The earliest and subesquent settlers to Ringgold County were primarily farmers, and whatever obligations arising from citizenship came to them later were merely wedged into the time they could spare from braking the prairie. They found the prairie grasses growing higher than a horseman's head, and they set out to conquer the prairie with their plows.

H. T. MILLER of Clinton Township introduced blue grass, which was soon widely accepted. Believing that bluegrass was the base for stock farming, he took pains to explain its value to the other farmers. Properly cut and cured, the blue grass made excellent hay. It could be piled about the stables on the north and west to make wind breaks for the stock in winter, or stuffed between the rails of slatted granaries.

It grew naturally and soon appeared over a large part of the 128,000 acres of pasture lands of the county. It did not take Ringgold County farmers long to discover that stock raising was their best chance for security Horses, cattle, and sheep that grazed on the thick turf were abundantly nourished by the vitamin-rich grass. Heavy grazing increased the growth of the blue grass and at the same time kept down the weeds and less desirable grasses that tried to push their way through the soil.

Indeed, most of southwestern Iowa became blue grass conscious, so much so that 18 counties in 1889 organized the Blue Grass League to advertise the advantages of the region just as the Sioux City Corn Palace publicized the northwestern part of the State. This league, organized at Creston in J. B. HARSH'S office on May 11, 1889, sponsored the building of a Blue Grass Palace, and selected the Creston (Union County) fairgrounds as the palace site because it was the center of that particular area.

  People from all over southern Iowa visited the Palace when it opened on August 29, 1889, and enjoyed the exhibits which included all types of local soil products. The Blue Grass Palace was so successful that the association planned a bigger and better one in 1890. This one, made from 76 varieties wood, all native to southern Iowa, was three times larger than its predecessor. The front of the structure which extended for 132 fee, was composed entirely of soil products. The building had a central tower 120 feet high, and towers over the entrance on the east and at the north and south ends of the building. One of the novel feature was an 12-foot suspension bridge stretched from the south to the north towers at the highest point. Those who crossed the bridge got a fine view of the grounds and the countryside. Among the clever items constructed to attract attention were a sled, horses, and drivers made of corn, with harness of the grass, and the figure of a farmer in straw, with red corn silk mustaches.

People of Ringgold County who had missed the first Blue Grass Palace Exposition flocked to see the second one, offically opened by Governor Horace BOIES.

More than 4,000 visted the grounds the first day. There were "Blue Grass Specials" from as far away as Omaha arriving constantly during the moring of the second day. Each of the cooperating counties had its own exhibits within the place and displayed its own grain and dairy products. Various towns in the county brought their bands with them, and their carnival spirit made gay hours for the for the crowds. The League sponsored fairs in 1891 and 1892, but then interest in them slackened and no more expositions were held.

In the beginning, Most Ringgold County famers had planted sod corn as their first crop. Corn and oats soon became staple feeds for hogs, sheep, horses, and cattle. Judson GRIFFITH, who came from Ohio in 1854, tried to raise cotton for two years, but even the samll carefully nursed patches he planted were not too successful. Luke SHAY combined grain and stock raising. Before there were any rail roads, he butchered hogs and cattle on his farm, cured the meat, and hauled it by wagon to St. Joseph, Missouri, or Burlington. When the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Rail Road was extended to Ottumwa, SHAY drove hogs and cattle across the priaire to that town and shipped them to Chicago. When the Leon, Mount Ayr and Southwestern Railroad passed through Mount Ayr, SHAY shipped even more stock, sometimes 150 carloads a year. In 1859, when Cyrus B. DAMEN settled in Jefferson Township, he drove his hogs to market at Afton [Union County]. Two years later John DICKSON, returning to Ringgold County to get married after a visit in Union County, joined with Sylvester BEAVER to herd back 600 sheep. It took them approximately two months to reach Ringgold County.

Since there were so few villages during the first years of settlement, the farmer had to travel from 50 to 100 miles to reach a store or a mill. Many went to Afton in Union County, and others to St. Joseph, Missouri. But groceries were scarce in these settlements, too. White flour was high, and even salt was ten dollars a barrel or seven cents a pound. Some of the farmers still traveled to St. Joseph, Afton, or Ottumwan for supplies even after Mount Ayr, Ringgold City, Caledonia, and other early post-ofice-in-a-store villages had been established. These small, isolated village storekeepers had to go as far as the farmers did to replenish their stocks. Sometimes, when sugar was scarce, families substituted watermelon and pumpkin molasses. The soft maple trees in the vicinity gave only a little sap, but even that little was used.

