Happy Birthday, America! In honor of 250 years since 1776, the Ohio Commission for the U.S. Semi quincentennial (America 250) has chosen a different theme each month to highlight and celebrate Ohio’s rich history. Each month, The Dawes Arboretum’s History Team will be dropping a new collection to our archives that align with those themes. The October theme is Ohio Grows: Food and Farms. Read about The Dawes Arboretum's contribution to agriculture.
When Beman and Bertie Dawes first purchased the land that would become The Arboretum, the couple operated a dairy farm on the property. The Zand Education Center that’s used today for educational and special events was the dairy farm! Harry Jones, the first official employee of The Arboretum, helped take care of the dairy farm. Sheep and chicken were also kept.
Aaggie
Have you heard of Aagie the cow? Aagie was Beman Dawes’ prized Holstein cow. Aaggie is a part of the Licking County Passport Challenge! She also has a trail, Aaggie’s Trail, that can be found in Dutch Fork Wetlands, one of The Arboretum’s free areas.
“Farmerettes”
During World War 1, becoming a “Farmerette” was a way for women to be patriotic and fill in for men who were enlisted into the military. Dorothy Dawes Young, daughter of Beman and Bertie Dawes who was attending Lake Erie College, enlisted a group of women to work at the Marietta farm (the original Dawes property) because Bertie asked her to.
About six girls came to work with Dorothy in the summer of 1918. They did things like canning tomatoes, working in the fields and doing housework inside of the farmhouse.
Dorothy also was featured in an article titled, “Heiress Drives Milk Wagon” when she decided to drive the farm’s milk wagon around Marietta. The local newspaper described the scene as Dorothy deciding to "leave a luxurious mansion in Columbus and ‘do her bit’ by driving a milk wagon the city.’”
Opposite what the news reported, one of the Farmerette’s mothers said “It certainly is a grand patriotic spirit these girls are showing. While it was considered at first here by many a joke, these girls are now appreciated by everyone here for their true worth.”
Several photographs and materials of Aaggie and the Farmerette’s activity have been digitized and are now available to the public.
To see these archival materials and more on the digital archive, click this link or go to the Advanced Search page and type out “America 250-Ohio” in Search Terms to view the entire collection. For questions concerning the digital archive, please email daweshistory@dawesarb.org.
Are you interested in doing in-person research at The Arboretum? Do you have a history question that you can’t find the answer online? Don’t hesitate to use the Department’s History Research Request Form, where you can get answers to all your Dawes history-related questions and research requests.