Richland Township is studded with prosperous farms, well drained, incumbered with but little timber, and inhabited by a wide-awake, thriving and contented people.
-Past and Present of Wyandot County, Ohio, Volume 1, 1913
The Baker-Ward-Huffman family has been farming on Section 11 of Richland Township in Northwest Ohio since Rachel and Christopher Baker made a home here in 1822. 18 years later, James Ward rode the first buggy into the township, from Akron, Ohio, and met the Bakers’ daughter, Olive. Olive and James expanded the acreage, built a brick home on the corner, and grew their family by 11. Their son, L.B. Ward, and his family, took over the farm in the 1880s, followed by their son, Truman, and family, then their son, Norman, and family. Now it is under the stewardship of Angela, the sixth generation of the family to inhabit this place. The 80-acre plot of land on Section 11 that remains in the family was purchased by Olive and James in 1868.
Many varieties of crops and livestock have been raised on the family farm over the past two centuries. In the early 1900s, Truman and LaFaun’s family raised cattle, sheep, hogs, chickens, corn, and hunting dogs. Truman died young, and the livestock, equipment, and part of the farm were sold. Their son, Norman, started over in 1945 at 18 years old. In recent decades, the land beyond the homestead has been rented to other local farmers. Today, Angela raises pastured, heritage breed egg laying hens and a flock of registered Katahdin sheep.