Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "X" in all the boxes that apply.) X A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history - B removed from its original location. - D a cemetery [X C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, - E a reconstructed building, object, or structure. period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a - F a commemorative property. significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack - G less than 50 years of age or achieved significance within the 50 years.
Areas of Significance Significant Dates 1845 Period of Significance Significant Person N/A (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) Cultural Affiliation N/A Narrative Statement of Significance See Continuation page 13 and following (Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) 1911 Architecture Property is: listing) prehistory or history. Agriculture individual distinction. Criteria Considerations Architect/Builder (Enter categories from instructions) Aowned bya religious institution or used for religious purpose D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield information important in Huron County, OH page 4 (Mark"X" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our C a birthplace ora grave.
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio SECTION 7 NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION The Miller-Bissell Farmstead is on the west side of a rural highway, State Route 60, formerly known as the Clarksfield Road, two miles north of the Village of New London, Huron County, Ohio. The house is a two story, wood frame, south, extending beyond the ell further north and south than the front mass of the house, to make the original floor plan house retains most of the original, 1845, first and second floor plans and stylish, heavy, exterior Greek Revival trim. The Huron County. The farmstead also includes an 1825-1835 basement barn with 1860s and1910s additions, an important, board-and-batten ice house ca.
1870, a 1910s gabled, glazed tile barn, a 1910s pump house and a non-contributing, from 1820s until 1910s. HOUSE DESCRIPTION The original front mass of the house is symmetric, five bays with center door. A ca. 1910 open one story porch has been added to the south side of the front mass of the house. The gabled rear ell has three bays with an original one story, shed projecting north and south, are one story with gables on the north and south. The main house foundation shows about two courses of large cut sandstone blocks with some rubble fill. Some stones basement windows, on the south, east and north of the front mass of the house and north side of the ell, have stone groove wall separating it from the rest of the basement. At the west end of the ell basement is an open cistern tank which updated for use as a country estate house (Norwalk Daily Reflector, 1909).
The woodshed/garage wing has had the northwest woodshed, now garage. The basement has a canning and root vegetable storage area on the south side of the remaining acreage was sold off in the late-1990s. The lot is currently 9.68 acres (see site plan). is original with original room configuration. Across the west end of the ell are two one story wings, to the north and undulating site. No remnants remain of the other outbuildings constructed during the 8O-year evolution of the farmstead, holds water collected by the house gutters.
This water storage system dates from about 1910s, when the farmhouse was Miller-Bissell Farmstead residence is one of the most stylish and best preserved houses of the important farm lands of 1970s pole building.All buildings are situated on a hill and the hillside of an unaltered, multiple spring-covered, The Miller-Bissell Farmstead residence faces east at the crest of a hill, with land sloping north, west and south into the drainage of a tributary creek of the East Branch of the Vermillion River, the water supply for John Miller's 1825 front part of the house, dating from the George Bissell era, ca.1870.This room has a southern yellow pine, tongue-and- have shot-sawn edges and bush-hammered centers, especially the stones of the front steps.
According to oral tradition, sawmill that was one half mile to the north.The farmstead once included all of Township Lot 13.The farmstead lot at the time of construction contained 169.5 acres.The acreage was reduced during the ensuing decades until most of the window wells, some windows retain original glazed sash. The basement is excavated under the entire house except the double pile, center hall, end gable residence constructed in 1845 in the Greek Revival style. The rear 1-1/2 story ell also roofed porch along the entire south side of the ell. This porch was screened in about 1910. The rear, two bay wings, the sandstone for the foundation may be from the Clarksfield quarry, in the next township north, four miles away. The an uneven "H". The rear north and south wings retain their original exterior shape with rear, west, windows altered.
The United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio on the south side of the south wing. The south wing basement entry has a gabled and clapboarded entry cover, ca. watertable, corner 26" wide Tuscan pilasters on front and sides, an 18" frieze with 16" soffits, bed mold and crown mold. The frieze returns on the gable ends. The gables have the same frieze, soffit, bed and crown mold as the front of the house together with semicircular louvered ventilators fanlights. Each fan light has a wooden keystone. The ell has a 12" deep soffit, 14" wide frieze, bed and crown molds. The north and south wings have narrower frieze, shallower soffit, no bed or crown molding and narrow, 3" corner board with Tuscan molding band to indicate the corner board as pilaster.
clapboard siding, is beneath the siding asphalt. The gutters were added about 1910, to supply the basement cistern. constructed about 1910 as a Colonial Revival embellishment of the farmhouse. This porch has retained the pilasters and The original south side porch was enclosed with screen about 1910. This side porch has beaded horizontal flush board siding and beaded ceiling boards. Two doors to the ell and a door to the south wing are off the porch. Originally, the basement entry stairs were cut into the porch at the east corner of main house and ell. This entry was eliminated when At the same time as the screening of the porch, the well head was covered with a concrete cap that also was incorporated into steps to the south side ell porch. This original well for the house is lined with cut sandstone, curved to make a circular well hole.