Jeremiah GUSTIN brought his family to the county in the spring of 1857, and undertook to build a frame house. The framework was hewn from trees in the surrounding timber, but the siding, doors, flooring, and window casing were hauled from Marion County, 100 miles away. For two years this was Jefferson Township's only frame building. GUSTIN hauled all of his provisions from Marion County and took his grain into Missouri to be ground at a mille 50 miles from home. He was one of those pioneer farmers who used oxen to thresh out the grain, or flailed it out on a hard earth floor.

During the early days there was doubt whether fruit could be raised in the county, but Samuel FELLOWS, who Had taken a claim on Crooked Creek in 1855, decided to plant an orchard. Peter DOZ, then sheriff, advised him not to "fool away his time setting out trees." FELLOWS, however, was sure an orchard would grow where wild crab apple and plum trees grew. L. O. IMUS, then a boy, heard the two arguing spiritedly after FELLOWS had cleared a patch for his orchard. DOZE admitted that in spite of his protests his wifehad gone in the orchard business too and planted the seeds froom a bushel of peaches he had brought to her from Missouri. When FELLOWS asked why apples couldn't be raised, DOZE laughed and predicted that the rabbits would eat up the young trees as fast as they were set out. But FELLOWS went ahead and planted a number of trees, wrapping them each fall, and in due time he enjoyed the apples he gathered from the county's first orchard. Also, Mrs. DOZE had good luck with her peaches.

While FELLOWS experimented with his orchard, other farmers tried sheep raising. Both Captain Andrew JOHNSTON of Liberty Township and Charles K. GRIMES of Tingley Township were early sheep raisers. JOHNSON, who came to the county in 1856, herded 700 head on the open prairie.

During the Civil War, sheep raising was important because the wool was needed. Flocks all over the county were increased in size in spite of the constant ravages of wolves. In 1858 a law providing for a bounty on the scalps of wolves and other marauding vermin went into effect, but the bounty was so low that the Iowa Sheepbreeders and Wool Growers asked that it be raised. Wolves still increased, and in 1892 the Iowa Homestead charges that some farmers in the State raised wolves tocollect the bounty. Wolf trouble never ceased. From 1913 to 1919 the State paid $150,000 in bounties, and was still paying them in 1942. Although Ringgold County suffered less from the wolves than other counties, bounties amounting to $3,759 were paid during the 20 years from 1918 to 1938.

In Ringgold County during the early days one of the sheep growers tried the remedy of hunting down the wolves with hounds. John SNEER, a neighbor of Captain JOHNSTON, got a pair of hounds, but the hounds bayed around the county and disturbed the neighbors more than they did the wolves. Once the hounds ran down a deer in John K. WHITE'S farmyard. When the three women in the house -- Mrs. WHITE, her sister, Mrs. FRY and Miss THOMPSON -- ran out to find why SNEER'S hounds were baying in their yard, they saw an exhausted buck crouching in a corner of the sheepfold. Mrs. FRY handed Miss THOMPSON a long-handled shovel and herself seized an ax. They rushed to the sheepfold and killed the deer, who had been keeping the dogs at bay with his antlers. Then, Mrs. WHITE rang the dinner bell and called the hired man in from his field work to dress the carcass.

The hounds were used in a circular wolf hunts. Hunters arranged themselves in a loose circle encompassing many miles of territory and then the men with their dogs and horses closed in toward the center.

Farming methods improved during Civil War days. Osman LINIGER bought the first threshing machine in the county in 1862, and paid $600 for it, wholly in cash. Five years later Sy CROSLEY bought one, a "down power" machine, operated by four or five teams of horses. Two years later, Levi TERWILLIGER bought the first corn planter.

During the 1870's the Patrons of Husbandry organized Granges in almost every township, and some of them continued for ten or more years. The entire family found a social center in the Grange since the organiztion included the women and children. It was through this channel, too, that the farmer had his one opportunity to express a unified farm protest State and National legislation that seemed unfair. The national activities of the Grange eventually brought the establishment of the cabinet office of the Secretary of Agriculture.

