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1835–1880s · THE FIRST CROP ORDER
Wheat was the township's first money crop, and its arc is dated at both ends. At the arc's opening the crop moved by ox team: William Dare's two-day hauls to Michigan City, the lake port, before any railroad in the county (Howard). At its height the crop moved by rail from the town itself, and Chapman fixes the height in a figure: "During the season of 1880 about 200,000 bushels of wheat were purchased at this point" — purchased, that is, at Walkerton's one grain depot by the buyers the junction drew. The gazetteers' export lists hold the same order for the decade: "Grain, wool and lumber comprise the chief exports" (1882); "Grain, wool and lumber are the chief exports" (1884). The fall of the wheat order is not dated by any township source read — the county's census series carries wheat's decline as a county arc, and it stands at pointer size here — but Chapman already prints the succeeding order in 1880, in the chapter's summary line: "The leading industry of this township is farming in connection with stock-raising." The grain trade's own succession on the town ground — Stephens' era to E. T. Henderson, "lumber and grain" (1884), to B. I. Holser & Co., "grain, wool and poultry foods" (1916) — is the Businesses file's; the wheat that fed it is this section's, and the two meet at the depot Chapman names. No elevator ever stands in the record: the crop was bought at a depot, by dealers, in every source read.
Sources:
- Chapman (1880), Lincoln Township chapter (the 200,000-bushel season; the leading-industry line; the grain depot).
- Howard (1907), vol. 2, Smith sketch (the Dare hauls).
- Polk 1882–83, vol. II, p. 798, and 1884–85, vol. III, p. 743 (the export lists).