HOW AND WHERE TO LOOK IT UP
RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA. ©2001
William D. Theriault, Ph.D.
17434 Virginia Ave.
Hagerstown, MD 21740
WMTheriault@myactv.net
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22. Agriculture
Farming has been an important, continuous facet of Jefferson County’s heritage since the arrival of the first settlers. To understand fully the evolution of agriculture in this area, you should begin with a study of the factors influencing early farming.

One of these factors is the land grant policies in 18th century Virginia. Early grants issued by the colony of Virginia and by entrepreneurs such as Jost Hite were often small (less than 400 acres) and usually taken by English, German, and Scots-Irish immigrants. The buildings, crops, and agricultural techniques of these small to mid-sized farms reflected the background of the immigrants and the places where they had first settled in America (e.g., Pennsylvania and New England). Grants issued by Lord Fairfax were sometimes larger and were often purchased by residents of the Virginia Tidewater region who were used to the larger plantation system of agriculture. This mixture of small- and large-sized farms persisted through much of the
county’s history.

An examination of land grants (see Chapter 11) and early wills, deeds, tax lists, and estate inventories (see Chapter 3) will provide some information about the size of farms, amount of land under cultivation, crops raised, farm implements, and use of slaves.

Since the Jefferson County area shares many of the climatic, geological, and cultural features of neighboring counties and states, researchers should be wary about using regional generalizations to interpret the local agriculture. The following works include several primary sources and studies that provide important background for the agricultural history of the area:

American Husbandry. Containing an Account of the Soil, Climate, Production and Agriculture of the British Colonies in North America and the West Indies with Observations on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Settling in Them, Compared with Great Britain and Ireland by an American in Two Volumes. London: Printed for J. Bew, in Pater-noster-Row, 1775. The chapters on New England, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland are particularly useful, since they describe the crops grown and the agricultural practices of the period. Cabbell, N.F. "Some Fragments of an Intended Report on the Post-Revolutionary History of Agriculture in Virginia," William & Mary Quarterly, 26 (1918): 167ff.

Carrier, Lyman. The Beginnings of Agriculture in America. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1923. Useful for dating agricultural activities and implements.

Clark, Harrison. "Northern Virginia Agriculture in 1791," Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, 35 (1969): 27-33. Includes a letter written in 1791 by Dr. David Stuart (1753-1815) to George Washington which describes the agriculture of several northern Virginia counties including the area of present Jefferson County.

Cresswell, Nicholas. The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774-1777. New York: The Dial Press, 1928. Cresswell presents an overview of the requirements for establishing a successful farm in Frederick or Berkeley Counties, including costs, profits, crops grown, and cultivating techniques. Geier, Clarence and Warren Hoftra. “Early 19th Century Agriculture and the Rise of the Rural Milling Industry Along Opecquon Creek in Frederick County, Virginia,” in Upland Archeology in the East Symposium Number Six, February 25 to February 27, 1994. Richmond, VA: Archeological Society of Virginia, 1996.

Gray, Lewis C. History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860. Washington: Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1933.

Hart, Freeman F. The Valley of Virginia in the American Revolution: 1763-1789. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1942. Provides much useful information about the Shenandoah Valley as well as some specifics about Berkeley and present day Jefferson Counties. Relevant topics include: crops grown and products (hemp, flax, wheat, corn, horses and cattle, butter, skins, tallow, iron, distilleries); types of money used; slaves and indentured servants.

Mitchell, Robert D. "Agricultural Change and the American Revolution: A Virginia Case Study," Agricultural History, 47 (1973): 123.

Mitchell, Robert D. (ed.) Appalachian Frontiers: Settlement, Society, and Development in the Preindustrial Era. University Press of Kentucky, 1991. Contains several pertinent essays, including: Kenneth W. Keller,"What is Distinctive about the Scotch Irish?" (pp. 69-86); Elizabeth A. Kessel, "Germans in the Making of Frederick County, Maryland, 1730-1800" (pp. 87-104); and Warren R. Hofstra, "Land Policy and Settlement in the Northern Shenandoah Valley" (pp. 105-126).

