The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1873-02-06
or,.. : feM .IDilaa distalI,t fran az old

ness, anu oS tHC y = 4stSIC vi O tOiy
marked character in giring direction
to the great results which followed, /
ask yoHi attention to brief recital of
some of the leading items. -
said just now that when Harvey
Baldwin was in New Orleans i'll 1878,
he was told that the, retail price of
cheese was. a dollar pound, and
knowing very we'll that he could get
any desired quantity of cheese at his
home in Ohio for two or three cents a
pound, he at once determined to sup-
ply the New Orleans Market with
Western Reserve cheese. 81 -.
How.to get back to Ohio was not
SO easily determined then as it is now.
Yellow fever was raging in the city
and along the lower Mississippi, and
to foot it up through the Chickasaw W
and Choctaw nations, to the Falls OF
the Ohio, looked hazardous as well as
tedious, even TO a man of his indom-
liable pluck. SO he shipped around by
sea to New York, and thence returned
In the fall Of 1873, Mr.. Baldwin
paid $I4 for 700 lbs. of cheese, bought
of Eggleston & eHickox, of Aurora.
He had this iaken to the Ohio, at the
mouth of the Big Beaver, in wagon,
and there all alone, in an open skiff,
he took his stock and padded down
past Cincinnati TO the Falls Of
the Ohio, just below Louisville,
and laid up at the, town of New
Albany, on the Indiana side of the
river. Storing his cargo at, that place
as base of supplies, he took cheese
in his skitf and padded two miles, up
to to, the mouth of Bear Grass at
Louisville, tied up his boat, took the
cheese under his arm, and went to the
only grocery store then kept in the
place, by a Mr.. Furguson. The Lou
isvillians knew nothing about cheese,
but Mr.. Furguson, being very enter
prising lrishman, purchased one-half
of the cheese which Mr.. Baldwin had
carried under his arm, paying therefor
ten cents a pound, in cut money. This
cut money, (the only small change in
circulation then) was made by cutting
q Spanish silver dollar into equal
pieces, just the shape woman cuts a
pie. One of these pieces was called a
".bit," which was, the name of the
smallest silver coin which Southern
people recognized in the way of MAX
ing change. Mr.. Baldwin had sold
half q cheese by wholesale to. Mr.,
Furguson,l the first sale, of Western
Reserve cheese on record, lin the city
of Louisville. With the other halt
cheese under his arm. our Yankee
cheese ipeddler sailed forth. to supply
the people at their houses. He called
at the mansion of Mrs. Prather, wife
of partner in the house of Prather,
Bulitt & Washburn- merchants of
the city. Mrs. Prather met him at the
door, when he told her he had cheese
been any of that article in the Louis
talking Mrs. Prather's two daughters,
young ladies, came to them and asked
+" III a, what has the gentleman; got to
sell ?yy,Ft y I s Cheese What is cheese?'
In the early and economical days OF
cheese making in Ohio, with cheese
at two cents q pound, the }dairymen
could not afford to pay cash for. an
natto, while a cheaper substitute, in
the shape OF Spanish brown paint,
could be used. Mr.. Baldwin's cheeses
were. smearod with Spanish brown,
and as ne offered to let the young lady
taste and see what cheese was like. she
nibbled a bit of the smearing instead
of the meat of the cheese. ".Oh!
how. nasty !" said the Louisville belle.
Mr.. Baldwin saw the mistake she had
made and tapping the cheese in the
center gave her taste of the real
stuff. "OiIneverd did taste anything
so good !" said she. So the indulgent
mother bought bits worth to feast
the household, aud Mr.. Baldwin told
her that he had sold a half cheese to
Furguson, where they could get more
if they liked it. Other families took
a bits worth that day, and when the
husbands came home to tea cheese
was on the tables; the, wives told of
the supply at Furgusons; there was a
rush for more one man who had, got
the start of the rest took all that Fer
guson had, and the rest called for q
: The next day Mr.. Baldwin took up
two cheeses in his skiff and went at it
again with a cheese under each arm.
That day Mr.. Fergugon bought q
whole cheese. And so it went on, day
after day. and thus our persevering
young cheese peddler spent three
months in the streets of Louisville in
selling his TOO pounds of cheese. When
his work was accomplished, he found
himself in possession of $50 in silver
a horse, a. saddle and bride. -
He rode. the horse home and sold him
to General Simon Perkins, of Warren
for Sl10, making in all the sum of
$l70, for his Investment of Sl4 in 700
pounds of cheese and about four
months work. s, 5aa5 usii,5zl,os ~, !.
= The next spring QS20) Mr. Bald
win. bought 5000 pounds of cheese at
211S cents a pound, in Aurora and
Braceville, took itby wagon to Beaver,
where he bought a. small fatboat,
shipped his cargo, and ino company
with Sam Pease, oflAurora, CATER
wards lawyer in Mansfeld) made a
quick run of five days to Cincinnati,
where he, sold the whole lot to one
man at 8 centsea pound and this, Mr..
Baldwin ayers, is the first full cargo
of cheese eyer sold in .Cincinhati,
though piece lots may have been sold
there before. al. syiiR23' ,3 &c
In the fall, of 1920 our young cheese
merchant took n cargo of five tons, for
which he paid 31z cents . pound, to
Louisville, whore he spent three
months in working it of, going out
also to Lexington and Frankfort with
a part of it, This lot was sold at
cents by the cask, and ten to twelve
cents atlretail. ia i2T1,J aft3 y ~
bin the years that followed MIR, Bald
win continued his traffic by taking
many lots of. cheese down the river
Louisville had grown in size, and as
the people lid come TO learn what a
good thing it was to have cheese in
stho house, he found lees trouble t6
work off "a cargo of fifteen 6ratwenty
tons ina few days, from the mouth ol
Bear Grass, than he had in selling the
first lot of seven hundred pounds. J
Mr.. Baldwin extended his annual
trips to New Orleans, the Yazoo and
Red Rivers, besides trips up the Cnm-
berland into, middle Tennessee, Nine
times he made the journey home from
Louisville on foot, CARRYING pack o.
forty pounds on his. back, and on ono
OCCASION walked from Cincinnati Il
Xepia, a distance OF nearly fifty miles
between daylight and dark of one
4 : Ll.I IT. Esi.. - ! a ~.