In Iowa the Grange championed the farmer in his fight against high freight rates. Grange Lobbyists were strong enough to secure the passage of what was popularly known as the Granger law, whereby freight and passengers rates in Iowa were set by the State. Although there were no railroads through Ringgold County at this time, the rates did affect those who hauled their stock to Ottumwa to be shipped to Chicago or other points. The law was repealed after a few years, but the Railway Commission set up in its place became a permanent part of Iowa government to adjust disagreements between the farmer and the railroads.

According to a pamplet published by the Iowa Board of Immigration in 1870, Ringgold County farmers were doing well in 1868. They had 24,651 acres under cultivation and harvested 24,482 bushels of wheat, 426,840 bushels of corn, and and 51,401 bushels of oats as well as many other grains and fruits. Sheep raising had been increased by war demands until there were 16,577 sheep. There were more hogs than cattle (9,362 hogs to 5,961 cattle) but after the herd law was passed, in 1870, the number of sheep and hogs dwindled, for open range was no longer allowed and the cost of feeding was high. Farmers then began to breed the horses that later made the county well known in Eastern markets. There were 2,659 horses on the farms throughout the county, but 116 oxen and 204 mules were also reported. Farmers sold $142,206 worth of livestock that year.

Fencing became a heavy burden for most of the farmers, for a fence around a farm often cost more than the initial cost of the homestead. But experiments with fencing were soon under way. RInggold was one of the counties that used osage orange hedges to a great extent. Not long after the railroads crossed the county, pine fencing came into vogue, but this in turn gave way to barbed wire as soon as the prices were brought within reach of the average farmer. Many farmers gave up hog and sheep raising altogether when the herd law went into effect, because of the difficulty of keeping sheep fenced.

Several turned to cattle instead of sheep. Among these was Captain Andrew JOHNSTON. About 1875 he brought back with him from the Iowa State Fair two purebred Shorthorns, Beulah and Young Mary, as the foundation of a herd, probably the first of that breed brought to the county. JOHNSTON had raised Berkshire hogs and Percheron and Clydesdale horses, as well as sheep, before 1870, but his chief interest soon lay in building up his Shorthorn herd. He frequently attended state and county fairs to buy cattle from noted breeders. He also influenced many other farmers in the county to improve their herds. In 1905, When he disposed of his 28 Shorthorns, he received an average of $700 a head for them.

During this period many of the farmers were winning prizes for their stock at the fairs. Among them was Daniel TIDRICK of Liberty Township, who raised Poland China hogs and Norman and Clydesdale horses.

In many parts of Iowa during the 1870's, farmers were fighting grasshoppers, but crop losses in Ringgold County were few. One day in June 1875, however, William A. MATTHEWS stopped plowing his young corn to eat his dinner, then returned to his plow to find a swarm of grasshoppers dining on his corn. The next day they rose from the field with a rumble like thunder and in a swarm so think they obscured the sun for a few minutes. There was not a blade of corn left.

The farmers in one section of the county had a bad time with hog cholera in 1876 and 1877. A man who knew little about farming moved into the vicinity, buying his stock on the way from people who took advantage of his ignorance and sold him unhealthy brood sows. In 1877, when he had raised a good litter of pigs, cholera broke out among them and soon spread among his neighbor's stock. The prevalence of cholera and its sudden descent on localities throughout the the State may have been another reason that farmers in the county raised fewer hogs in the ensuing years.

During the 1880's interest in dairying increased. One of the most successful enterprises was John BLAUER'S Evergreen Dairy Farm. BLAUER came to Ringgold County in 1881, and in 1883 he netted $450 on the sale of his butter from 12 cows alone. When farmers found that diary products provided a steady income, many of them kept herds and sold cream to the several creameries than in business. Briggs WILBUR started a creamery in Liberty Township in 1884, and 11 years later a group of farmers in the township bought it and converted it was into a cheese factory. The business prospered until it was found that selling cream was more profitable than making cheese from the whole milk.

Back to Ringgold County History, 1942 Index

Ringgold County Iowa History The Iowa Writers' Program Of the Work Projects Administration. Pp. 26-31. 1942.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2011