Claudia Stevenson’s farm sits tucked away on a remote country road, marked by a classic red barn adorned with an Ohio State Star quilt block, hand-painted by Claudia herself.
The barn is set against a backdrop of rolling hills covered in a blanket of young corn reaching up toward a light blue sky. It sits next to an old garage filled with memories and pieces of family history, including tractors, old signs for family get-togethers, and plenty of cobwebs in the corners.
Claudia married Earl Stevenson in 1971, soon after she graduated from high school, and moved onto the family farm in 1972. They spent a stint in Hawaii while Earl served in the Air Force.
“Throughout the house, I have little things just to remember our time there,” she said about Hawaii with a twinkle in her eye. “Our favorite was the lilikoi – passion fruit. And I was over the moon when I found lilikoi in bulk online.”
| Read Part 1: Ohio’s Historic Family Farms program preserves state’s agricultural heritage and history of its top industry
| Read Part 2: Licking County’s Historic Family Farms, Part 2: The Original Hatfield Homestead, circa 1831
| Read Part 3: Licking County’s Historic Family Farms, Part 3: The Stevenson “Crack of Dawn Farm,” circa 1890
| Read Part 4: Licking County’s Historic Family Farms, Part 4: The Shaw Farm, circa 1883
| Read Part 5: Licking County’s Historic Family Farms, Part 5: Legend Hills Orchard/The Hoar Farm, circa 1904
| Read Part 6: Licking County’s Historic Family Farms, Part 6: Dry Creek Valley Farm, circa 1906
Chances are good that you won’t leave the Stevenson farm without a jar of the lilikoi or dandelion jam that Claudia loves to make.
After returning to Ohio, Earl and Claudia planted themselves on “Crack of Dawn Farm,” on Hunt Road, where Earl’s family first put down roots in 1890. The farm earned the name “Crack of Dawn” after Earl and Claudia became the owners.
“We are both early risers, and we can see the start of the day, everyday. And my favorite part is, it never looks the same, each day our vantage point brings us a new sunrise.” Claudia said.
Claudia had worked at Watts Restaurant in nearby Utica, making 90 cents an hour with tips, to save up for her wedding – a wedding she thought would never happen.
“When you are young, you plan out your life and dream of your husband. Before I met Earl, I said I would never marry a farmer, and certainly not a redhead.”
Later, she worked in an orthopedic surgeon’s office in Newark, keeping the books and answering phones, while her red-headed husband cared for the farm and worked at Holophane in Newark for 45 years. Like today, it was challenging to raise a family exclusively on a farmer’s salary.
“When I was going through all of our pictures to make scrapbooks for the kids, I found a lot of the old documents of when they bought this land, and documents of the area,” Claudia said.
He uncovered a trove of old deeds and papers that had been tucked away for years. Those documents helped her secure the farm’s official designation as an Ohio Historic Family Farm. While she was sharing her family legacy with her four grandchildren, she found another way to honor the stories of those who came before and preserve them for the next generation.
Claudia had never been close to her relatives, so when she married Earl Stevenson, she found what she had been missing. She embraced the traditions and dreamed of the day she could be a grandmother. “I have always wanted to be the best grandmother, and stay close to my family, and we built that here.”
She grew up in Martinsburg on four acres, and her family always had a few calves, hogs, chickens, and gardens.
“We didn’t have a lot of money, but we always had butter,” Claudia said with a laugh, but added that from a young age, she learned how to live on a farm and how to rely on her own family for food.
She looked forward to retirement with Earl and to spending time with her two sons and her four grandchildren. But things changed in an instant two years ago.
Claudia reminisced about Earl and his love for the farm, and then tears filled her eyes.
“Actually, the day he passed, he was outside working all day like any other.”
He had baled hay and came into the house to rest. He asked Claudia to help him to his chair because he wasn’t feeling well. Claudia rushed to help.
She lost the one who brought her to a welcoming family. And now, part of her mission in life is to tell their family story.
“It is hard without him,” she said. “He was the love of my life, and we cared for each other for a long time.”
Claudia still lives at the farm, and her sons come by often to help out and so she can see her grandchildren. “This place means so much to me, and even more to Earl,” she said.
Claudia found her home on the farm and is forever a part of the legacy the farm represents. To her, “family is everything.” And this farm serves as a living archive of the family’s history and memories.
Claudia remembers days when the well serving the house ran dry while she was in the midst of doing laundry. Earl ran a hose from the neighbor’s house to the top of their driveway so that she would have water.
“Little things like that, I will never forget and keep telling my grandchildren,” she said.
And today, the barn serves as a base camp for Claudia’s son and his friends during deer-hunting season.
“I don’t know why they want to stay up here,” she said with a laugh while surveying the former hay mow, “but whatever gets them coming back.”
“I loved raising my sons here,” she said. “I always considered myself a farm girl, so to see my boys learning how to farm, or to have them put the biggest hail I have ever seen in the freezer to show grandpa, I am always proud.”
The land here in northeastern Licking County has served eight generations of the same family. “John Hunt bought the land in the 1880s, and he lived with just five kids,” after his wife died, Claudia said.
And now, the house where Claudia lives has been in the family for 140 years, with additions and updates by each generation – electricity, indoor plumbing, air-conditioning and the enclosed breezeway Claudia and Earl built to connect the house to the garage so they could avoid the winter winds.
And there are so many memories of family gatherings around the large dining room table – custom-made from lumber from the farm. The house is filled with furniture and mementos from generations past – quilts draped over armchairs, framed pictures of the family, and fridge magnets from Hawaii holding photos of high-school friends.
Claudia hopes her two sons will one day take over the Crack of Dawn Farm and continue the Stevenson family’s presence on the land. For now, Claudia enjoys working in the yard and hosting her friends from high school for dinners. She relaxes on her patio to the sounds of two mocking birds, Mock and Molly, and serves as the biggest fan for her grandsons’ baseball games.
Delaney Brown writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here. Brown reported this series as part of the Lisska Summer Scholars Program at Denison University, funded in part by the Robert F. & Marion E. Ball Family.