The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1871-03-30
Old Time "Reminiscences.


VIM. Renick, Esq, of Circlevliie
contributes the following to one Of tn,
papers of that place;
Mr.. EDITOR :-''More Anon" il
his reminiscence In last weeks paper
of the early days of this Valley, is moi
strictly correct either in regard tC
dates or prices. He says, ''frOm 1916
to 1926 was truly the era of hard
times in Pickaway and other coun'
ties" Now, the "hard times" did not
begin to have a general, serious effect
till about the close of 1917. In the
fall of 1915, $500 was the current
price of fat hogs, and not much less, il
any, in the fall of 1916. And laborers'
wages were throughout 1915, 1916 and
part of 1917, about SIS or SIG per
month and board. These figures do
not infer hard times. In the Spring of
1917, my uncle, Felix Renick, sent a
drove of 100 fat cattle to Philadel-
phia market, that were sold for $134
per head on an average; go of the best
sold for $160 per head, only one steer
selling as low as $109. But these were
the best 100 head of cattle in one lot
that any market in the United States,
or probably elsewhere, ever to this
day received. They were sold for
S11 per cwt., net. Good farms in the
neigbbOrhOod of ChiIIicothe were
worth $50 per acre. In the Spring of
1916 my father was offered s65 per
acre for his home farm, including the
hill land. And here l will remark
that in 1916 there were 100 new roofs
put on in the town of Chillicothe /;
they were not all put on new houses,
but far the greater part were. About
1915 or 1916, large tract of land just
below our town, including G. w.
Gregg's farm, w. B. Marfeld's and
part of the Ludwig farm, was sold for
$50 per acre, and again, 1 think, about
1924, for SO per acre. 1t was sold by
the Sheriff the last time, as were al
most all lands in this county from
1920 to 1925. Ny father sold a lot Of
cattle in the Spring of 1917 for S6 so
per hundred, net, the average steer to
be killed and weighed. In the Spring
of 1918 my father and Joseph Har-
ness, of the High Bank, each put in 80
cattle to make up a drove of 100,
which necessarily had to be valued,
which they were, at $52 per head; not
crushing hard times yet. These cattle
aOere oEri0en to Ne,O York, the first lot Of
Western cattle that eUe' entered that
market. These were sold at New
York for $50 per head.
Now I will come down to the real
hard times, and which was the era. of
hard times in this county. These
times embraced seven years, properly
speaking, from 1919 to 1925, both in
elusive. During that time the ruling
price of laborers' wages was So per
month and board, and labor was very
abundant at that price. The price of
fat hogs, good driving hogs 50 to
1925, net; lighter pork, SI.25; stock
hogs, about $l.25, sometimes, at others.
for whatever they would bring. Fat
cattle, the best, So per hundred, net
In the Fall of 1921 my father and un-
Gle William Renick bought a lot of
very fine fat cattle for s22 per head,
less than So per hundred some of
them had been fed two winters. 1
sold the same cattle myself in Balti-
more some five or six weeks later, for
nearly double first cost; but this was
pure good fortune, for a few weeks Ia
ter the profits would have been with
in reason. In 1922 I bought lot of
Is head of stock cattle for So so per
head, all and 5 year old cattle. In
the Fall of 1925 I bought a lot of So
head of stock cattle on the south side
of the Kentucky river, in Kentucky,
for S8.124 cts. per head. These cattle,
from my recollection of their size,
would have weighed 81 400 lbs. gross.
They were all grade cattle, of good
growth. bought annually, from 1922
to 1926, a greater or less number of
half-fed cattle at about SIG or SIT per
head. The ruling price of corn in the
field was sixpence-8B cents-per
bushel, though 1 have bought thous-
ands of bushels at 81 cents. In the
Fall of 1926 1 bought so acres in one
lot at that price, within three miles of
this city. Lands in the Pickaway |
Plains, after repeated efforts of the
Sheriff to sell them, would finally go
off at $40 per acre; over the river, in
the bottom, from 81 to S75 per acre.
Very few private sales were made
from 1920 to 1867. After that time
the price rose rapidly, and the com
pletion of the canal put an entire new
face on our affairs. There were in
stances of corn selling, in 1912, for
more per acre than the land cost six
or seven years before.
That was rather a hard time when
pork sold for 1 dollar per hundred, |
while corn was worth 123 cents per
bushel-better have sold the corn and |
bought the pork. VIM. RENICK.