The Village of McGuffey was named for John McGuffey, who in the 1860s first attempted to drain the Scioto Marsh. A larger and more effective drainage effort by others who entered Hardin County in the 1880s continued for several decades until thousands of acres were put into production, principally onions, for which the marsh became nationally known. During the era of highest onion production, most townspeople were involved in planting, weeding, and harvesting, and fields were bordered by windrows of willow trees to reduce wind damage over the black, silt-like muck that had originally been ten or more feet deep throughout the marsh. Successful treatment against wind erosion and oxidation reduced the muck to only a few inches. McGuffey was once the center of the national onion trade, and from the turn of the 20th century to just after World War II, the rich organic soil of the immense original Scioto Marsh wetland also produced potatoes, celery, asparagus, hemp, and mint. In the height of onion harvests, thousands of crates were stored during winter in large specially constructed storages. During the summer of 1934, the American Federation of Labor issued its first chapter, No. 19724, for an agricultural workers' union when seasonal onion workers, many from southeast Kentucky, struck the larger onion growers for increased wages and more work days. In the violence that followed, union president Okey Odell was badly beaten and many workers were escorted out of the state. The conflict was nationally significant as one of the nation's first strikes involving a union of agricultural workers.