need for a score of men to hoist heavy bundles of stalks onto wagons by hand and haul them to the silo, there to unload them for chopping.
HAND LABOR ELIMINATED
Equally great changes speed the harvesting of hay. In the earliest days farmers mowed their meadows with scythes, raked the hay by hand and loaded it on and off wagons with pitch forks. Mechanization progress- ed through various mowing machines, rakes and loaders but considerable hand labor was required.
Walter J. Dickinson, the early Randolph historian, is said to have read the Bible through when he was seven years old. As his father was postmaster, he amassed much general information by reading newspapers and magazines awaiting claim by their owners in the post office.
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Now alfalfa can be handled by a harvester. Starting in the morning, it follows the mowing machine, picks up the alfalfa and crushes the stems between rollers, then drops it back on the ground. There the stems dry soon enough to permit raking before the leaves shell. In the afternoon, if it is a good drying day, the harvester again gathers up the alfalfa, cuts it fine, drops it into a wagon and hauls it to the barn. Here it is blown into the mow. To further dry the hay and prevent spoilage, a powerful fan forces air through the mow. This ma- chinery is expensive, but eliminating costly hand labor is not its only value. It also produces feed so high in pro- tein that less grain need be used. Moreover, the hay is so relished by cattle that none is wasted.
The invention and improvement of tillage tools has kept pace with those for harvesting. These developments range from the wooden plow of the
early settlers through the cast iron plow of 1824 to modern tractor plows turning several furrows. Starting with a forked tree for a harrow, the farmer had one with cast iron teeth in 1825. Now he has any number of specializ- ed and tractor-drawn implements for pulverizing, smoothing, packing,
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