INTRODUCTION
The following is an excerpt from the E. R. Kuck Biography of his great-grandfather, the Reverend F. H. W. Kuckherman, telling of the building of the first tile mill, which was located on Kuckherman’s farm, Brookside Acres.
Early Agricultural Development
Led by Rev. F. H. W. Kuckherman
By the year 1860, his son Ernst had reached the age of 15 years, which also meant that he had reached work age. He needed to be taught how to farm in the most scientific manner, and Rev. Kuckherman would be the teacher. Through Ernst he would prove all the most modern practices of farming that his extensive reading had impressed upon him. So they started out together to clear the land, but in this effort they were to be quickly assisted by friends and neighbors who insisted on helping them in lieu of the various and sundry favors Rev. Kuckherman had extended to them over the years.
By thus coming intimately in contact with the conditions of his own land, he was to quickly realize that the major problem on his farm, as well as on the other farms of the community, was the wet and swampy conditions that plagued a large part of the land. The land needed to be drained. But how could this be accomplished? This problem was to become his principal concern – not only for his own farm but for the others a good solution of this problem would be a boon.
Consequently, Rev. Kuckherman began his research on this problem with all the energy and craft he possessed. Because of his incessant reading, he found that a company in Pennsylvania had patented a machine for the molding of wet clay into cylindrical tubes with a reinforced flat bottom and which, when fired in a hot kiln, would produce a ceramic hollow tile that could be used for sub-surface irrigation. This was in 1862 and it immediately fired Rev. Kuckherman’s interest and imagination. He corresponded with the company for complete information about its operation, the cost of the machinery, its installation and, particularly, as to how to build and operate the kiln.
Of further interest to him was the introduction of a special bill in the National Congress, called the Public Money Drainage Acts, which would provide for the advancement of funds to land owners to enable them to make improvement of their lands not only by drainage, but by irrigation, the making of permanent roads, clearing, erecting buildings, etc. This bill was passed in 1866 under the title of Land Improvement Act. Under this act farmers could borrow money from the government to cover their costs of irrigation and have it charged against their property values. The repayment of such loans was by equal installments payable semi-annually with 3% interest, extending over a period of ten years.
Here then was the answer and he proceeded immediately to acquire the necessary equipment and machinery to build the buildings and the kiln for making tile – for how else could the people in the community benefit from this act if they did not have the tile available to them? The G. H. Kattman version of this early venture, crediting the building and operation of this first tile mill to Herman H. Meckstroth, is in error. All of the records concerning invoices for machinery and the building of the mill structure and kiln, which records are still at hand, are in the name of E. W. Kuck and Company. This E. W. Kuck was Ernst, the son of Rev. Kuckherman whose personal identity is carefully disguised under the term “Company”.
However, during the year 1870 a partnership was established with Herman H. Meckstroth. Under the date of December 9,1870, we find the first evidence of this partnership from an invoice ordering a replacement of a “mud wing” for the machinery. This invoice for $2.08 is made out in the name “Kuck and Meckstroth” and further carries the guarantee: “We will build this mud wing thicker, so that it will crush any stone you may get in it or stop the horses”.
Building the Tile Mill
The building of this tile mill was started late in 1866 and finished in late 1868 on Rev. Kuckherman’s land. It was built over the carefully engineered plans prepared by Rev. Kuckherman himself, who also supervised every phase of its construction, particularly the building and construction of the kiln. The tile making part of the mill itself commanded a building 40 feet by 60 feet. To the north side of this building was another roofed but unsided shed that accommodated the treadmill for a team of horses that provided the “horsepower” for this operation.
On the south side of this structure was the curing and storage shed, which was 120 feet in length and 48 feet in width. Including the tread mill shed and the brick constructed kiln 30 feet to the south of the curing shed, the overall size of the total structures would average more than 200 feet by 48 feet in dimension. It may be safely conjectured that in its day it was the largest manufacturing establishment in all of Auglaize County and, furthermore, it is almost certain that this tile mill was the very first tile mill built in Ohio and the entire Northwest Territory. Because of the Land Improvement Act, tile companies sprang into existence all over Ohio in vey short order, but it is doubted that any got into operation before the one in New Knoxville.
A careful review of this enterprise indicates that from 1866 to 1870 this enterprise was operated under the name of E. W. Kuck and Company. All the financing for this enterprise was supplied by Rev. Kuckherman himself, and by loans made to E. W. Kuck upon Rev. Kuckherman’s personal guarantee. Because the demand for the tile was from the first greater than their ability to supply them, the enterprise was immediately successful and all obligations were fully paid off by 1870. In 1870 Herman H. Meckstroth purchased Reverend Kuckherman’s interest in the enterprise and assumed the managerial duties of the new partnership under the name Kuck and Meckstroth.
By the year 1875 another change was to be made in this enterprise. At this point William Kuck, Jr., the youngest son Rev. Kuckherman, had grown to manhood and was ready to assume his responsibilities. By this time the oldest son, Ernst, had tired of the eternal job of firing the kiln and had personal aspirations to own his own farm. Through family consultation, therefore, it was contrived that Ernst would sell his interest in the tile making business and purchase a farm which was being offered for sale in Shelby County, Ohio. Consequently, on February 28, 1875 E. W. Kuck purchased from the estate of John Bates the farm comprising 100 acres for a consideration of $2,150.00. This is the same farm now owned and operated by Lewis Kipp.
Thus in 1875 Herman H. Meckstroth became the sole owner of the tile making enterprise. E. W. Kuck moved to his own farm in Shelby County and William Jr., Youngest son of Rev. Kuckherman, became the tenant of Kuckherman’s own farm and continued to tenant the farm until 1890 when Rev. Kuckherman himself would move on the farm, after resigning his pastorate.
The foregoing treatise has been given in intricate detail in order to properly portray the tremendous mental and organizational ability of Rev. Kuckherman and to observe other facets of his very active and many-sided life. Of first consideration was his extreme modesty. In this, as in all other activities throughout his long life, he carefully disguised his identity in the enterprise, although he had directed it from start to finish. Of second importance was his concern with the immediate problems that affected the welfare of his members concerning their farming problems, how he adapted himself to their problems and how he made an effort to help them. While his efforts in solving the irrigation problem of their lands was possibly his most important contribution, he provided many more innovations for the benefit of his members.
Following his religious concept that man cannot live by bread alone, he also felt that the body cannot exist without the bread. So he adopted the idea of a dual ministry – his ministry to God and his ministry to agriculture. His members needed both services. So while he performed his pastoral duties through the church, he became more and more the community’s specialist in agricultural affairs, for which he masterfully qualified himself by virtue of his avid and extensive reading.
In the role as the community’s agricultural specialist, he introduced the idea of crop rotation. On his own farm he introduced and experimented with many new varieties of wheat, barley, oats, corn, potatoes, etc. In 1876 he introduced the first Dodge. No, not the automobile but the Dodge Reaper, just then coming on the market. In turn he introduced the sulky plow, the mower, the corn planter and the McCormick binder.
NOTE: It is believed that the tile mill was located approximately at what is now 09588 and 09532 Botkins Road.
NOTE: Herman H. Meckstroth, Kuck’s tile mill partner lived at the residence that is now 09585 Botkins Angle Road. The low spot in the field between the lane at 09683 (New Knoxville Gun Club) and 09585 is where the soil for the manufacture of the clay tiles was taken.