Long-time local farm on Ohio 113 is one of Ohio’s Century Farms

By Jeanette Ricker

Gazette cor­re­spon­dent

The Har­low L. Stahl Cen­tury Farm at 9507 SR 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 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 i,t 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 in 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 in 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 busi­ness man 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 and1920. They had orig­i­nally been peach grow­ers, liv­ing in the light­house keep­ers home on Bayshore Road near Mar­ble­head, Ohio.

The farm home 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 1890’s. 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.

“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 dump­ing ground where Stahl has found coins dat­ing back the 1800’s.

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 1990’s, 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 Becky Brooks on Jan 10 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.