What once was the home of the Cuyahoga Valley’s first dairyman, Allen Welton (1809-1878) and his family left New York and moved to Ohio in 1837, eventually settling on 125 acres in Peninsula in 1841. Allen cleared and cultivated the land and increased his property to 284 acres on the northern and southern sides of Major Road. He became a prominent dairy farmer, at one time owning 40 cows. Through hard work and ingenuity, Allen built a successful cheese factory on his property, the first in Summit County, and later operated a second factory in Bath. Records from the 1850 agriculture census indicate that Allen's farm produced 500 pounds of butter and 600 pounds of cheese that year. He also raised other livestock such as horses, swine, sheep, oxen, and beef cattle. Now this darling home is part of a berry farm still operating in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
I was driving past this house looking for a nearby lake and train station and saw this glowing Autumnal scene.