Family has owned farm for 200 years

"Family tradition" isn't an empty phrase at the Burnham family farm near Berlin Heights.Joe Burnham III, 76, is a direct descendant of the farm's founder, O.C. Tillinghast. The general manager of the farm is his son, Joe Burnham IV. The farm, in the 8000 block of Ohio 113 in the Berlin Heights area, about seven miles east of Milan, started out as a 160-acre farm in 1815 and now has about 1,300 acres.The Ohio Department of Agriculture recognized the farm as an Ohio Bicentennial Farm, a property in the hands of the same family for 200 years, in a ceremony Tuesday night at the Erie County Fair.In fact, the top guy in the department showed up. David T. Daniels is the director of the department and a member of Gov. John Kasich's cabinet."I try to make every Bicentennial presentation that I can," he said. "Name another business that's been in business for 200 years."William Tillinghast of Connecticut suffered losses during the American Revolutionary War when his property was burned by the British. Like many other property owners in that state, he was compensated by being given land in the "Firelands" area of what was then the Western Reserve in northern Ohio.Tillinghast acquired the 160-acre property in 1815 and in 1826 gave the property to his son, O. C. Tillinghast, who rode out to it in 1826, a four-week journey on horseback. O.C. Tillinghast began clearing the land for a farm and built a log cabin. In 1834, he built a New England style home where Joe Burnham III's family now lives. O.C. Tilllinghast was an abolitionist, and his house sheltered runaway slaves as a stop on the "Underground Railroad."The farm remained in the Tillinghast family's hands. Joe Burnham III's grandmother, Eliza Tillinghast, married Joseph Burnham III. Her father, O.C. Tillinghast Jr., gave the couple the farm. Their son, Oliver Burnham, Joe III's father, eventually took over, and planted the first commercial orchard of apples and peaches on the property.Apples remain a big crop on the Burnham farm, which also grows peaches, pumpkins, blackberries and cherries. There's also about 700 acres of cropland, divided between corn and soybeans.The farm is known for its fall festival, which returns Sept. 26 and 27 with an antique tractor display, a chicken barbecue and other events."We're going to kick it off with an extra celebration of 200 years," Joe Burnham III said.And that 1834 home? Joe Burnham III and his wife, Martha, live there, although the original stone horse block in front doesn't get much use these days. "When we got married in 1964, we remodeled it," he said.The house needed work before Burnham and his wife, the former Martha Knapp, who had grown up on a Castalia farm, could move in. The historic house, which had been vacant for about 10 years, did not have running water or a furnace."It had some electrical we had to redo," Burnham said. The house came with four fireplaces, two upstairs and two downstairs. Two can still be used. The house has a horse block in front to make it easier for people to get inside horse drawn buggies."You drove the buggy up next to it," Burhham explained.Erie County's recorder, Barb Sessler, showed up for the ceremony at the fair and explained that county recorders have been trying to promote the Ohio Century Farm Program (farms 100 years old) as well as the Ohio Bicentennial Farm Program (farms 200 years old). Recorders help the process by tracing the documents that show how long a farm has been in the family, Sessler said. Historic Erie County FarmsFarm Date EstablishedRobert and Alice E. Bertsch 1865Bert and Jane A. Dwelle 1877John and Kay L. Hartman (Meadow Brook Farm) 1903George Nuhm (Nuhn Farms LLC) 1904Tadd and Coral Smith 1865Harlow and Carol Stahl 1895Timothy and Mary Ann Tillinghast 1833Estelle Truscott (Starr Truscott Trust) 1817Amy Hunter & Terri Lowry 1830Burnham Farms LLC 1815Duane Knittle (Knittle Family Trust) 1873Historic Ottawa County FarmsFarm Date EstablishedLucille Bartell (Bartell Trust) 1874Sandra Blausey (Blausey Farms) 1892Sandra Blausey (Sandra Blausey Trustee) 1864Sandra Blausey (Sandra Blausey Trustee) 1904Dorothy Gackstetter 1902Melvin and Diane M. Giesler 1913Myron Leiser 1873Richard and Sandra J. Lenke 1864Brenten Mackey 1867Richard Martin (Link Family Farm) 1871Robert and Margaret A. Meng 1912James and Elaine C. Milbrodt (Beck Farm) 1864James and Elaine C. Milbrodt (Just-A-Mere) 1909Dennis and Patricia A. Peters 1886John and Helen J. Rofkar 1889David and Barbara J. Sander 1887Dora Schiller (Schiller Trust) 1897Susan and Leslie E. Stoibor 1825Richard and Susan L. Taylor 1871Robert and Annette Textor 1883Brandon Macklenar (Taylor Family) 1871Annette Wicks (Behm Living Trust) 1863Rymers Family 1824Whiteman Family 1887(Source: Ohio Department of Agriculture list of Bicentennial and Century farms in Erie County.)Register photo/LUKE WARK Burnham Orchards on Ohio 113 in Berlin Heights is celebrating its bicentennial celebration this year. The third-generation of the family-owned business continues the tradition of fruit and produce growing. Register photo/LUKE WARK Joe Burnham IV, checks on a crop of apples to see if they're ready to harvest on Tuesday afternoon on one of the orchards owned by Burnham Orchards. Burnham is celebrating its bicentennial this year. Register photo/LUKE WARK In addition to apples, which Burnham Orchards in Berlin Heights is known for, also grows a variety of fruits and produce. Register photo/LUKE WARK The original 1834 New England-style farmhouse still sits on location at Burnham Orchards in Berlin Heights. Register photo/LUKE WARK Worker Apolinar Frias picks plums on one of the orchards owned by Burnham Orchards in Berlin Heights on Tuesday. The orchard, which is celebrating its 200th-year anniversary this summer, grows a variety of fruits and produce. Register photo/LUKE WARK An old horse block still sits outside the 1834 farmhouse on the Burnham Orchards land on Ohio 113 in Berlin Heights. The block was originally used to help people step on and off horse-drawn buggies.