The top eight courses of the well are lined in brick above the sandstone. double hung sash, 6/6. The ell has double hung 12/8 sash on the first floor with 12 light second story sash that drops facing south wing window is historic double hung sash, 9/6. The east facing north wing windows occupy the historic windows, are modern windows that may relate to the historic window placement (photo 4). 1910s. Throughout, the vinyl and aluminum siding is articulated as 4" exposure clapboard. All architectural detail, including The front and sides of the front mass, ell and wings of the house retain all of the historic architectural Greek Revival clapboard of the house.The porch posts repeat the Greek Revival detail of the house.The porch balustrade has turned into the upstairs rooms, with sash supported by a channel at the window sill and a chain at the top of the sash.
The east window location, but the sash has been replaced. The west facing windows across the entire back of the house, five foundation replaced with concrete block (ca 1960).A modern basement entry is on the north side of the ell with another the porch was enclosed. A shallow hip roof single story open porch runs across the entire south side of the main block of the house. It was detail of the 1845 construction except for the west side of the wings (photos 1 & 3). The entire house has been carefully spindles.The porch floor is wood with a beaded board porch ceiling (photo 2). vinyl sided, with some aluminum siding, to cover, but articulate, all the Greek Revival detail. The house has a House windows are nearly all original, most with original glazing. The front of the house and north and south ends have The house has a black asphalt shingle roof.
Likely, the house originally had wood shingles, replaced with slate, then United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio INTERIOR DESCRIPTION west side of the house. The main block of the house is two rooms deep with a center hall between only the front two diningroom in the ell. The west part of the ell has a room that likely was the kitchen and common room. composed of curves except for the flattened, Greek Revival cyma reversas molding used on door panels and window architraves in secondary rooms and as the central feature of the door and window architraves, corner blocks and window and baseboard panels. Molding details are frequently repeated, but seldom in the same combination from one room to another with a strong Greek Revival design effect.
The designs for these architectural details at their most elaborate relate to the most simple choices offered in Asher Benjamin pattern books that feature the Greek Revival style. First story ceilings are 8 feet. Walls are a smooth finish plaster on sawn lath. Moldings were applied after the plaster was set. The house structure shows brace frame construction which is seen in the cellar and attic. Typically members are "locks" to keep the thumb latch bar from opening. The closets have circular brass locks with thumb turn closers. The most decorative room of the house is the northeast room, the parlor. It is nearly square. This is the only room with curved molding on either side of the center channel. This architrave detail was used for the square corner blocks at doorway and windows. The plinth for door and window architraves also are paneled.
The flattened cyma reversas curve molding again defines the baseboard panels and the architrave of the fireplace mantle. The fire box has been covered, a stove hole is above the mantle. This room never had a hearth and probably did not have had a firebox opening. The use of a stove appears to have been the original source of heat. In the 1950s, a door was cut from the parlor to the dining The next most stylish room is the hall with front doorway, transom and side lights. Panels are below the side lights. The with two ring moldings and a square base, two per step. The delicate Federal style vase-shaped newel is walnut with a spiral end to the hand rail and a rounded bottom step (photo 5). The stair carriage has decorative, delicate skirt detailing, The hall doorways have symmetric boldly Greek Revival architraves with plain plinth blocks, corner blocks, room.
vertically sawn lumber except for the largest and longest house sills and wall heads, which show broad axe marks. This house retains all of its original doors and most of its original hardware. All doors in the house are the same with 7).Window and door architraves are symmetric, composed of squared outer edges with the flattened cyma reversas hammered and cut tops, hammered thumb pieces (photo 6). Eight rooms with Norfolk latches have wooden swivel three horizontal molded panels above a single panel.Doors have two or three heavy cut hinges without pins.The front The interior of the house retains all 1845 floor plan except for the service rooms in the north and south wings across the four rooms upstairs and down have mineral door knobs, the rest of the house has Norfolk latches with cast handles, paneled baseboards, 10" tall panels with a 7" molding on top.
Windows have wood panels below the window sill (photo Section number Page rooms. This floor plan is unusual in having part of the diningroom in the front block of the house and part of the Both interior and exterior details are large and bold, often symmetric, usually composed of gouged or angle cuts, seldom and piain 10" baseboard with 7" molding on top. (photos 5and7) also composed of narrow boards, but are poplar and were painted or bleached. First story ceilings are 9 feet. Second story floors are narrow, 4"-5" quartersawn boards of a figured, reddish wood, perhaps butternut. Second story floors are United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio The second parlor is on the southeast corner of the house.
