HISTORY: Warner Beers, 1886, Part 2, Chapter 14, Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/ ______________________________________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania. Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm ______________________________________________________________________ PART II. HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER XIV. AGRICULTURAL - CUMBERLAND COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY - GRANGERS PICNIC - EXHIBITION, WILLIAMS' GROVE. THE advancement of science has been seen in the improvements which characterize the cultivation of the soil, and the progress that has marked the introduction of agricultural implements. Farming, stock- raising, bee culture and fruit-growing were, formerly, largely matters of chance. Inherited knowledge sufficed for the average husbandman. He plowed and sowed and reaped as his ancestors did. Drainage, fertilization, the improvement of stock, the use of improved implements of husbandry - these subjects did not agitate his mind. Not so the intelligent modern farmer. He keeps abreast of his age, and reads the latest and best literature bearing on his chosen field of labor. A knowledge of physiology, botany, mineralogy, geology and vegetable chemistry seems to be a necessity for him. He realizes that his occupation affords a superior opportunity for making and recording observations that will be valuable, not only to him but others similarly engaged. He rises above the narrow selfishness that too often characterizes his fellow-laborers, and becomes a philanthropic scientist whom the future will rise up and call blessed. To this class belongs Hon. Frederick Watts of Carlisle, who, though engaged in the intricacies of the legal profession, always had both time and inclination to advance the true interests of the farming community. He was both a theoretical and a practical farmer, and to him more than to any other man in the Cumberland Valley may be attributed the improvements in agriculture in that region. In June, 1839, Judge Watts was driving a carriage, containing himself and wife, from New York to Philadelphia, no railroad at that time connecting the two cities. Near Trenton, N. J., he was met on the road by Lieut. William Inman, of the United States Navy, and asked, "Watts, where are you going?" Being told, he took the Judge to his farm, on which was growing an excellent quality of wheat. It proved to be a Mediterranean variety, three bushels of which were brought by him a year or two previous from Italy, near Leghorn. He sent Judge Watts six barrels of the seed, which were sown on his farm near Carlisle. By these two men was introduced into the United States, and especially into the Cumberland Valley, this popular variety of wheat. During the harvest of 1840 the first McCormick reaper ever used in Pennsylvania, was taken by Judge Watts into a twelve-acre field that would yield about thirty-five bushels of wheat per acre. It was a trial of the machine. There were present from 500 to 1,000 spectators to witness "Watts' folly," as it was called. The cutting of the wheat was rapid and perfect, but the general verdict was, that "one man could not rake off the grain with sufficient rapidity." A well-dressed stranger came up, and gave some suggestions which aided the raker somewhat; but even yet the team could not be driven more than ten or fifteen rods before a halt was called to ease up on the raker. Finally, the well-dressed gentleman stepped upon the machine, and raked off the wheat with perfect ease, compelling the spectators to reverse their somewhat hasty decision and say, "It can be done." The well- dressed man proved 226 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. to be Cyrus H. McCormick, the inventor of the American reaper. This little episode marks the introduction of the reaper into the Cumberland Valley, and relieves "Watts' folly" from the odium which first attached to it. Similar difficulties attended the introduction of the left-handed, steel mold-board plow. Farmers had been accustomed to use a right- handed, wooden mold-board implement, clumsy and burdensome, and were loth to make a change. Repeated trials, however, brought the better class of implements into favor, and thus introduced a higher order of agriculture into the county. The County Agricultural Society, an account of which is given below, was the legitimate outgrowth of these public exhibitions. Judge Frederick Watts was its founder, and for many long years its president and chief patron. Whatever of good it has accomplished for the farming interests of the county may be ascribed largely to the efficiency which he imparted to its management. CUMBERLAND COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. This society was organized in 1854, through the instrumentality of Judge Watts. It has been a well managed and prosperous institution from its first existence to the present, holding its annual meetings (the only failures in this respect being one or two years during the late war), and the interest and good influences that have marked its career are plainly evidenced all over the county. The society purchased the first lot of ground, containing six acres and six perches, August, 1855, and have at different times made additional purchases, until they now have enclosed and in a high state of improvement twenty-two acres, a fine half-mile driving track, amphitheater, boarding houses, halls, booths, pens and all other necessary buildings of a substantial and commodious kind are on the grounds. In short, everything necessary to conduct a first-class county fair has been prepared in an unstinted manner. There are 200 life members, and the directors run the institute in a liberal and generous spirit, paying out on an average, each year, in premiums, from $2,000 to $2,500. The following is a list of the officers of the society: First corps of officers: President, Frederick Watts; vice- presidents, And. Frasier, Skiles Woodburn, Daniel Coble, Geo. H. Bucher, Thos. Bradley, W. M. Henderson; secretary, Richard Parker; treasurer, Geo. W. Stouffer; managers, Chas. Tetzel, Samuel Myers, Robert Laird, Geo. Brindle, John Paul, Jos. Culver, Wm. Schriver, Robert Bryan and Robert G. Young. 