Week 38 - Animals - Sheridan

The 1880 Agriculture Census of Gratiot County, Michigan shows a complete listing of animals that were on the original Sheridan farm that was located just south of the town of Fulton. To those that read these missives...Fulton became the town of Perrinton.

My 2x great grandfather Patrick Sheridan and his wife Margaret started the farm and grew it into a thriving homestead. Their son Michael and his wife Elizabeth (my great grandparents) expanded the farm into supplying the Poultry Hall with the excess animals that were produced on those acres. 


The agriculture census reads like a farm diary. It starts with land owned (160 acres), land tilled (80 acres), woodland and forest (80 acres), products grown - Hay, clover, oats, corn, wheat, potatoes (Irish!), orchards with apples and peaches. Vineyards with grapes and harvesting lumber from the wooded areas of their land.

And animals!

Milch cows, beef cattle, hogs, sheep and lambs, chickens and other poultry, and horses.

To put it into perspective - a milch (milk) cow could produce three to five gallons of milk per day. The average weight of a gallon of milk is eight pounds. It took 21 pounds of milk to make one pound of butter. 

And that doesn't account for the fact that it took 2 - 4 hours to churn, wash and salt a pound of butter, after it sat to for a few hours to let the cream rise. And they averaged 400 pounds of butter made in a year from their four cows. The average cost of a pound of butter was $.30.

My head hurts...I was never any good at math! 

Then when you gather the eggs, (350 dozen in 1879) feed the chickens, feed the animals in the barn, shear the sheep, spin the wool - well you get the picture about the animals. 

A lot of work.


1880 Gratiot County, Michigan agriculture census

But I can see why Patrick and Elizabeth began the Poultry Hall. The farm itself produced enough to feed, clothe and support their family of seven children along with family from the previous generation and still have a surplus.

The income from what was produced from those animals averaged $2500.00 a year if the majority was sold. That would be about $80,000.00 in today's market. 

Proof that we come from hard working, resourceful ancestors.

Barbie









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