It has a wide, plain baseboard with molding, panels below the shelving. The closet door has an historic brass, circular catch to "lock" the closet shut, a feature found on each closet in the house 1845 window and sash. The room has no evidence of a stove hole, although the parlor chimney abuts the east wall of the room. The original use of the room is not known. This room closes with a Norfolk latch with wooden swivel "lock". Opposite the bathroom is a room of comparable size to the 1920s bathroom. It is at the southeast corner of the dining east wall is a stove hole and a closet with double doors. Like the front room closet, this one has shelves with a peg rail with pegs at eye level. Next to the dining room door is a beaded peg rail without pegs. The original use of this room is not known. In the 1910s modernizing of the house, a corner sink was added, but has since been removed.
The dining room has the same door and window architraves and baseboards as the previously described room. The plinths of the doorway architraves are chamfered on the side next to the doorway in this room and all the doorways entering the dining room. All the woodwork in the dining room is finished in oak graining, ca. 1845. The mantle has a The fireplace surround is rough-faced wire cut red brick, a replacement of the original fireplace surround. The hearth is covered with square red tiles. Like most of the chimneys in this house, this room has a stove hole above the mantle. To drawers and three-panel doors below. The cupboard is17" deep with shelving for dining room dishes (photo 6). pit. Apparently, John Miller was a producer of lye and soap or supplied someone who was a producer. On the south room. Above the dining room and kitchen, the chimney has one flue.
is a simple architrave without plinths, corner blocks or overmantle details. The east wall of the kitchen also has the dining room door, a basement door, and back stair door; on the north is the doorway to the woodshed (now garage); on the south are two doorways to the south side porch and a doorway to the pantry and on the west is access to the renovated "laundry porch" (now kitchen). The room has a baseboard and horizontal beaded board wainscotting. This room also is oak grained, a modern addition. The western wings to the north and south retain their original framing and exterior configuration, but have had much interior alteration.
Here the ceiling heights are 9 feet, baseboards are plain boards, doorways and some windows retain The dining room chimney is very deep and double flued to permit access to the ash pit below the fireplaces.A doorway Behind the front parlor, on the northeast corner of the dining room is a ca.1925 bathroom with vertical beaded wainscot, room. This room has an 8" plain base with 5" molding, architrave with plinth blocks at doorways and windows. On the the south of the mantle, on the west wall is a floor to ceiling double door cupboard with three-panel doors above two Section number ach window, symmetric door and window architraves with corner blocks and plain plinths to the architraves. This roor and a shallow closet next to the dining room door.
The closet is 14" deep, with shelves and a peg rail without pegs above coffin shaped over mantle, like the mantle in the parlor, but is simpler with very plain, squared, Greek Revival pilasters. from the passage between the dining room and the kitchen room west of it give access, on a staircase ladder, to the ash side of this large chimney is the winding staircase to the second story which opens into the kitchen and into the dining The kitchen room which is behind the dining room has a chimney with stove hole on the east wall. The fireplace mantle Page always had a stove.
The chimney wall shows no mantle or hearth.It has a doorway to the dining room on the west wall United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio suggesting that the room may have been used for farm product processing before it became the hired man's room. The woodshed, the north wing, was converted to a one-car garage with overhead garage door on the north wall. The second story has a room above each of the first floor rooms of the front house and the ell. The ceiling heights are 8 feet in the front mass of the house. Door and window jambs have corner blocks, doorways have plinth blocks, windows have panels below.
Doors and hardware are the same as on the first floor: three molded panels above a single molded panel for doors, mineral knobs in the front two rooms of the house, Norfolk latches in the rear two rooms and ell, a brass lock on the two closets. Floors are five inch wide poplar boards, likely painted or bleached originally. architraves, panels below the windows. The chimney has a stove hole, but neither mantle nor hearth. The front, southeast bedroom has the door to a closet and a door to the back bedroom on the west wall. Like most rooms in the house, it has no mantle or hearth, but does have a stove hole to the interior chimney. Above the first floor bathroom is bedroom leads to two low, long, hall-like store rooms or bedrooms above the dining room. Each has sloping ceiling, beaded top.
West of the two storeroom/bedrooms is the ell chimney which is flanked by a winding staircase to the first windows. It appears to have not had a stove hole to the chimney. LANDSCAPE FEATURES AND OUTBUILDINGS The house yard of the Miller-Bissell Farmstead is near the crest of a hill (photo 14). The farmstead site has many springs that feed into the creek behind the house. The creek flows from southeast to northwest crossing Route 60 at the southeast corner of the farmstead site and running across the west side of the site. George Bissell is recognized for adding a public, stone watering trough at one of the springs at the south side of the hill.
