Ohio Century Farms: Harlow L. Stahl Farm

By Jeanette Ricker

ACRES cor­re­spon­dent

The Har­low L. Stahl Cen­tury Farm at 9507 state Route 113 in Erie County east of Belle­vue has no sign in the yard, but has been in the fam­ily for 127 years.

The cur­rent owner, Har­low L. Stahl, 82, has lived there all of his life. There was no cel­e­bra­tion or spe­cial obser­vance when Har­low com­pleted the paper­work rec­og­niz­ing the cen­tury farm when he received the offi­cial sign.

“I did it because I wanted to honor the farm at that time,” he said.

The prop­erty was pur­chased in 1885 by his grand­fa­ther, Har­low C. Stahl, the first of seven Har­low Stahls, dif­fer­en­ti­ated only by their mid­dle ini­tial. None have a mid­dle name, only an ini­tial, for the maiden name of their mother. Har­low C.’s son was Har­low M. Stahl, whose first­born son, Har­low D. drowned in a pond on the prop­erty at age four.

The present Har­low L. Stahl wasn’t born yet. He was the youngest in the fam­ily and was given the name Har­low L. when he was born after a fam­ily friend named Loren. His old­est son is Har­low Philip, who named his son Har­low Michael. The sev­enth Har­low Gre­gory Stahl is a new­born and will be bap­tized wear­ing the 120-year-old fam­ily bap­tismal gown in Huntsville, Ala.

Harlow’s grand­fa­ther, Har­low C., bought the 160-acre farm in 1885, later sell­ing off 30 acres in 1909.

He was not a farmer, but a busi­ness­man who devel­oped the cul­ti­va­tor in Fre­mont, Ohio and was the owner of the Ohio Cul­ti­va­tor Com­pany, using his Belle­vue farm to test the equipment.

“It was the biggest farm machine com­pany in the U.S. at that time,” said Har­low L.

“He was so busy test­ing and sell­ing cul­ti­va­tors that McCormick beat him to the patent office.”

Har­low L’s father, Har­low M. and his wife, Juanita A., moved back to the farm some­time between 1909 and 1920. They had orig­i­nally been peach grow­ers, liv­ing in the light­house keeper home on Bayshore Road near Mar­ble­head, Ohio.

The farm house burned on May 1, 1921. His father, Har­low M. built the present house on the foun­da­tion of the old home. The base­ment still has the orig­i­nal beams with ax-hewn marks.

This home is larger, with three rooms on the main floor and four bed­rooms upstairs. There is a large screened porch by the dri­ve­way where Har­low works on his hobby of broom mak­ing. He sells his brooms and demon­strates broom mak­ing at His­toric Lyme Vil­lage nearby and at the Erie County and Huron-Erie Fairs.

Har­low L. has lived on the prop­erty since he was born, farm­ing with his father who was a dairy farmer. Har­low L. raised hogs. The big barn was built in the 1890s. There are five out­build­ings behind the home and the remains of a stone ten­ant house next door built in 1865.

Stahl recalled that his dad first used mules to do the farm­ing and he still has his dad’s horse drawn cultivator.

Har­low stands buy the old maple tree where neigh­bors and farm help tied their horses when com­ing to help out. The horses nib­bled on the bark.

“Dad did all the thrash­ing in the area. He also did the butcher­ing,” he said. Stahl recalled the big din­ner his mother made for those who came to help thrash.

The thrash­ers tied their horses to a big maple tree which still grows there even though the horses nib­bled off the bark, leav­ing a big hole. He also remem­bers bums jump­ing off the trains nearby com­ing to the door for hand­outs dur­ing the Great Depression.

Two of the ponds on the prop­erty were filled in, but Stahl remem­bered his dad cut­ting ice from a pond with an ice saw. One end of a field must have been used as a dump­ing ground where Stahl has found coins dat­ing back the 1800s.

Har­low L. served with the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957 and then came back to Belle­vue to farm. He offi­cially retired from farm­ing in the early 1990s, but still gar­dens, he said. After retire­ment he worked for eight years at Carter Lum­ber in Clyde, retir­ing 16 years ago. He was also a sub­sti­tute teacher at Belle­vue City Schools, he said. He has a degree in agri­cul­ture from Col­orado State A & M.

The name Stahl is well known in Belle­vue. His grand­fa­ther, Har­low C. Stahl donated $5,000 worth of books to the Belle­vue Pub­lic Library when it was built by Andrew Carnegie. The library was known as the Carnegie Stahl Library. Stahl’s father, Har­low M. Stahl, was also a jus­tice of the peace.

Carol and Har­low L. plan to keep the farm in the fam­ily for future gen­er­a­tions to enjoy. They are par­ents of two sons and a daugh­ter, and have many grandchildren.

Posted by Rob Treynor on Jan 1 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.