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Bolton’s 1881 homestead on ODA’s 2010 Century Farm list

By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

DAYTON, Ohio — By combining many hours of research into her family tree with her father’s knowledge of events the past 80 years, Vicki Bolton put together the pieces that tell the story of her homestead on Valley Pike, just five miles east of Dayton in Montgomery County.

Recently, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) recognized her homestead as a Century Farm, built in 1881. “There are still three generations living under this roof,” said Vicki’s father, Raymond Bolton, 84.

“When I was young, we had about 80 acres and we grew corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa hay. We did it the old-fashioned way – we harvested by hand.”

The Century Farms Program recognizes families who have maintained a farm in their family for at least 100 years, with emphasis on well-preserved, working farms. In Ohio there are 793 Century Farm award winners, seven in Montgomery County alone. Qualifying farms receive a certificate signed by the governor of Ohio.

The Rohrer family (of German descent) moved to the Miami Valley area from Pennsylvania in the early 1700s. Christian Rohrer, Raymond Bolton’s great-grandfather of English descent, married into the family and built the house in which Bolton now lives.
Time has stood still in this home. Bedroom furniture from the early 1900s is still in the house. This homestead was also once a flourishing dairy farm, though there were only 60 head at the time.
The family owned more than 300 acres. By the time Bolton was born, the acreage stood at 212. There are now just 60 acres remaining. His grandson, who farms 500 acres in Urbana, Ohio, still tills Bolton’s property.

“We raised corn and beans last season; this year we raised wheat,” Bolton said.

He grows crops as a reminder of his past. “Yes, I remember my family shucking all 80 acres of corn by hand,” he said. “We’d shuck two rows before dinner and two rows after dinner. We’d do that each day.”

In the early 1900s a passenger train from Dayton would make nightly runs to a tavern on the edge of the Bolton property line. Gone is the tavern, but the tracks remain.

“I remember seeing the steam locomotive,” Bolton said. “Back in the 1930s we’d take our cows to pasture about a mile towards the river, just before those tracks.”

Like most settlers of that time, they had hardships. Lightning caused the burning of the original barn in 1913. That same year waters from the Dayton flood reached the edge of the property, though nothing was damaged. The Huffman Dam was erected the following year to prevent such devastation.

“We had a good dairy operation back then,” Bolton said. “It served a lot of people. I remember we used a steam engine to cook feed for the cows. But by 1954, we were down to just 30 cows, and the following year Dad decided to raise beef cattle. That was the end of our dairy operation.”

The Century Farm of the Bolton family is surrounded by modern-day progress, and all abut the property. To the east is a van lines company. To the west is a new development of Ryan Homes. To the south is a baking company.

“We’ve been approached by people wanting to purchase our property,” Vicki Bolton said. “I nearly cry when I think of the thought.

“You have to be realistic about it, though. You can’t hold onto it forever, but we want to keep it in the family forever.”

2/4/2010