No remnant of the trough or trough site remains, however, old neighborhood residents think the trough was east of the farmstead, on the adjoining Spring Hill the south of the residence is a gravel loop drive to the ell side door, the original basement entry, the later basement entry front of the property and planted on both east and west sides of the road are two rows of mature silver maple trees that main road but does have a sandstone mounting block near the road for stepping into a carriage or onto a horse.An 1859 Farmstead site (HUR-168-7). A spring-fed pond site (ca. 1960s) is southwest of the creek bed; this pond likely came at floor on the south and a small room on the north. This "chimney room" gives access to the rear room above the kitchen. the time of a new bridge and realigning of Route 60 as it crossed the creek. To the north of the residence is a gravel the creek.
This likely is another early or original farm lane.The yard of the farmhouse does not retain a front walk to the butt-jointed jambs with simple moldings. The south room once had a flue and cooking stove in the southwest corner, Like the storerooms it has sloping ceiling and knee wall with the wall head boxed with a beaded board above knee wall windows in the knee wall and a heavy beam defining the top of the knee wall.Baseboards in these rooms are 12" with drive to the woodshed/garage.This drive may date from the 1960s when the woodshed was converted to a garage.To the north side of the barn, a wagon path leads northwest behind the other outbuildings and house to a bridge-site across beneath the two wings, the ice house and the barn. This likely was a nineteenth century or original access drive.
From behind the kitchen,was renovated tobe the working kitchen in the early1960s.At the same time,the three bay Section number Page illustration of the house shows a front walk and picket fence across the front, east, side of the yard (photo 15). Along the wall between this room and the storage room near the kitchen was moved in the 1960s. The laundry porch, directly The master bedroom has 10" plain baseboard with 6" molding on top, plinths and corner blocks on door and window the second story bathroom. The original use of these rooms is unknown. The bedroom behind the southeast corner United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio line the crest of the hill.
These trees may date from the Colonial Revival renovation of the farmhouse about 1911 when Thomas and Rebecca Hogsett owned the farmsteads on both the east and west sides of the road. The largest and oldest building on the farmstead is a gabled three-bay basement barn south of the residence. The barn timber is hewn while the framing of the residence, where visible in the attic and basement, is all sawn lumber except for the very longest framing sills and eave plates, over 30' long. The barn has a rubble sandstone and boulder foundation with bigger and more dressed stones at the building corners. Much of the foundation is unmortared. The east, centered entry is onto a threshing floor with side bays with stalls on either side of the threshing floor.
The oldest part of the barn north gabled addition was added to the barn by either Miller or Bissell about the same time that a gabled east-west wing was added. These two additions also once had wood shingle roofing and partially hewn brace framing. In the 1910s, a and the east-west gable wing. This addition has a concrete block foundation and circular sawn framing. The 1910s addition was roofed over with a standing seam metal roof that rose above the earlier roofs of the barn. Yet later, a shed addition was added on the north side of the 1910s addition. The whole barn has a story beneath, cut into the hillside with stone walls on the east and parts of the south and north (see floor plan). The barn has four granaries, two in the earliest part of the barn. Beneath the northeast addition is a cistern (ca.
1910s) with a concrete exterior wall and interior original English basement barn is 35'x 27'. The present overall dimensions are 100' cast to west and 70' south to north. On the south side of the barn is the concrete foundation of a silo,10' in diameter. The silo was free-standing with wooden installed in the 1950s and 1960s. These were removed before the farmstead was sold in the 1990s. East of the barn is a small, gabled pump house, 10' x 9', constructed of vertical grooved siding with concrete floor, a side drilled well and dates from the 1910s update of the farmstead.
A water trough once was on the north side of the pump Between the barn and the south rear wing of the house is an ice house, 12' square, constructed by George Bissell in the the building type with exterior two-story board and batten walls, double wall construction with interior southern yellow pine horizontal sheathing (same as basement fruit cellar walls). The building has a gable roof with a standing seam metal roof and a square ventilator at the peak. The foundation is unmortared sandstone. The small north and south windows appear to be original with double glazing. The current door is an overhead garage door with a single, hinged house. chamber that filters the water. A glazed hollow tile generator room (ca. 1910s) is also in the northeast addition.
