Inventory of the Allen Welton Oak Hill Cheese Factory Collection, 1862-1876

Biography of Allen Welton

Allen Welton was born in New York in 1809 and moved to Ohio with his family in 1837, eventually settling in Peninsula in 1841. Originally 125 acres, Welton cleared and cultivated the land and increased his property to 284 acres on the northern and southern sides of Major Road just north of Oak Hill Road. Welton built the first house (a log cabin) on the property around 1840 and the second in 1857. In addition to the house, the property consisted of a barn and other structures associated with farm life, and later a cheese factory. By the end of the 19th century, the dominant agricultural products in the Cuyahoga Valley shifted from corn and wheat to dairy, and Welton followed this trend.

Through hard work and ingenuity, Welton became a prominent dairy farmer by building a successful cheese factory on his property, known as the Oak Hill Factory, the first in Summit County and one of the largest cheese producers in the area in the nineteenth century. Welton later opened and operated the county's second cheese factory at Hammond's Corners in Bath Township at the corner of Ira and Cleveland Massillon roads.

Records from the 1850 agriculture census indicate that Welton's farm produced roughly 500 pounds of butter and 600 pounds of cheese, but this was just the beginning. As early as the 1860s, the Oak Hill Factory was successfully producing over 70,000 pounds of cheese per year. By the 1870s, Welton's operation was in full production. Historical records indicate that Welton cheese was sold through produce commission merchants in Cleveland, New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia. His cheese also was exported to England and to Glasgow, Scotland.

Welton kept up with the latest technology, such as using Annatto to color his cheese. To overcome the summer heat, cheese factories in the Cuyahoga Valley developed new ways to refrigerate their milk and cheese during the nineteenth century. Welton's Oak Hill Factory passed water through boxes of ice that passed under and around the milk thereby cooling it.

In addition to cheese production, Welton at one time owned 40 cows and also raised other livestock such as horses, swine, sheep, oxen, and beef cattle. Through his factories he amassed considerable wealth and fame and helped the Western Reserve earn the nickname "Cheesedom" as he shipped his cheese throughout the Midwest and east coast of the United States and to the United Kingdom. Other cheese factories that once operated in the Cuyahoga Valley during Welton's time include the Coonrad Factory, opened by Jonas Coonrad (1836-1919) in 1871; Andrew Cassidy's chain of factories, the largest operator in the Peninsula area; and the Tilden Cheese Factory, also known as the Boston Cheese Factory or East Hill Cheese Factory.

Although the dairy business prospered for many years, the Weltons faced many of the hardships associated with nineteenth century life. During the Civil War, Welton spent an entire summer searching and later caring for his son, John, who was dangerously ill in an army camp. While he was away, his wife attended to all the farm and cheese factory work on her own.

Welton committed suicide in 1878 at the age of 69. After his tragic death, his son Frank took over both cheese plants. The Welton Farm eventually passed to Allen's daughter Cora, and her husband Walter Hunt. After Walter's death, Cora and her son Elwin continued to live on and work the land until they died tragically in 1948.

Summit County was indeed a huge producer of cheese in the second half of the nineteenth century. Historical records show that in one year alone (1887), Summit County produced 1,011,957 pounds of cheese and 657,527 pounds of butter. Although these businesses were very lucrative during the nineteenth century, cheese factories and creameries began to disappear after the first few decades of the 20th century when new forms of transportation forced valley factories to compete with larger markets in Cleveland and Akron. As a consequence, local cheese producers all but vanished from the landscape.

Although no longer a dairy farm, the Welton Farm has once again seen growth and harvest. In the early 2000s, the National Park Service, through its Countryside Initiative program, rehabilitated the property, which is now part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Farmer Daniel Greenfield and his wife now live in the house and manage a pick-your-own berry operation and a Community Supported Agriculture program on the property. Known as the Greenfield Berry Farm, its other products include honey, hickory syrup, berry jellies, vegetables, and cut sunflowers.

1 Information for this historical sketch was taken from "Welton Farm," National Park Service website, accessed on January 11, 2014, http://www.nps.gov/cuva/historyculture/welton-farm.htm.

Scope and Content

The Allen Welton Oak Hill Cheese Factory Collection pertains to the Oak Hill Cheese Factory located in Peninsula in Summit County, Ohio. It contains correspondence, postcards, circulars, receipts and market reports.

The largest portion of the collection consists of approximately 300 pieces of correspondence written to Allen Welton. The earlier correspondence (1862-1867) is personal and refers to the Civil War and the period immediately following. Most of the remaining correspondence (1870-1875) refers to the cheese factory business with some correspondence from Mr. Welton's children as well as some miscellaneous, undated correspondence.

The postcard materials (1873-1875), also written to Mr. Welton, contain an approximately equal numbers of both pre-printed postcards advertising various dairy products and handwritten postcards of either a personal or business nature. The circulars consist of printed materials representing various companies, their products and prices, as well as cheese quality and shipment rates.

The receipts section (1870-1876), which also contains bills, relates largely to the business of buying and selling dairy products. This includes advertisements for dairy products in addition to machinery, insurance, and furnishings. Also included are a court summons and a few personal items of Mr. Welton's. The market reports (1863-1875) are representative of market conditions in marketing centers like Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Cleveland as well as local areas. Also included here is an 1863 "Thanksgiving Sermon," a Summit County Beacon Extra, written by W.W. Whitcomb.

The collection provides information regarding market conditions and prices for dairy products in the 1860s and 1870s. However, it by no means represents a complete account of the Oak Hill Cheese Factory's existence. It also is important to note that some of the handwritten materials are somewhat illegible. In addition, overall the collection represents small fragments of information specific to the operation of the factory.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

Copyright restrictions may apply. Permission to reproduce or publish materials in this collection must be secured in writing from Archival Services, University Libraries, The University of Akron.

Restrictions on Access

No restrictions on access; except not available through interlibrary loan. Copyright restrictions may apply. Permission to reproduce or publish materials in this collection must be secured in writing from Archival Services, University Libraries, The University of Akron.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

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Preferred Citation

[Identification of Item], Allen Welton Oak Hill Cheese Factory Collection, Archival Services, University Libraries, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio

Processing Information

Archives staff; re-housed and finding aid updated by student assistant Chelsi King, 2013; historical background written by Victor Fleischer, 2013

Detailed Description of The Collection