Farming was central to this region’s economy from the time of the first European settlers in the late 1700s, when settlers cleared land to live on and farm, and corn was their most important crop. They grew corn in much the same way Native Americans had for centuries. Most corn was sold to distilleries established throughout Ohio by the early 1800s. As the population grew, the amount of corn raised also grew, and by 1850 Ohio led the nation in corn production. Franklin County was among the state’s top corn-producing regions for many decades, and the family farms around the mercantile village of Dublin contributed to that productivity. As recently as 1965, Frantz Rings, Sawmill, Case, Brand, Tuttle, Avery, and Post roads were all flanked by cornfields, and in the 1990s Ohio still ranked as one of the nation’s largest producers of corn.