The late 1860s or 1870s.Bissell was known for selling ice in the 1870s (Foskett).The ice house is an excellent example of Section number Page original three bays of the barn are heavy timber framed with bark remaining on some framing members. This barn likely was constructed before the residence, as the framing and construction detailing of barn and residence are dissimilar. The is two bays deep. The north-south gabled roof once was covered in oak shingles. A few remnant shingles remain. A This may be the one of the largest barns in Huron County (Whitney). walls, dating from the 1910s modernization of farming at the Miller-Bissell Farmstead. East of the silo, Darwin Stocking, owner from 1946-1990s, had three round, galvanized, cone-topped grain storage structures that he had door, south and east fixed sash windows, exposed 2x4s, unpainted, and asphalt shingle roof.
This building covers a west addition was made five bays deep and three bays wide, filling in the space between the north-south part of the barn board-and-batten door at the"second story", above the garage door.The floor originally was dirt. The interior second United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio 7' shed roof, one story addition, added when the building became a garage. double barn door on the east end, and a single, paneled door on the north side.
barn is non-contributing SECTION 8: NARRATIVE STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Miller-Bissell Farmstead in New London Township, Huron, Ohio, is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A as an outstanding example of an important farm of the significant agricultural region of Huron plan for a Western Reserve house. AGRICULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: STOCK RAISING 1845-1910 "for fertility and productivity, very few if any of the town[ships] of the Fire-Lands can surpass it" (Williams, 1879). The Third Section. where the Miller-Bissell Farmstead is located, has largely sandy soil, unlike most of the Western drain to the East Branch of the Vermillion River. The springs of the Third Section produced abundant grass lands, prime grazing for livestock.
Though some parts of the acreage was often swampy, once drained, the land retained its The Miller-Bissell Farmstead is representative of the rich agricultural history of the Firelands. It retains its early south and west of the property, the site of a ca. 1960s farm pond and the land to the west side of the creek that adjoins pastures and farm fields beyond (these are not part of this nomination). From its earliest history as John Miller's farm of residence through the tenancy of the Bissells and Hogsetts to the time of the Stockings, the farm was important to the local economy as a farm best known in the nineteenth century for its stock raising and wool production. floor is a later addition, likely arriving when the building was converted to a garage. The west side of the ice house has a excellent fertility and abundant ability to produce grazing pastures.
In the 1880s, New London Township was equally North of the house is a 1910s 30' x 15' gabled, glazed tile, one story wagon shed with gravel floor. The building has a A 30'x 45' metal pole barn was added farther north of the glazed tile barn near the bank of the creek in the 1970s. This well know for its dairy products (largely butter, not cheese), stock raising, hay and grains (Williams). Henry Howe, in Reserve, which is well known for its heavy clay. This Section has hilly land with many springs that feed creeks that flour, tile, churns & butter boxes, tables, carriages & wagons, and a bank.
The local industries reflected the County, Ohio.It also is eligible under Criterion C, as an example of Greek Revival architecture with an unusual floor Section number Page During both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, New London Township was recognized for good agricultural lands: topography with the hill of the farmstead site with its crest near the Clarksfield Road, the many springs, the creek at the 1888, noted that the Village of New London was served by a train, newspaper, three churches, dairy, manufacturers of United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio sheep (Wentworth). Bissell likely continued working as a drover until the railroad came to Huron County.
By 1850, each of the two farmers was deeply involved in raising sheep, a commodity that was the mainstay of many of the New London Township farmers throughout the nineteenth century. nineteenth century in Ohio. In 1850, 1860 and 1870, Ohio was the largest sheep producing state in the United States, dropping to second in 1880 (Jones). Largely centered in the Upper Ohio River counties that had very hilly landscape, Ohio, became much involved in raising wool (Fisk, 1997). By 1850, Portage, Medina, Summit and Stark Counties were counties. Huron County remained the largest sheep producing county of the twelve Western Reserve counties into the 1910s (Annual Reports). advantage for supplying the early woolen mills of New York and New England.
Once established, the wool and sheep business continued because raising sheep in Ohio was cheaper than it was in New York State, where more shelter was needed for stock. As Cleveland grew in size, in the 1840s and 1850s, the new immigrant population, mostly Irish, preferred mutton to beef, adding a secondary market for Huron County flocks, sheep for slaughter. The greatest boom . to the sheep industry was the Civil War, when wool was needed for uniforms while Southern cotton was unobtainable to War. Several protective tariffs were passed in the 1860s and 1890s to lessen the swings in the commodity prices. Agricultural writers acknowledged that wool prices fluctuated less than corn, wheat, beef or pork prices through the second half of the nineteenth century. "Some manufacturers claimed wool as important for Ohio as cotton was for South Carolina in the nineteenth century" (Hurt, 1981).
