The Bluffton news. [volume], September 22, 1949, Image 5

About The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current

Image provided by: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

                
THURSDAY, SEPT. 22, 1919
One Package
of
Cigarettes
Daily
You will have enough
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left to celebrate with a Coke or
Caitdy Bar each day.
for your old
BY HARR.Y L. HAL*
Editor’s Note—This is one
of a series of articles to appear
in the Bluffton News dealing
with early Ohio history. Others
will appear in forthcoming
issues.
Enoch Carson’s
Harvest Home
“In as much as it is incumbent on
all men to acknowledge with grati
tude the infinite obligation to Al
mighty God for benefits received—,”
droned the Reverend John Clark to
the little gathering of men and
women in buckskin and home-spun on
the close-cropped bear-grass in Enoch
Carson’s beech woods.
It was 143 years ago and Clark,
first Methodist preacher in Green
township, Hamilton County, began
his long-winded, rambling speech
with the lifted opening quotation
from Arthur St. Clair’s 1790 Thanks
giving proclamation. It sounded well
and was an appropriate beginning.
It was late harvest, 1806, and Car
son’s beech grove now is in the heart
of Cheviot, 10,000 populated municip
ality completely surrounded by Cin
cinnati—steadfastly refusing to be
annexed to the larger city. The oc
casion was the first “Harvest Home
Festival,” enduring with only a break
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THE BLUFFTON NEWS. BLUFFTON. OHIO
or two in wartime, annually up to
this day. The 143rd of the miniature
fairs.is being held this September,
two days and nights.
Settled in 1805
It is a pretty stoiy and true.
Enoch Carson was one of the eastern
ers impoverished by the post-war
depression which followed the Revo
lution. Almost penniless, he camo
by fiat-boat to Cincinnati and with
his sons, cut and sold firewood at
“a bit a load" until he got enough
money to buy a little wilderness farm
in Green township. That was in
1805.
Twenty acres of mixed crops,
grown among girdled trees too big
to fell and drag away,—a little plot
of corn, turnips, cabbages and pump
kins, planted broadcast among the
potatoes and tomatoes, all came up
well and the harvest was a bountiful
one.
The big Carson family would not
go hungry during the coming winter
and they were thankful. The toma
toes were planted there by Achsah,
Carson’s wife, because they were
beautiful in the green. “Love Apples”
the pioneers called them, believing
they were poisonous and not good to
eat.
Only a few families besides the
Carsons were yet in the township—
perhaps a dozen.
So Enoch and Achsah Carson were
thankful. So were their brood of
eight smaller Carsons, including
Enoch Jr.. 3 months, who cooed
contentedly. The neighboring settlers
had as good luck, though their clear
ings were not so large.
Thanksgiving Service
The Carsons passed the word
around asking the neighbors to gath
er in the beech woods for a day of
celebration and thanksgiving. And
the neighbors came. So began Green
township’s nearly century and a half
of Harvest Home Festivals.
There was “community singing” of
the oli English folk songs much
laughter and chatter, and long before
sunset the big hampers and baskets
were emptied and the “vittels” spread
on bed sheets and table covers over
the stubby grass. It was a bounteous
feast.
Everybody made stammering
speeches, the one by Preacher Clark
being the longest and most flowery.
Clark had been in the woods only a
few months and had walked all the
way from Muddy creek to the Carson
clearing for the occasion.
Pioneer Dance
After the big spread, the covers
were taken up and there was dancing
under the trees far into the night, to
the strains of a cracked fiddle and a
“big bass viol”—simulated by a man
rubbing his thumb across a hickory
stick and making the sounds with his
mouth.
By the time the moon was high
the little gathering broke up and
faded into the forest on the way to
their various cabin homes—all vow
ing to come back next year and do
it all over again.
the values.
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cook
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They did come back. And so, with
out organization whatever, thu Green
Township Harvest Home Festivals
went on until 1854, when an attempt
at organization was made. The only
skips were two years during the
War of 1812.
Organize Society
October 4, 1854. the Green Town
ship Agricultural Society was organ
ized. The first society festival was a
picnic at Miamitown, on the Great
Miami River, May 17, 1855. “Every
body gathered at Bethel Church at 6
o'clock in the morning and went in a
body to the picnic grounds.”’ Annua!
memberships were sold at 50 ceijts
each and next year the festival was
resumed at the same Garson’s beech
grove.
The annual Agricultural Society
Harvest Home celebrations went on
until the Green Township Harvest
Home Association was organized
seven years later to supercede it.
Memberships still cost 50 cents
apiece and there were 80 members
at that time.
The first Association festival was
held in ‘Carson’s Grove,” Cheviot,
Friday, August 17, 1860. From the
original minute book, in beautiful
handwriting and faded lamp-black
ink. closed for nearly 90 years, the
writer is copying:
“The Harvest Home Association of
Green Township celebrated their an
nual festival yesterday in Carson’s
beautiful grove just north of Cheviot.
The day was a magnificent one. the
cool weather of the past week being
just sufficiently tempered by the
ardors of the sun to be comfortable.
3.000 Attend Festival
“There must have been nearly
3,000 people on the grounds. They
came on horseback in wagons, bug
gies, rockaways, barouches, omnibus
es and a-foot, ‘all drest in their Sun
day’s best’ and bent on pleasure,
though with a frugal mind, for the
full stores of home-made lunch con
stituted the whole expense of the
entertainment.” And there was much
more of the account.
First premiums for best exhibits
were from $1 down to 25 cents. And
farmers and farmers’ wives competed
in great number. William Lingo took
the 60 cents first prize for best ap
ples and J. Hildreth, first prize, also
60 cents, for best wheat. Sallie
Hannaford got 50 cents first prize
for her sampler mat and Elizabeth
Hannaford, 60 cents for her peach
preserves.
There were the usual dancing,
singing and many “long and tiring
addresses—mostly by politicians.”
And on through the Civil War until
today the association functioned. Its
festival this year was held September I
11 and 12 at “Carson’s grove—nowl
Harvest Home Park, Cheviot. The!
i City of Cheviot bought the four-acre]
I tract long ago and besides the yearly
festivals, a playground, athletic field,
dancing pavilion and other park
features are there. It took a $30,000
bond issue to do it.
Green township residents declare
with pride that many of the great
beeches still stand and the second
growth now are tall.
Yes We Have No Bananas
Most people will be surprised to
learn that bananas don’t grow on
“trees,” the plant being a species
of the lily family and that the fruit
is classed by botanists as a berry.
The banana plant is an annual, that
is, it completes its life cycle in a
single growing season of from 12 to
18 months. Each plant produces
only one stem of bananas during its
lifetime.
FARM
MACHINERY
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they’re worth money to you
Used Equipment
1 Farmall tractor complete
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1 1946 International K-5 l’/j
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Clipper Fanning Mills
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Order your equipment early.
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McCormick-Deering Dealer
Bluffton, Ohio
We Aim to
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G. E. Spallinger
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LAFAYETTE, OHIO
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PAGE FIVE
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