Mitchell, Robert D. Commercialism and Frontier: Perspectives on the Early Shenandoah Valley. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977. An expansion of the author's doctoral dissertation in geography (University of Wisconsin) focusing on the Upper Shenandoah Valley. This study, which includes both Berkeley and early Frederick Counties, provides important background information on early settlement in the Jefferson County area. Mitchell refutes some of the conventional theories of frontier settlement (e.g., Frederick Jackson Turner) based on newer studies and examination of public records. Topics
covered include Temporal and Spatial Frameworks, Initial Occupance and Subsequent Migration, Land Acquisition and Speculation, Population Change and Social Stratification, Pioneer Economy and External Contacts, Specialization: Agricultural Development, Diversification: Trade and Manufacture, and The Transformation of the Early Shenandoah Valley. The discussions of early land policies in the Shenandoah Valley (grants via the Colony of Virginia and Jost Hite vs. those made by Lord Fairfax) are particularly important in understanding the development of the area that would later become Jefferson County.

Schlebecker, John T. Whereby We Thrive: A History of American Farming, 1607-1972. Ames, IA: Iowa State Univ. Press, 1975. Useful for placing local agriculture within the broader context of farming practices and technology.

Starting in 1790, census records are available for the area (see Chapter 3), the early ones providing a limited amount of information. Census records for 1840 and after provide information on slaves owned. Starting with the 1850 census, individual names are recorded in addition to the head of household; information about occupation, tenancy, and value of real property is also available.

The following Jefferson County maps include farm boundaries and can be used in conjunction with contemporary census reports to identify agricultural activities in the area:

Brown, S. Howell. A Map of Jefferson County, Virginia, by S. Howell Brown. From an Actual Survey with Farm Limits. 1852.

Brown, S. Howell. A Map of Jefferson County West Virginia by S. Howell Brown, County Surveyor from Actual Survey with Farm Limits. 1883. Philadelphia: J.L. Smith, Map Publisher, 1883.

State laws for both Virginia and West Virginia should also yield information about agricultural reglations. For example, the "Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia," for March 13, 1834, include an act providing for the inspection of flour and Indian meal at Harpers Ferry, Keeptryst Furnace, and Shepherdstown.

Jefferson County played an important role in the development of the state Grange, with several of the earliest grange masters coming from Jefferson and Berkeley Counties. The most complete study of this topic is the doctoral dissertation of William D. Barns (West Virginia University, 1946), “The Granger and Populist Movements in West Virginia, 1873-1914.” His The West Virginia Grange: The First Century, 1873-1973 (Morgantown: Morgantown Printing and Binding Co., 1973) provides a longer view of the topic but contains no footnotes. Other studies of the local Grange include:

Huyett, J. Burns. "Early Grange Activities in Jefferson County." Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, 5 (1938): 4-7.

Shirley, Mervin R. The Granger Movement in West Virginia. Thesis. Morgantown: West Virginia University, 1933.

Newspapers (see Chapter 7) provide a substantial amount of information about local agriculture from the 1790's to the present. Information scattered through papers such as the Virginia Free Press, Shepherdstown Register, Farmers’ Advocate, and Spirit of Jefferson include advertisements for farmland, produce, and equipment, market prices, weather and crop reports, and various descriptions of farming activities. The papers also report seasonal agricultural events such as the Morgan’s Grove and Moler’s Crossroads Agricultural Fairs, the County Fair, the Charles Town Horse and Colt Show, and many more local activities.

Statistical information on farming and descriptions of crops, prices, and cultivation techniques are available starting with the West Virginia Board of Agriculture. Biennial Reports, 1892 - present. State Extension Office publications on numerous topics can be used to evaluate local agricultural practices. William D. Barns published the following articles on the history of agricultural experimentation, education, and extension in West Virginia:

“Farmers vs. Scientists: The Grange, The Farmers’ Alliance, and the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station,” Proceedings of the West Virginia Academy of Science, 37 (1965): 197-206.

“The Influence of the West Virginia Grange upon Public Agricultural Education of College Grade, 1873- 1914,” West Virginia History, 9.2 (January 1948): 128-157.

“The Influence of the West Virginia Grange upon Public Agricultural Education of Less than College Grade, 1873-1914,” West Virginia History, 10.1 (October 1948): 5-24.

Summaries of agricultural data are often a byproduct of census efforts and should be consulted. State and Federal statistical summaries of agriculture and agricultural bulletins also provide some data on a county-bycounty basis:

National Agricultural Statistics Service. 1998 Bulletin No. 92. Charleston, WV: West Virginia Department of Agriculture, 1998. Includes state maps showing amounts of products by county.

