John Julian Clark

John Julian and Esther Clark recently purchased an 80 acre farm, which as been the homestead in his family since it was purchased from the State in 1845. This has moved him to write some history on his predecessors and to reminisce his early life on the farm.

Thomas Kinney — original purchaser of land from the government

John Julian Clark — great grandson, 130 years later, current owner

John's great-grandfather, Thomas Kinney, was born in Longford, Ireland, in 1811. Because of the religious, economic and political problems in Ireland, many people there immigrated to the United States. Thomas Kinney, with his bride, Bridget Sheridan immigrated in the year of 1835. They settled in Henry County where he worked on the Miami and Erie canal. In 1845, he purchased acreage which included the 80 acres mentioned above. A log house was constructed which has been remodeled numerous times and which is known as "The Homestead."

Thomas and Bridget had 3 children, John, Ellen, and Catherine. Thomas Kinney died May 20, 1892.

Ellen Kinney, his daughter, married Joel Loughlin. Joel was a mason contractor. He and his crew helped build the St. Augustein Catholic Church in Napoleon, which is still standing. Ellen and Joel had one child, Catherine. Ellen died in 1901, on the homestead.

Catherine Loughlin, their daughter, born in 1882, married Peter Joseph Clark in 1903. Their four children are Angeline, Geraldine, Robert and John Julian. P. J. Clark farmed the homestead and other acreage he accumulated and he also was a successful livestock feeder. P. J. died in 1956 and Catherine, at the age of 92 in 1974.

John Julian, P. J. and Catherine Clark's youngest son, married Esther Schlueter Partee in 1960. They have one child, John Joseph who is 14 years of age at this writing.

John remembers from his lifetime, many things: "Some of the events I remember most clearly are those of my father's farm and livestock operation. In my early years, helping with the farming, the hours spent during planting and caring for and harvesting the crops were long. The power on the farm was horse power. There were no tractors or mechanically driven equipment. Farmers drove two, four or six horse teams on plows, harrow, etc. Hay making was a big chore for you either pitched it on a hay rack or pulled a hay loader behind a hay wagon which elevated the hay up to the back end of the wagon. This was a very important crop at this time, for the hay was fed to all the livestock.

The harvesting was done much different from now. The wheat and oats were cut with a binder and shocked in the field and left to cure for several weeks, then it was hauled to the threshing area. This was a very interesting time of the year. The farmers helped each other with the harvesting and the wives helped each other preparing the large meals spread out in the dining room and with the best linen and china used.

Soy beans were not heard of at this time and very few vegetable crops were grown except in home gardens.

My father's farm was also used to fatten Western feeder cattle for the eastern markets. My father would take the train to Chicago or Kansas City, Mo. to buy feeder cattle in the big stock yards. These cattle would come in on the railroad to either Okolona or Archbold and we would drive them home; this was either two or 14 miles; there were no cattle trailers for such service. These cattle were fed on corn and hay and protein produced on the farm. After six to eight months these cattle were ready for market and again we would drive them to the railroad yards for shipment to the eastern markets. My father sold a few to local butchers who would come out to the farm and butcher the animals for the local meat markets. Over the years some of these cattle were bought for four cents per pound as feeders and sold for seven cents a pound as fat cattle.

There is a large creek which goes through our farm. I recall each year hundreds of loads of gravel were shoveled onto a special gravel box (used for this purpose) and pulled by powerful teams of horses for distribution on newly made gravel roads. Much of this gravel each year was also used on local farm construction of cement floors and water tanks.

This was another source of income for my father, and he also kept the creek cleaned out.

The country school where my mother and we four children went to school for the first eight grades, is still in good repair. It was built in 1883. These country school buildings had only one room with a wood shed and two outside toilets. There was no electricity in these school buildings, any night gatherings, which there were very few of, used lanterns for light. The heating of the room consisted of a large pot-bellied stove in the center of the room. As our home was near the school, my brother and I were hired by the teacher to start the fire early in the morning.

The house on the homestead mentioned before has been remodeled several times and our latest work just now completed has been to insulate the walls, replace the original wiring which was installed during the time that a Delco power unit was the source of energy. Also the woodburning, hot air furnace has been replaced with modern electric heat units."

The popcorn storage plant on U.S. 6, three miles west of Napoleon was a project introduced into the Napoleon area by John Julian Clark, rural Napoleon. Having been in the popcorn contracting business many times before, he knew the area was good for growing popcorn. In 1954, he went looking for a processor who could use a large acreage of corn in the Napoleon and surrounding area. He found such a processor in TV Time Foods of Bremen, Indiana. After several meetings with Benjamin Banowitz of Chicago, Illinois, the owner of TV Time Foods, an agreement was reached in 1955, whereas 4,000 acres of popcorn was to be contracted in the area. This was accomplished and before harvest that fall, construction was started and completed for the first crop for the new company that winter.

Submitted by Clark Family