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I grew up in a village in the south of England. In those days, years ago, locally produced milk was still home-delivered daily in reusable glass bottles. Many weekend hours were spent with family members and our spaniel, Tessa, exploring public footpaths leading through woods and farm fields. This gave me abundant exposure to country life despite a lack of any direct connection with farming. Today, interest in local history has led me to finding surprising information about farming in our county in earlier days: details such as the early importance of growing flax and wheat, and the large dairy business here. Major changes have occurred here since those pioneer days. The following piece, mainly based on local newspaper research, explores some of this early farming activity and subsequent changes that have taken place since.
The 1879 Assessors Book for Hayes Township (BV County Historical Society) and the detailed 1885 Census provide interesting information on early farm life here. My article about this can be read online, The Storm Lake Times, August 2021. The average farm was 155 acres on land worth $7 an acre. Cattle and horses were abundant on ample prairie grassland still existing. Major crops were Indian corn, wheat and oats. Butter and eggs commanded high prices and formed a significant part of farm income. The Hayes population grew fourfold from 1879 to 1885; families were large. In that period both land ownership and the population living on it changed rapidly.
In the early days of our county local wheat production was of major importance. In 1870, Iowa was second in production in the entire U.S. The first local homesteader, Daniel Harrison, shipped out 100 bushels of wheat by train as soon as the railroad came to Storm Lake in 1870. At the same time, Harrison also produced 300 bushels of corn. However, until around 1890, locally produced corn was typically fed to the farmer’s own animals, leaving wheat as the primary cash crop. In 1880, around 35,000 bushels of wheat were shipped out of Storm Lake.
As time went on, corn acreage grew, both locally and in Iowa, and wheat acreage fell. By 1919 in our county, acreage for corn was 55% of all the land devoted to cereal crops, acreage for oats was 43% and for wheat only 1.1%. Curiously, in the state as a whole, between 1909 and 1919, corn acreage remained constant, but the acreage devoted to wheat went up nearly threefold, because of the demands of WW1.
Storm Lake acquired a flour mill in 1872. It was brought in from Cincinnati and was powered by a 40 hp steam engine of design similar to a locomotive. In 1883 experienced miller, Wm. P. Kruger, took charge but next year had equipment problems. In 1885 he and Joseph Sampson proposed a new roller flouring mill. In 1897 this led to a $15,000 stock company being incorporated with J.S. Nichols in charge. Simon Lemon, a relative of the founder of the BV County Bank, ran another mill, likely on Erie Street. In the mid 1880s his mill ground both wheat and corn. It closed in 1896.
The 1899 Sanborn fire map shows the location of the Storm Lake Roller Mills south of the railroad tracks between Geneseo and Ontario streets. In 1900 the mills turned out 75 barrels of flour a day, using local wheat exclusively. By 1909 it was closed. H.E. Swope bought the site in 1911, demolished the old building, and replaced it with houses.
Flour mills powered by water power existed in both Sioux Rapids and Linn Grove. With the decline in local wheat production after 1900 and the need for electricity for lighting, the flour mills were replaced by small hydroelectric plants.
Joseph Sampson (1848-1902) came to Storm Lake in 1878 as a railroad agent and became an important early promoter of agricultural activity in our area. He was a major promoter of growing flax, recommending it especially for sod farmers. Flax has the useful advantage of producing both oil and feed from flax seed and linen from flax straw. He wrote detailed newspaper accounts of how to succeed with this crop after an experimental period in 1879 when he worked with 10 farmers, each working 40 acres of flax. His best result was with J.W. Dixee, who used seven bushels of seed on 13 acres and had a total yield of 83 bushels. In 1881 Sampson planted 500 acres of flax. He maintained that properly managed flax on newly plowed land could generate enough income to pay for land purchase in only one year. Among Sampson’s other activities were the co-founding of 1st National Bank with James Harker in 1882 and building a $10,000 creamery north of Storm Lake in 1881.
A flax mill was established in Storm Lake in 1882, employing 10 men, but next year the manager, Mr. Weasley, complained that although much flax was being raised in the county, many farmers were not selling him their straw, for which he offered $2.50 per ton, delivered to the mill. The mill produced two car loads of tow per week which were shipped to St. Louis and New Orleans to make bags for baling cotton.
