By Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Librarian
This month’s blog coincides with T-SPL’s 2022 Community Read, featuring “At the Edge of the Orchard” by Tracy Chevalier
There’s an old legend that Eden Township in Seneca County was named after the Garden of Eden because the land here was so beautiful, but perhaps the real reason was because our county had an abundance of apple trees and crawling critters.
When you ask someone who has grown up outside of Ohio what comes to mind when they hear the name of our state, the most popular answers are buckeyes (even if people have no clue what they are or if they are even edible or not), roller coasters, and the definitely edible (in my opinion) Skyline chili. Yet in the 1800s, early pioneers reaching the swampy territory we now call home had a completely different answer – apples and snakes.
While it’s a somewhat comical answer for us now to imagine Ohio as just a land full of apples (the imagine that crops into my mind immediately is the evil apple trees in the 1939 classic Wizard of Oz), for the early settlers, apples served a very important role in their livelihood in a number of ways.
For one, apple trees and the fruit they produce are a very hardy staple plant and food. Apples can be made into so many forms and historically have helped many communities make it through harsh winters. Materials from the Seneca County Archives states that for most of the 19th century, “It would not be uncommon for a family to purchase 10 to 35 bushels of potatoes and ten bushels of apples for the winter.”
Apples were especially needed by Ohioans in the Winter of 1915-1916, judging by the records of two pioneer residents. One of them described this particular winter as comparable to the Year Without a Summer:
“The children climbed the trees in the orchard over and over again to see if some fruit had not escaped the frost (for apples were as large as good-sized plums when they were cut off), but without success. To our great surprise, one day in August one of my sisters found a large sweet harvest apple on the ground by the kitchen door. One of the boys climbed the tree, and on one branch which hung under the eaves by the kitchen; he picked a peck of apples. They were very large and delicious. The foliage was injured by the June frost, but had grown out again usually dense, and had effectually screened them.”
Two Tiffin University Students pour cider for a fundraiser in October 1959. Photo taken from the university’s former newspaper, the Tystenac.
Another resident, John Lemuel Estep from Attica, wrote to his mother in a letter dated October 1916, that the price per bushel for both apples and potatoes had spiked during that time because of their scarcity.
Even into the Great Depression of the 1930s, apples were sought after for sustenance during hard times and were present in FDR’s Christmas relief packages.
Besides their long shelf-life, apples are also very nutritious, perhaps part of the reason they have been naturally coveted for centuries. Apples are full of fiber, potassium, Vitamin C and “good” carbohydrates (the ones that keep your blood sugar levels steady for hours). They are a very strong candidate for a healthy digestive system, so the old adage of “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” quite possibly has a lot of truth to it.
Pioneers turned many bushels of apples into apple cider, apple butter, apple jelly, apple cider vinegar and even crab apple marmalade as ways to further lengthen the fruit’s shelf life and add a variety of flavor to a bland palette.
By the late 1800s it was not uncommon for most small villages and towns throughout Ohio and Michigan to have at least one cider mill, including Iler and New Riegel. Many farms even had their own. For example, Levi Weiker, a Scipio Township farmer in the 1880s, used thousands of bushels of apples to make cider wine and apple jelly with his own personal mill. Bascom Then and Now, compiled 100 years after the height of the popularity of cider mills, describes a typical autumn day at one of these cider mills:
“It was first owned and operated by Louie Walters with the assistance of his hired hand, John King. Piles of apple pulp were lined up around the mill. Between 3 and 4 a.m. as many as 40 wagons loaded with apples would be lined up to get cider made at 1/2 cent a gallon. Over the years the price advanced to 1 cent per gallon. Today the price range is 12 to 20 cents a gallon.”
In Tiffin, there was at least two cider mills that operated simultaneously at one time. One of them, built by Josiah Hedges in 1862, stood at the northwest corner of Perry Street and Clinton Avenue. it was converted into a cider press in the late 1870s and has since been torn down.
Now one probably wonders what our ancestors’ fascination was with apple “cider,” but the cider that was made in this era is more similar to modern day cider beer and hard cider than the traditional cider found at farm markets in the fall months. Water wasn’t as clean and free of germs as ours is today so they had to get creative with how they remained hydrated.
The former C.S. Bell Company in Tiffin once made fruit presses and grinders with cast iron handles. More of their products can be seen on the SCDL by searching for the Bell's Original Decorative Useful Americana
Despite the legend, Johnny Appleseed is not the only person responsible for introducing apple trees to Ohio. While he was a real person, he was one man who represents the scores of settlers who brought grafts of apple trees with them when they settled in Ohio. The reason Ohio looked like a land of apples (and snakes) was because propagating fruit trees was part of the deal to homestead here. “Starting in 1792, the Ohio Company of Associates made a deal with potential settlers: anyone willing to form a permanent homestead on the wilderness beyond Ohio's first permanent settlement would be granted 100 acres of land. To prove their homesteads to be permanent, settlers were required to plant 50 apple trees and 20 peach trees in three years, since an average apple tree took roughly ten years to bear fruit,” explains a Smithsonian article.
If you enjoy historical fiction or want a fictional account of this aspect of Ohio’s history, read the 2022 T-SPL Community Read’s selected title, At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier.
Many of our own ancestors from the eastern United States brought with them several varieties of apples. This was important because apple trees need variety to be able to survive. The Ohio State University extension has a wealth of information about properly growing apple trees. “You will need to plant at least two different cultivars of apple trees together in order to achieve maximum fruit yield and quality. In addition, the two cultivars selected need to have viable pollen and bloom at the same time to ensure successful pollination. Some nurseries also offer apple trees that have two or more compatible cultivars grafted on the same tree.”
So, while it’s not impossible to follow the lead of Seneca County’s first residents and grow your own personal orchard, it takes the same grit and determination they had. You may not starve without a bushel full of apples in your cellar like they might have, but apple trees today need the same care as the ones which greeted our very first residents upon their arrival in our county.
Sources:
Apples 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/apples
Bascom Garden Club. Bascom Then and Now. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/29193/rec/9
Barnes, Myron. Between the Eighties, Tiffin, Ohio 1880-1980. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/65253/rec/1
Fort Ball Early Times March 1997. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/40994/rec/1
Fort Ball Gazette February 1993. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/40999/rec/1
Gao, Gary. “To Grow Your Own in Ohio: Growing Apples in the Home Orchard.” The Ohio State University. https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1401
Geiling, Natasha. “The Real Johnny Appleseed Brought Apples – and Booze – to the American Frontier.” November 10, 2014. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/real-johnny-appleseed-brought-applesand-booze-american-frontier-180953263/
Jones, Alex. “Cider Pressing Equipment: A History.” July 2, 2018. https://www.ciderculture.com/juicing-systems-cider-pressing-equipment-history/
McCauley, Patrick. “The Unexpected History of Cider in Washtenaw County.” Ann Arbor Observer. October 2021. https://annarborobserver.com/articles/the_unexpected_history_of_cider_in_washtenaw_county.html#.YhaX4ejMKUk
Seneca County History Volume 1. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/17053/rec/4
Seneca County History Volume 2. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/17317/rec/3
Wilde, David S. Seneca County, Ohio History & Families. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28319/rec/1
Seneca County Business Directory 1896. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/23204/rec/1
Seneca County Museum Newsletter 1998-09. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/43145/rec/2
Smith, Howard. The What, How And Who Of It: an Ohio Community in 1856-1880. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/15811/rec/6
Yearbook Columbian Blue & Gold 1951. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/9705/rec/1