Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-03-12
,sHrARuLA COUNTY NEWS.
ON Our own CORRESPONDENT
MORGAN.
other Pioneer incidents.

Ed. TEL notice that your correspon-
dent J. NJ, IN the number of your paper
under date of Feb. 26, seems to cast some
doubt on the correctness of my chicken
story. Now can see no reason why
should desire TO falsify history. and
certainly would not attempt to pluck a
single feather from the plume of any one
of the early pioneer men or women now
living; at the same time, justice demands
that all due credit should be awarded To
the dead.
No one can excel me in bis admiration
for your EasleVille correspondent He is
entitled 10 the enduring regard of all
good citizens for what he has done for
the development of Ashtabula county,
socially, morally and financially. In the
the last seventy-fiVe years, he has seen
the country gradually develop from an
unbroken wilderness into rich towns and
villages, where intelligence and comfort
abound, and where ease and luxury have
taken the place of laborious toll and strin-
gent privaton.
Also other time, may think best TO
bring forward corroborating testimony as
to the entire truthfullness of the incident
1 gave in your paper of Feb. 10. There
was once documentary evidence in exist
ence as TO the complete veracity of my
story, and it may yet be accessible; but
of this l am not quite certain. However,
circumstantial evidence may yet be OBJ
tanned from living witness. For the
present, at least, the matter may rest
here, and l will bring to the surface an-
other Pioneer Incident" upon another
subject, bat one in which Morgan seems
to have borne an important part
Allow me TO say right here, that il. is
matter of no uncomfortable interest to
those now coming upon the Stage of ac-
tive, practical life, to be advised in regard
TO the rise of the various industries pecu-
liar TO our locality, as they are thereby
better prepared TO judge of the progress
of our people in substantial wealth.
1t is not many years since Ashtabula
county began to develop, systematic
and perfect, what has now become one of
the great leading interests other people,
and that has caused us to be known far
and wide as constituting an important
part of cheesedom. II is since the year
1916, that the dairy business in this coun |
ty has attained to its best estate; and, al
though much attention was given TO this |
branch of husbandry prior to that date,
the best results as to gross quantity. quail
ity and price have been reached since
that lime.
1t would now be matteer of interest |
to all our people. old and young, TO know
to a certainty what has been the actual /
money value of the cheese manufactured |
in Ashtabula county for the year 1874
just now brought to a close. Statistics
of this kind, if carefully obtained and
spread before the public, would have the
tendency to give our people higher ap.
probation of the Intrinsic value of their
homes and farms, and add very material
ly TO the salable value of the farm lands
of the county.
From the best information that have
been able to obtain on the subject, am
constrained to the opinion, that the dairy
products of Ashtabula county, for the
year 1874, will not fall below one million
dollars, and perhaps considerably exceed
that amount. OF course, TO gIeat ex-
tent this estimate is matter of opinion,
and liable to be varied either way by the
exact statistics bearing upon the subject.
From knowledge that think may be
regarded as relia Bile, I have become salts
fed that the town to which must be
awarded the premium for manufacturing
the largest amount of cheese in this coun-
ty, for the year just closed, Is Austinburg.
In that town five factories have been op-
Grated the past year, and so far as I know
very successfully and proftablV to the
farmers. 1 have my opinion as 10 the
towns that would approximate most near
ly to Austinburg in value of dairy pro-
ducts for the year 1874, but Twill not
name them, for comparisons are some
times said to be invidious.
But have wandered from the object
i've point had in view fiom the prepar-
alton of this paper, namely, to show to
whom, so far as is now known, belongs
the credit of first opening the cheese trade
of Ashtabula county. 1t is now many
years since a committee was appointed
by the Agricultural Society to investigate
and definitely settle the question as 10 the
time when, and by whom. the first ship
ment of cheese was made from this coun-
ty. That committee, after deVoting con-
siderable time to the work assigned
them, made substantially this report:
1.-THE first cheese was shipped from this
county TO Cincinnati in the year 1929, by
Col. Gaius W. st. John, then doing busi-
ness as a merchant at Rock Creek, in the
township of Morgan. 1t was hauled with
OK teams to Beaver, in Pennsylvania, at a
cost of 81 80 per hundred; there it was
put upon fiat boat and taken down the
Ohio River TO Cincinnati, at an additional
cost of 80 cents per hundred, making two
cents per pound for transportation alone.
The highest price received for any of this
cheese was seven cents per pound, and
some oft sold one or two cents below
that figure"
So far as this committee was able to
learn, by inquiry of the Oldest business
men In the county at that time, or by the
examination of old day-books and ledg-
ers, this was the first cheese shipped out
oflhe county; supposition is strength
ened by the fact that the West was prac-
tically unsettled, and cheap transporta-
ton to the East had hardly been got into
successful operation. True, the Erie Ca
nal was opened in 1926, so that Gov.
Clinton made an excursion trip from Buff
talo to Albany in that year. But that 1t
was used for the shipment of cheese or
other produce from this county, prior to
the year 1929, there is no evidence that
have been able to find Before the facili-
ties for cheap transportation to the East
had been perfected, the farmers applied
themselves to the raising of cattle and
horses to g greater extent relatively than