For a short while flax was big business in our area. In 1880, elevator owner E.C. Cowles shipped out 75,000 bushels from Storm Lake. Flax mills also existed in Sioux Rapids, Odebolt and Algona. Forest City even built a flax palace, similar to corn palaces elsewhere. In 1887 the mill in Storm Lake suffered severe wind damage. What was left was bought by builder Jay Russell in1891 to build his brick-making plant.
Sorghum is an ancient crop of African origin. As with flax, both the seeds and stems can be used, the latter being expressed to produce sugars and also for making traditional “corn” brooms. In early days small sorghum mills existed in Hayes and Grant townships. In the 19th century Iowa produced about three million gallons of sorghum syrup each year. During WW1 there was a national shortage of both flour and sugar as millions of European farmers went to the trenches. After the U.S. joined the conflict in 1917, local farmers were encouraged to increase wheat production for flour and sorghum for its sweet syrup. In 1918 P.F. Kinne, brother to the former owner of the largest department store in the county, moved his sorghum mill from Hayes Township into Storm Lake. Kinne had been in the sorghum business since the 1880s. In 1918 there were sorghum mills in Truesdale, Albert City, Marathon and Newell.
In 1921 L. R. McGuire of Fort Dodge took a three-year lease on the 1917 Army built munitions plant in Lakeside. He moved with his family into the office building on site and assembled a sorghum mill in the plant. In 1923, gallon jars from the Lakeside Syrup Co. were being offered as prizes at the county fair. As farming in the state became increasingly specialized during the 20th century, sorghum production fell and now represents less than 1% of planted acreage.
In May 1923, both the Storm Lake Register and the Pilot-Tribune published interesting details of farming in our county for the previous year. The 17 townships had 2,025 farms of which 42% were operated by their owners, Total corn acreage was about 130,000 acres followed by nearly 100,000 acres of the next biggest crop, oats. This was needed to feed the nearly 120,000 horses, or about six per farm.
Hay acreage for cultivated grass was about 21,000 acres, with another 1,750 acres of wild grass used for haying. About 50,000 acres of land was used for pasture and additional space was devoted to growing alfalfa. These last items were used to support about 43,000 beef cattle and 10,000 dairy cattle. Less than 300 acres were reported being used to grow soybeans: a major difference from today. There were about 120,000 swine, mostly fed corn, as now. Wheat production, very important in the earliest days of the county, was down to about 60 acres.
500 acres were used to cultivate barley, a useful early-maturing feedstock, exceeding corn or oats in value. Potatoes, apples, cabbages, sweet corn and other everyday items were widely produced and most farms kept chickens, there being an average of 137 per farm. Only one township, Brooke, lacked sheep, and others had very few. However, altogether there were nearly 3,000 sheep in our county.
Less than 20% of the farm houses were described as modern. Only 15% had electric lights and slightly fewer had plumbed-in baths. However, the numbers of tractors and automobiles roughly equaled the number of farms.
Years ago it was realized that some crops depleted soil nutrients more than others and created poorer yields for specific subsequent crops. Use of animal manures, fertilizers and land fallowing were traditional remedies. New farmers, many immigrants, often heavily indebted for their land, looked for the most cost-productive way to deal with the problem, and sometimes wrote about their findings to local newspapers.
The earliest found such report comes from the Vidette newspaper in 1895.
In 1906 the recommendation appeared of turning in green crops like clover before planting. In 1917 Fred Higgins from Grant Township recommended planting fields ⅓to corn, ⅓to oats and to clover, followed by crop rotation. Remarks from Professor Albrecht from the University of Missouri published in 1918, clearly explained the role of legumes in nitrogen fixation. The discovery had been made in 1838 by French chemist J-B Boussingault. A Brooke farmer in 1923 recommended two crops of corn, followed by a mixture of oats and clover, then clover again in year four. Corn yields in Buena Vista County in 1919 were 43.4 bushels/acre, much higher than the national average, but much lower than today when vastly more fertilizer is applied.
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