Cheesedom
- Date Range
- 1840 – 1850
- Title
- Cheesedom
- What occurred
- As environmental resources began to deplete, a new market was required to sustain the settlers of Ohio. Fortunately, major scale industrialization was taking place in more Eastern regions like Massachusetts and New York. The previous dairy farms that provided economic prosperity were now seen as a waste compared to the potential gains from industrialization. Similar to people, the market for cheese production began to leave to East. The fertile soil, flat plains and location in respect to transportation routes ultimately sparked the rise of cheese production in Geauga County. Geauga County had access to the Erie Canal (Great Lakes) , Cuyahoga River and the Ohio River which allowed for large scale exporting. The flat plains of Geauga County were seen as industrially useless which made it the perfect location for farms. The first dairy farmers in this area became incredibly rich which drove a mass of people to build their own farms. Cheese leaving Ohio on the Erie Canal achieved numbers of 9,000,000 pounds from Ohio alone. Taking the throne for the highest rate of cheese production in the United States, Geauga County fell into a region nicknamed "Cheesedom." This rapid increase in cheese production led to significant watershed reduction from the run off of chemicals and sewage.
- Location
- Middlefield Original Cheese Co-Op, 16942 Kinsman Rd, Middlefield, OH 44062
- Image Citation
- Jones, Robert. “Ohio History Journal.” OHJ Archive, https://resources.ohiohistory.org/ohj/browse/displaypages.php?display%5B%5D=69. - “History of Cheese.” National Historic Cheesemaking Center Museum and Green County Welcome Center, 19 June 2020, https://nationalhistoriccheesemakingcenter.org/history-of-cheese/. - Durand, Loyal. The Migration of Cheese Manufacturing in the United States. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00045605209352145.
- Student name(s)
- Jackson Selent
Part of Cheesedom