# Michaels Farm

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The **Michaels Farm** is a historic [homestead](/source/Homestead_(buildings)) in the northwestern part of the [U.S. state](/source/U.S._state) of [Ohio](/source/Ohio). Composed of simple [vernacular](/source/Vernacular_architecture) structures and buildings with clear [architectural stylistic](/source/Architectural_style) influences, the farm has been home to members of the same families for nearly two hundred years, and it has been named a [historic site](/source/Historic_site).

The rich and productive soil of [Liberty Township](/source/Liberty_Township,_Seneca_County,_Ohio) attracted numerous farmers from the earliest days of settlement, and the township was officially organized in 1832. Among the early villages in the township was a settlement known as [Kansas](/source/Kansas,_Ohio), which was [platted](/source/Plat) in early 1855. By this time, many families of pioneer settlers had become prosperous farmers.[2] One of these prosperous farms was home to the family of John Michaels,[3] who had been one of the first settlers in the area;[2] he and his family occupied a farm located south of Kansas on a road that has since become [State Route 635](/source/Ohio_State_Route_635). Michaels had not been the original property owner: the land had been brought under cultivation by 1829, but he and his family first [obtained the title](/source/Recording_(real_estate)) in the 1830s. Michaels' descendants and a related family named Dicken continuously owned and operated the property as a typical farm into the late twentieth century. Such an extended tenure has caused the property to portray changes in architectural tastes: the extant buildings date from a wide range of years and are examples of multiple architectural styles.[3]

Nine buildings compose the farmstead: six historic buildings and three newer.[1] The most prominent building is the 1870s brick farmhouse, an [Italianate](/source/Italianate_architecture) two-[story](/source/Storey) structure with a [hip roof](/source/Hip_roof) supported by [brackets](/source/Bracket_(architecture)) and an ornamental [cornice](/source/Cornice). Other buildings on the farm are older, including simpler [frame](/source/Framing_(construction)) barns with [Greek Revival](/source/Greek_Revival_architecture) elements; even a [privy](/source/Outhouse) survives to the present.[3]

In 1979, the Michaels Farm was listed on the [National Register of Historic Places](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places); its historic buildings were named [contributing properties](/source/Contributing_property), and the others were deemed non-contributing. It is the only federally designated historic site in Liberty Township, although [more than forty other locations](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Seneca_County,_Ohio) have been given this designation elsewhere in [Seneca County](/source/Seneca_County,_Ohio).[1] Key to its designation was the property's consistent history of use by the same families for more than a century and a half and the wide range of historic agricultural buildings that survived in good condition.[3]

## References

1. Lang, W. *History of Seneca County, from the Close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880*. [Springfield](/source/Springfield,_Ohio): Transcript, 1880, 549-550.

1. Owen, Lorrie K., ed. *Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places*. Vol. 2. [St. Clair Shores](/source/St._Clair_Shores,_Michigan): Somerset, 1999, 1261.

## External links

- [Property profile](http://www.senecacountyauditor.org/Data.aspx?ParcelID=H28000449160000) from the Seneca County Auditor's Office

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Michaels Farm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaels_Farm) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaels_Farm?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.