XV FARMERS AND HERDSMEN
Reading edition
Little need be said about farmers; there are hundreds of them in all parts of the country, especially in the Western States; still these may not be considered of a conspicuous or leading character—albeit, they are contributing largely to the wants of community, and wealth of the country at large. Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, all, are largely represented by the farming interests of colored men. We shall name but a sufficient number to show the character of their enterprise in this department of American industry.
Rev. William Watson, of Cincinnati, Ohio, is the owner of a fine farm in Mercer county, and six hundred acres of additional land.
Mr. Richard Phillips, of the same city, is owner of a fine farm in the same county, and three hundred and fifty additional acres of land.
Rev. Reuben P. Graham, of Cincinnati, owns a finely cultivated farm in Mercer county, three hundred acres of adjoining land; and one near Cincinnati.
Mr. John Woodson, of Jackson county, is one of the most successful farmers in the State of Ohio. Having a large tract of land, he has one of the best cultivated farms in the West, in a most productive state, raising grains, fruits, and livestock. In the year 1842, his farm produced that season, three thousand bushels of wheat, several hundred bushels of rye, eleven hundred bushels of oats, large crops of corn, potatoes, and other vegetables; large quantities of fruits, three hundred stacks of hay, with a large stock of several hundred heads of cattle on the place. Mr. Woodson has for many years, been a highly respectable man in his neighborhood, and continues his farming interests with unabated success.
Dr. Charles Henry Langston, of Columbus, Ohio, is also the proprietor of a very fine farm of eleven hundred acres, in Jackson county, upon which he has a white tenant. This gentleman is a surgeon-dentist by profession, educated at Oberlin College, making his home in Columbus.
Robert Purvis, Esq., a gentleman of collegiate education, is proprietor of one of the best improved farms in Philadelphia county, fifteen miles from Philadelphia. His cattle consist of the finest English breed.
Joseph Purvis, Esq., of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, a gentleman also of education and wealth, is an amateur stock farmer. Every animal on Mr. Purvis' farm is of the very best breed—Godolphin horses, Durham cattle, Leicestershire sheep, Berkshire swine, even English bull-terrier dogs, and whatever else pertains to the blooded breeds of brutes, may be found on the farm of Joseph Purvis. Mr. Purvis supplies a great many farmers with choice breeds of cattle, and it is said that he spends ten thousand dollars annually, in the improvement of his stocks.
Robert Briges Forten, also of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, is an amateur farmer. Mr. Forten is a gentleman of fine education, a pure, chaste poet, and attends to farming for the love of nature. He is a valuable member of the farming enterprise in the country.
If such evidence of industry and interest, as has been exhibited in the various chapters on the different pursuits and engagements of colored Americans, do not entitle them to equal rights and privileges in our common country, then indeed, is there nothing to justify the claims of any portion of the American people to the common inheritance of Liberty.
We proceed to another view of our condition in the United States.