1855 - President, Geo. H. Bucher; secretary, Robert Moore; treasurer, George W. Sheaffer. 1856 - President, Thomas Paxton; secretary, Robert Moore; treasurer, Geo. W. Sheaffer. 1857 - President, Thomas Galbraith; secretary, Robert Moore; treasurer, Geo. W. Sheaffer. 1858 - 1866 (inclusive) - President, F. Watts; secretary, D. S. Croft, treasurer, Geo. W. Sheaffer. 1867 - President, Thomas Lee; secretary, W. F. Sadler; treasurer, Henry Saxton. 1868 - Same as 1867. 1869 - President, John Stuart; secretary, John Hays; treasurer, Ephraim Cornman. 1870 - President, F. Watts; secretary, Lewis F. Lyne; treasurer, Henry Saxton. 227 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 1871 - Same as 1870. 1872 - President, Charles H. Miller; secretary, Lewis F. Lyne; treasurer, Henry Saxton. 1872 to 1886 - the last-named officers have held their positions continuously, except Henry Saxton, who died in 1882, and was succeeded in 1883 by the present treasurer, Joshua P. Bixler. GRANGER'S PICNIC-EXHIBITION, WILLIAMS' GROVE. From the smallest beginnings in 1873, this has now became a National institution. A few individuals, farmers mostly, were led to give this beneficent institution their favorable attention by the efforts of Mr. R. H. Thomas, proprietor of the Farmer's Friend and Grange Advocate, of Mechanicsburg. Thirteen years ago the Patrons of Husbandry selected Williams' Grove as a place for holding social reunions, and held successful meetings at this point. Then others saw the possibilities that might be made to shape and grow out of these meetings; and with a view of bringing the farmer and manufacturer in closer relationship, the picnic of 1874 was appointed, and the manufacturers of the country were invited to bring the work of their shops and mills, and, with the farmers, side by side to display the products of the farm and factory. The beginning, of necessity, was small, because as wise as was its purposes it had to be advertised to the country. But it told its own story, its fame rapidly extended throughout all the States, and soon it reached proportions that may be called National. In 1885, without entering into dry details, there were over 300 car loads of agricultural implements and machinery displayed upon the grounds, and the people in attendance estimated at 150,000. Farmers were present from twenty-nine States of the Union, and the manufacturers had quite as extended a representation. Goods sold upon the grounds, and orders taken aggregated over $300,000, and over $1,000,000 worth of machinery was on exhibition. R. H. Thomas, general manager, Mechanicsburg, opened the fair of 1886, on Monday August 30, with an unprecedented attendance and the widening interest evidently increasing and extending. The grounds occupied are called the Williams' Grove picnic grounds. There are forty acres in the inclosure. These are leased by the picnic exhibition management; a co-lease is held by the D. & M. Railroad, and frequently the place under their management is used as picnic grounds. Two amphitheaters, a National Grange Hall, a two-story hotel, and quite a number of smaller buildings used by exhibitors and visitors. Williams' Grove is on an island in the Yellow Breeches Creek, on the D. & M. Railroad, thirteen miles southwest of Harrisburg. The constant addition of new improvements and spacious buildings, etc., make this the most elegant grounds in the country for these purposes, and the spot is surpassingly beautiful and inviting. One admirable and attractive feature of this inter-State exhibition is that it is a free show - no admittance charge, and back of it are no grasping board of directors or stock-holders eager only to make money. It is run at a minimum of expense, and this is collected by a small fee from exhibitors, the booths and stands really paying the larger part of the expenses. Several of the large manufacturers are now about erecting permanent and spacious buildings upon the grounds, and still others are soon to follow this good example. A twenty acre field (wheat stubble) adjoining the grove has now been secured for trials of plows, harrows, rollers, drills, etc. The inter-State picnic institution is unique in its arrangement, having no predecessor, and its success phenomenal. Away from the great cities, in the 228 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. cool and grateful shades of the groves, in the quiet retreat of the rich and beautiful Cumberland Valley, here the real farmer and actual manufacturer meet and learn to know and appreciate each other, and certainly it is the beginning, already vast and extended in its proportions, of a happy fraternizing and of mutual benefits to these two most important classes of men in our Nation.