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The landscape of northwest Ohio was formed by melting ice and the glacial lakes left behind in its wake. Because of the low gradient (3 feet fall per mile) to the northeast, the flat lacustrine plain evolved into a large swamp. A massive swamp forest with huge hardwoods, broken only sporadically with intermittent wet prairies and savannahs, dominated the landscape. Both prehistoric and historic Indians farmed the flood plains of the Maumee River and its tributaries: Auglaize, Tiffin, and Blanchard rivers. (continued on other side)
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Milan was a leading Great Lakes port after the completion of the 3 mile Milan Canal in 1839. Center of activity was the Milan Basin at this site where produce was brought from area farms for shipment to lake and world ports through 14 warehouses by as many as 20 schooners a day. Seventy-five vessels were built in the basin. Railroad competition and the flood of 1868 ended Milan’s port activity.
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In July 1863, Confederate General John H. Morgan led a force of 2,000 cavalrymen across southern Ohio. Morgan’s force entered Ohio from Indiana on July 13. A chase ensued as Union cavalry pursued Morgan’s men across twenty Ohio counties. Most of Morgan’s troops were captured in Meigs County at the Battle of Buffington Island. Morgan, with several hundred cavalry, managed to escape. They raced northeast, fighting skirmishes along the way, and forded the Muskingum at a point near Rokeby Lock on July 23, 1863. As they went, the soldiers raided local farms for food and replacement horses. They were finally captured in Columbiana County on July 26. The raid marked the northern-most point ever reached by Confederate forces. Across southern Ohio, frightened residents burned bridges over fordable streams and buried silver and jewelry to hide them from the marauders.
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Long known to the Indians for the mineral spring water, this land was purchased in 1819 by Samuel Knisley. After 1880 it was developed as a resort area by Dr. Jerome Bland, who also established a cattle and horse breeding farm. In 1930 the land became part of PICKWICK FARMS which in 1976 was the largest standardbred breeding farm in Ohio and known throughout the United States and Canada.
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Acclaimed author, conservationist, and farmer Louis Bromfield was born in Mansfield in 1896. A graduate of the city’s schools, he went on to study agriculture at Cornell University in 1914, but left in 1915 to help run his family’s farm. In 1916, Bromfield enrolled in Columbia University to study journalism. As America entered World War I, he enlisted in United States Army Ambulance Service and saw action in seven major European battles. Determined to become a writer, Bromfield finished his education after the war and became a reporter. In 1921, he married Mary Appleton Wood and they would have three daughters. Bromfield’s first published novel, the Green Bay Tree (1924), was a critical and commercial success; his third novel, Early Autumn, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927. The Bromfields moved to France in 1925 where they lived until 1938. In all, he published thirty books and authored numerous stories, articles, and screenplays during his writing career.
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Benson Road and the North Urbana Lisbon Road (SR 54) in Champaign County was the site of the 1950 National and Ohio Plowing Matches and the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts Field Days. The three-day event drew a crowd of nearly 75,000 and was headquartered in the woods of the Edwin (Ned) Kirby farm located a quarter mile north on Benson Road. The National Association of Soil Conservation Districts sponsored the National and Ohio Plowing Matches. The first national matches were held in Mitchellville, Iowa in 1939 and continued until halted by the start of World War II. They resumed in 1945. Ohio’s 1950 Champaign County-Union Township National Plowing Matches was the first “National” to be held outside Iowa. (continued on other side)
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During the early months of World War II, ordinary citizens as well as soldiers made enormous sacrifices for the war effort. In March 1942 the War Department announced plans to build a 13,000-acre munitions manufacturing complex northeast of Marion. Using the power of eminent domain, the U.S. Government purchased the homes and farms of 126 families in the Likens Chapel community. Given only two months to vacate their property, many displaced farmers found the government-appraised values for their land inadequate for buying similar farms elsewhere and the growing season too advanced to plant new crops. (continued on other side)
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Joseph E. Wing was one of the first persons to identify, promote, and grow alfalfa as a forage crop east of the Mississippi River. He developed his interest in alfalfa while in Utah, where he worked on a cattle ranch. When he returned, Wing began promoting the alfalfa culture, traveling among farmers in Champaign County and neighboring counties. Eventually, his travels, lectures, and study of soils, crops, and animals took him around the world. Wing also worked on the staff of the Breeders Gazette and authored many agricultural books and articles. In 1913, he hosted the first annual alfalfa picnic at his home, Woodland Farms. Over 3,500 people joined the crowd, including Ohio’s governor, James M. Cox. For his contributions to the alfalfa culture, Wing was inducted into the Ohio State Agricultural Hall of Fame in the 1940s.
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