By the last decades of the nineteenth century, Ohio farmers began to incorporate greater diversity for their choices of crops, as they recognized that diversity would better overcome the cyclical variation in crop values over a number of years of production (Hurt). Like other Ohio farmers, the New London sheep farmers diversified to raising swine, cattle and sheep as their livestock products. Elizabeth Douglass Miller, he was the grandson of Nathan Douglass of New London, Connecticut. Douglass made claim and was rewarded with land for the burning of his properties in New London, Connecticut, during the American Revolution. To Nathan Douglass, who died in 1785, lands in the Western Reserve "Firelands" were set aside as payment. Deeds which claimed to have acquired the land for Douglass's debts were contested in Huron County Court, appealed all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court.
In 1825, Miller came to Norwalk, Huron County seat, where he sheep raising was most prominent in Belmont, Licking, Harrison and Columbiana Counties (Jones). But, as the soil supply mills.After the war, sheep continued as an important Ohio commodity, but never as strongly as during the Civil Early success with sheep was supported by a tariff passed in the late 1820s which was meant to give American wool The two nineteenth century owners of the farm, John Miller and George Bissell, were recognized for the quality of their stock. Miller left a legacy of introducing Durham cattle into New London Township and Huron County (Timman, raised cattle to Eastern markets in the 1830s and 1840s (Jones, 1983).
Bissell was well known for his early business as quality deteriorated after the initial generation of farming, Western Reserve counties, especially those in the northeast of among the leaders in wool production. In 1870, Huron County had the largest sheep population of the Western Reserve John Miller, first owner and farmer on Lot 13, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1785. Through his mother, a drover, taking "stock"'to New York City (Norwalk Daily Reflector, 1891). These likely were both beef cattle and United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio participated in the law suits.
The conclusion of the case left John Miller, who had consolidated the claim of the Douglass gaining title or with his settling on the "Douglass" land, as his cousins, now three or four generations from the original complainant, Nathan Douglass, continued to seek pieces of land into the 1850s and after John Miller's death. John Miller lived in Norwalk when he first came west to the Firelands. While living there, in 1826, he built an early sawmill on the East Branch of the Vermillion River in Lot 14, about a half mile north of the Miller-Bissell Farmstead record). The farmhouse being nominated to the National Register attests to Miller's mill ownership with its large size and fine quartersawn floor boards cut into 4" to 6" boards throughout the house, work that used much of the sawing time east side of State Route 60, directly opposite the Miller-Bissell Farmstead (HUR-168-7).
The farm buildings and the Lot 13 land on the west side of the main north-south road taxes on fifteen horses and thirty-five cattle, when most farmers had one or two horses and few had more than eight cattle. (Numbers of sheep were not recorded in county tax records.) By the 1850 census, Miller was the owner of the eighth most valued farm of 167 farms listed in the New London prosperous farmers of New London Township. Miller's and neighbor Hosea Townsend's hilly land along the East twice the weight of most of the other local producers. Cleveland was a center for shipping wool from nearby Western Reserve counties (Jones). It was easily reached by the Cleveland, Columbus and Indianapolis Railroad, which passed through New London in 1851 (Williams). Before that, sheep were driven to market by a drover. perhaps responding to the recent arrival of the railroad in New London.
increased weight of Merino fleece production in Huron County followed the introduction of Merino sheep from Vermont in 1849 by D. C. Jefferson. French Merino stock was added to the Spanish Merino stock with the introduction of other Vermont-bred sheep by Owen Jefferson in 1855 and 1856. All the other sheep raising counties of the Western Reserve beeves or heifers, 6 swine and 100 sheep. Wool was Miller's principal cash crop. Sheep raising was popular among the County Commissioner. He settled in New London Township in 1839 (Anson Miller obituary) at the farm house on the Township Agricultural Schedule. On his 150 improved acres (135 unimproved), Miller had 6 horses, 5 milk cows, eight residence on this early farm, now known as Spring Hill Farm, have been greatly altered during the past 100 years.
John that he continued his interest in quality cattle breeding, his Durham stock, as well as an increasing interest in wool, site (Foskett). It was one of the township's most important mills until it was removed by a spring thaw in1854 (1854 tax John Miller was known as a breeder of cattle and, later, sheep (Timman, US Agricultural Census). In 1836, he paid No record survives of the type of sheep raised by Miller or George Bissell, but the counties of the Western Reserve Branch of the Vermillion River was well suited to sheep raising where the many springs grew rich grass for feeding the of Miller's mill.While living in Norwalk, Miller was twice elected Huron County Sheriff.He also served as Huron stock.
