Irwin's Place in US Agriculture

Soybeans and Their Irwin, Ohio Roots

I am making good on my promise to revisit Irwin.  Chances are, it is not any larger of a village than when I first wrote of it in November of 2011.  If you think
Irwin is not an important village
, then you are wrong  Irwin holds an important place in the history and development of the modern-day soybean.  And, according to Iowa State University, soybeans are found in many products. From diesel fuel to soy oils, soy milk, to synthetic materials and every where in between, the soybean is a very important crop in the United States.

What if I told you that this was not always the case.  What if I told you that once upon a time, soy beans were grown primarily as a hay.  But, there was a farmer on the outskirts of Irwin who thought that the soybean might be used for more than just hay.  In 1909, Glen G. McIlroy planted a small field with soybeans.  His intent was to use the beans as a hay for his livestock.  But, he decided to separate the beans from their stalks.  He used the stalks for for bedding.  This was done in spite of the skepticism of other Union County, Ohio farmers.

Elmwood Place Farm House

At about this same time, practical uses for soybeans were being discovered.  George Washington Carver found soybeans to be an excellent source of protein.  Henry Ford began to experiment with soy oils for use in plastics.  And, so Irwin farmer McIlroy simply needed to show his Union County neighbors how successful the crop could be.  By 1926, the combine was introduced to Ohio farmers, making it much easier to harvest soybeans.  By 1938 so many farmers near Irwin were growing soybeans that over 450000 bushels were harvested.  It was recorded that around 3 million bushels of soybeans were grown in a 50 mile radius of Irwin.  This just goes to show that a very innovative and persistent man from a tiny village in Ohio was able to effectively help make soybeans the top crop grown in the entire state of Ohio.  What an accomplishment!  Glen G. McIlroy was posthumously inducted into the Ohio Agriculture Hall of Fame in 1969.

Tomorrow I will write more about Glen McIlroy's Irwin farm, Elmwood Place.  Thanks for stopping by today!