National Agricultural Statistics Service. 1997 Bulletin No. 28. Charleston, WV: West Virginia Department of Agriculture, 1997.

National Agricultural Statistics Service. 1996 Bulletin No. 27. Charleston, WV: West Virginia Department of Agriculture, 1996.

Templeton, Mary E. Statistical Chartbook of West Virginia Agriculture: 1920 to 1965. Morgantown: West Virginia University Agriculture Experiment Station, March 1967. Contains detailed agricultural information but does not break it down by county.

United States. Bureau of the Census. 1978 Census of Agriculture, Preliminary Report, Jefferson County, W. Va. Washington: Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1980. Statistics on Jefferson County Agriculture.

United States. Census Office. Fourteenth Census of the United States. State Compendium. West Virginia. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1925. Includes, for Jefferson County, ownership of homes, farms and farm property, live stock, live stock products, value of crops, and agricultural debt.

United States. Bureau of the Census. U.S. Census of Agriculture: 1954. Vol. I. Counties and State Economic Areas. Part 15. Washington, DC: GPO, 1956. Chapter B includes the following tables: 1. Farms, acreage, value, and farm operators: Censuses of 1954 and 1950; 2. Farms by color and tenure of operator: Censuses of 1954 and 1950; 2a. Farms by tenure, by color of operator: Census of 1954; 3. Farms by size of farm and by type of farm; Censuses of 1954 and 1950; 4. Value of Farm Products Sold by Source: Censuses of 1954 and 1950; 5. Farms by economic class, by class of work power, off-farm work and other income, and facilities and equipment: Censuses of 1954 and 1950; 6. Farm labor and specified farm expenditures:
Census of 1954 and 1950; and use of commercial fertilizer: Census of 1954; 7. Livestock and livestock products: Censuses of 1954 and 1950; 8. Nursery, greenhouse, and forest products: Censuses of 1954 and 1950; 9. Specified crops harvested: Censuses of 1954 and 1950.

West Virginia Agricultural Society. Report of the Second Agricultural and Mechanical Exhibition at Charleston, Sept. 30 - Oct. 4, 1893. Charleston, WV, 1893.

West Virginia Agriculture Experiment Station. Bulletin No. 147. An Orchard Survey in Jefferson County. Jeffries, R.R. November, 1914.

West Virginia Department of Agriculture. Census of the Commerican Apple Orchards in West Virginia, 1919.

Bulletin No. 44. W.H. Somers, September 1919.

West Virginia State Board of Agriculture. West Virginia Agricultural Resources and Possibilities. Charleston, WV: 1907.

Soil surveys of the county have been published and provide useful information about soil types:

Hatfield, William F. and John W. Warner. Soil Survey of Jefferson County, West Virginia. [Washington]: Soil Conservation Service; [for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.], [1973]. Includes soil maps and descriptions of soil conditions throughout Jefferson.

Latimer, W.J. 1918 Soil Survey of Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan Counties, West Virginia. U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin, 1918.

Several periodicals have focused on West Virginia agriculture and supply useful information about state and local farm issues:

Farm and Orchard. Keyser, WV, vol. 1 (April 1910) to 5 (1914). Monthly periodical devoted to agriculture, horticulture, livestock, dairying, and poultry raising. West Virginia Agriculturalist. Morgantown, WV, 1924 - 1930.

West Virginia Farm News. 1928 to present. Morgantown, WV.

West Virginia Market Bulletin. Morgantown, WV. 1919 to 1935. Weekly publication.

West Virginia State Board of Agriculture. West Virginia Farm Review. 1900-1903.

A few diaries and account books of local farm activities have been located and several oral history interviews have been conducted with Jefferson County residents involved in agriculture. These sources include:

Aglionby, Charles. Diaries, March 6, 1861 to January 1, 1866, and 1875 to 1878. Accounts, 1855-1870.

Diaries and accounts kept at Mount Pleasant, Jefferson County. Aglionby kept a full record of the weather, his farming, family and social activities, military operations in the area and rumors about the progress of the war.

Davis, Julia. Interview. Charles Town, WV. February 26, 1992. Interviewed by William Theriault. Topics include publication of her early works, farmerettes, the McDonald farm.

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