Miller's flock produced fleece averaging 7# apiece, about the same value as Hosea Townsend's, but more than Section number Page Miller built the Greek Revival farmhouse, the subject of this nomination, in about 1845 (Huron County tax record) on By the year of his death, 1852, John Miller owned 165 sheep, forty steers, nine calves and thirty-four hogs, suggesting heirs, holding 2944 acres in the Third Section of New London Township. Legal action did not end with John Miller which were the largest producers of wool followed the Ohio taste in breeding Merino stock for largest fleeces. The United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio The Miller farm lands were recognized as rich and well watered.
John Miller was considered among the wealthiest men newspaper, written by a Miller cousin, recalls that when she moved to the farmstead in her forty-second year, she worked as the farm wife for thirteen years (Norwalk Daily Reflector, 1873). The 1850 Census records the Millers with to the Millers and their five children. At the time of his death in 1852, the John Miller estate paid taxes on seven New London Township parcels totaling 940 acres and two parcels of 19 acres in New Haven Township. In 1855, the farmstead and land on Lot 13, Section 3 passed to John Miller's son Anson Miller who sold the family Agricultural Census. the Bissell brothers had a New London Township farm of 150 improved acres where they raised 2000 sheep that produced 8# average fleeces. The Bissell brothers' was the largest flock in New London Township. 1832 (Firelands Pioneer).
In the 1840s, George Bissell was one of the most successful drovers of the Western Reserve region. He recalled that he took large herds of stock (sheep and cattle) from Huron County to New York City (Norwalk 1842 (Williams). By the 1860 census, George Bissell was farming the Miller-Bissell Farmstead. Brother William was not mentioned in the Agricultural Schedule of the census, but he still was partial owner of the land. According to the Agricultural Schedule, Bissell's was the 10" most valued farm in New London Township. The improved acreage had increased from wool continued to be important cash crops with cattle production and horse breeding as other New London Township stock products. Cleveland, with its Lake Erie port, canal and rail access, was a destination for wool, butter and cattle production (Jones). paid his debt to his brother and became sole owner of the farm.
The tax appraised value of the buildings was $350, the price of substantial farm buildings. One of these buildings or one built in the 1870s, survives, the ice house that is now National Register of Historic Places in Ohio. A town history notes that Bissell sold ice that he likely harvested nearby became the farm wife for a business that hired as many as twenty day laborers for whom she provided meals. She (Foskett). .135 acres to 150 acres.More valuable farms had much greater acreage or larger numbers of milk cows, beef cattle or farmstead of 233.75 acres, most of Lot 13, New London Township, to George and William Bissell in 1859. In the 1850 Tax records note that George Bissell added two new farm buildings to the property between 1864 and 1866 when he counties also relied on Merino stock introduced from Vermont herds (Carman, et al, 1892).. used as a garage.
The building is a classic example of mid-century ice house design with double walls, dirt floor and roof in New London Township during his residence there (Foskett). Mrs. John Miller's (Hannah) obituary in the Norwalk an Irish-born hired girl, three adult hired men and a housekeeper with nine-year-old son all living at the farm in addition The Bissells were from Salisbury, Connecticut, coming to Clarksfield Township, Huron County with their parents in Daily Reflector, 1891). He married Sarah Smith, daughter of one of the earliest pioneers of New London Township, in horses. No one had more sheep than Bissell who continued his 1850 flock size with 2000 sheep in 1860. Sheep and In the 1870 Agricultural Schedule, Bissell increased his improved land to 200 acres. He continued to rely on wool, with top ventilator (Noble, 1984).
Ice houses are rare survivors in rural Ohio; none are noted on farmsteads listed on the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio 110 sheep. Sheep provided much of his income; he produced no butter, milk or cheese despite having 21 milk cows. His was the 14" most valued farm in the township. Other more valuable farms had much greater acreage and more By the 1880 Agricultural Schedule, the New London Township farms had diversified to again having beef cattle herds of breeding of sheep with a flock of 1600. He had sold 110 sheep in 1879 while his flock produced twenty-five lambs. The low lamb count suggests Bissell was producing wool, not mutton.
In a newspaper article of 1891, the Bissell farm was described as having more than 110 acres in two parcels, "spacious barns, sheds and granaries." Bissell, the article noted, was well known for his "fine blooded and graded stock which residence and the cistern in the basement of the barn (Norwalk Daily Reflector, 1891). George Bissell continued farming his land until, with declining health, he deeded the farm to his wife, who leased and Tiffany was a "college educated agriculturist who will conduct the farms along scientific, up-to-date methods." Johnson, a young Cleveland lawyer of rising reputation, was the grandson of early New London Township farmer Hosea Townsend who had owned the stylish Greek Revival farmhouse further west of the Miller place, further upstream on the East Branch of the Vermillion River.
In the early 1900s, Johnson leased and bought up a number of New London George Bissell farm to Rebecca Hogsett, wife of Thomas H. Hogsett, in 1911. By the time the Hogsetts acquired their London Township). Little record shows whether Thomas Hogsett continued "scientific" farming after he acquired the Miller-Bissell farmstead. His farm continued to raise and breed sheep, hogs and cattle. The original Miller-Bissell farm lands are still used as farmland purchased the farm directly across the road, now know as Spring Hill Farm (the original residence of John Miller in New then sold the farm to Homer H. Johnson in 1908. Johnson had begun leasing and buying New London farms before 1908. He hired H. O. Tiffany to manage the farms.
Johnson made certain that the New London Record reported that the windmill and the large water tank housed in a separate building, the precursor of the interior basement cistern in the by the Hogsetts.Stockings sold the farmstead buildings which were sold separately from the farm land in the late 1990s. Butter continued to be a commodity with milk and cheese never becoming as important as in other Western Reserve Darwin and Mary Stocking bought the farm from the Hogsetts in 1946. They continued to farm the large acreage owned townships (Jones). decreased need for wool after the Civil War. Fleece prices were depressed in 1870 (Hurt). Numbers of cattle and milk where Johnson also lived. Thomas and Rebecca Hogsett spent weekends and summers at their country farm.They also 50-100 head, having as many as 33 swine, or having 150-550 sheep.
George Bissell's farm was 12"h in value, having improved acres. The largest New London flock was 300 sheep. Likely the number of sheep decreased in response to the April, 1910,buying the first gasoline-powered tractor (20 horsepower) in Huron County. Johnson sold the John Miller- increased in value by only$150in the decade since the previous census.Bissell continued as a strong participant in the Section number Page17 Township farms, raising the acreage price of farmland in the township, according to the New London Record and, in lawyer in railroads, utilities and real estate, lived in Cleveland Heights, a socially prominent Cleveland streetcar suburb cows were also down from the herd size in 1860, again, a response to lower prices after the demands of the war years.
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET Miller-Bissell Farmstead New London Township, Huron County, Ohio ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE architecture with an unusual house plan. The farm house has boldly declared Greek Revival form and detailing on the two story frame building. The stylish embellishment of the house continues from front and sides of the main mass of the building, to the somewhat less bold rear ell to yet more secondary form and moldings of the two rear wings. All these details are worked in simple and often repeated moldings and forms for avery effective statement of Greek Revival. The entire house was constructed at one time and continues with very little addition or alteration. The plan of the house, elsewhere in the Western Reserve.
Both architectural detailing and house plan make this residence a declaration that John Miller was one the most prosperous farmers of New London Township in the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s. New London Township has few examples of Greek Revival architecture; only three Greek Revival farmsteads, including the Miller-Bissell Farmstead. One nearby farm, the Hosea Townsend Farmstead was later enhanced when it was the country home of Cleveland lawyer Homer H. Johnson. It is an example of Greek Revival architecture in New London Township with a more modest 1-1/2 story house with eyebrow windows. The Hosea Townsend residence has had many additions and the farmstead has had many outbuildings moved to the site. Another New London Township residence, that of James O.
Merrifield, 114 South Main Street, at the south edge of the Village of New London, also is bold, stylish Greek Revival with many 1920s Craftsman alterations to the front facade. The Merrifield house appears to be the work and deep soffits as the Miller-Bissell Farmstead. The Merrifield property has lost its farm character and outbuildings. The three farmsteads are among the very few Greek Revival farm houses surviving in the agricultural region of Huron and Western Lorain Counties. The Miller-Bissell Farmstead barn is among the largest barns in the region, constructed with two large additions The Miller-Bissell Farmstead also is home to an excellent, well preserved example of wood frame, mid-nineteenth century ice house. This building is a rare survivor ofa building type found on large farms, estates or farms that sold ice. Allan G.
Noble describes this building exactly as the model example of a mid-nineteenth century ice house in his Wood, Brick and Stone, Volume 2, "Barns and Farm Structures" SECTION 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY Annual Reports of the Ohio Commissioner of Statistics of Ohio. 1868, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910 Columbus, OH: State of Ohio. Craig, J. B Map of Huron County. Philadelphia: J. B. Craig (Whitney).The early part of the barn, dating from before the construction of the farmhouse, is one of the oldest barns of The Miller-Bissell Farmstead residence is locally significant as a well preserved example of Greek Revival domestic with front two-story mass, 1-1/2 story original ell and original rear one story wings, is a rare house type seldom seen of the same designer, or carpenter-builder, as the Miller-Bissell Farmhouse. It has the same pilaster details, bold frieze the region.
The building retains its original plan, interior and exterior materials, windows, upper door, ventilator and roof. Miller-Bissell Farmstead 9.
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