BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      No land in Boardman Township has been held by one family longer than 7700 Market St. where Agnew’s, a lawnmower and tractor sales business currently operates.
      Agnew’s has been in business at the site for two centuries, first operating as a hotel when Thomas Agnew located in Boardman Township in 1824.
      Agnew was born and raised in London, England and came to America when he was 22-years-old.
      He purchased a large tract of land in Boardman where he and his wife, Elizabeth, lived in a large log cabin that he operated for a time as a hotel, but farming soon took over and by the 1880’s the Agnew family tended a herd of some 25 dairy cows and upwards of 50 pigs in addition to maintaining sugar maple trees that were used to make syrup.
      Agnew’s grandson, Elbert Agnew, was interviewed in 1986 as part of an Ohio Historical Society project conducted by Youngstown State University.
      Recalling his great grandfather’s days, Elbert noted that “Everything was done with horses--- plowing and making hay and everything.”
      In 1916, Elbert’s father, Frank Agnew, bought the first Fordson tractor that was ever sold in Mahoning County, and then a bit later, bought another tractor.
      Frank Agnew then began growing potatoes and had an apple orchard on the farm.
      “At one time, we had 78 acres of potatoes and 20 acres of apple trees. We were growing 20,000 bushels full of potatoes a year,” Elbert said.
      In order to grow and harvest apples, Elbert noted “We had to buy spray materials and sprayers, so we sold that equipment and fertilizers.”
      That led to the formation of Agnew Farm Equipment in 1939.
      “We were dealers with the International Harvester Co. Back in the 1930s, there were a lot of famers and we sold manure spreaders, combines, tractors, hay bailers and hay rakes,” Elbert said.
      Of note, except for farming, in the early part of the 1900s, there wasn’t much else in Boardman Township, except for the Southern Park Race Track at McClurg Rd. and Market St.
      “The race track drew a lot of people,” Elbert recalled. “I remember automobiles coming here by the thousands. Sometimes it would take you 15 minutes to run across Market St. (then a dirt road) because the traffic was so heavy.
       “Governors and presidents would all come to the race track to speak, and the first airplane ever to land in Mahoning County landed at the race track about 1921”
       Elbert recalled by 1942, most of the dairy farms in Mahoning County had gone out of business. At that time he was president of the Potato Growers Association of Mahoning and Columbiana Counties.
      “There were 175 potato growers left in the whole territory,” Elbert said.
      With the decline in potato growers, Elbert said that Agnew Farm changed its business emphasis and began selling garden tractors and lawnmowers.
      Up until the late 1940s, Elbert said expect for Agnew Farm Equipment, there were few other businesses in Boardman.
      As a child growing up in Boardman, Elbert noted the only place to buy groceries was at Ruhlman’s “down in Steam Town” at Western Reserve Rd. and Market St.
      Later on he noted “If my wife wanted to buy a spool of thread, she had to go to the uptown section of Youngstown.
      “There weren’t any types of businesses. Boardman was a bedroom community of Youngstown and there were farmers, and nothing else.”
      By 1950, Elbert said most farms in Boardman had gone out of business, except for the Heberding Farm at Tippecanoe Rd. and Rt. 224.
      “They had the money to keep going. The first milking parlor was on the Heberding Farm in the early 1930’s. It was the second milking parlor in the United States.”
      Elbert also said a factor in the decline of farming was home construction in Boardman Township.
      By the 1950s when the housing boom began in Boardman, Elbert observed “taxes were raised so high, you couldn’t afford to farm.”
      The shift to an emphasis on lawnmowers and lawn tractors has helped Agnew’s stay in business to this day.
      At one time Agnew was the largest dealer of Lawnboy lawnmowers in the state of Ohio.
      Agnew’s once owned 300 acres of land that is now bordered by Market St., Southwoods Dr., Roche Way and Hitchcock Rd., including the area where Boardman High School, Glenwood Jr. High School, and neighboring residential areas now stand.
      Agnew’s 25-acre apple orchard was where Glenwood Jr. High School now stands; his 60-acre potato field was where Boardman High School is, and his maple sugar camp -- the largest in Boardman -- occupied the adjacent residential neighborhood, Elbert recalled.
      With Boardman Township‘s changing face from farming community to shopping, dining and residential community, Agnew’s has moved to the lawn and garden equipment industry.
      The business is being operated by Elbert’s son, John Agnew, perhaps one of the oldest family run businesses in the State of Ohio. John is a fifth generation Agnew.
      Over the years the store’s inventory and display items have evolved from horse drawn equipment, steam-powered equipment to diesel and gasoline powered farm machinery, as well as all kinds of lawnmowers.
      Today the primary business at Agnew’s consists of supplying and servicing residential lawn and garden equipment; the commercial mowing industry and users of compact diesel equipment.
     
      PICTURED:  200 YEARS AGO, the current site of Agnew’s, 7700 Market St., was the home of Thomas Agnew, who lived in a large log cabin on the site. At one time, the Agnew family was best known for their livestock, cattle and dairy products, a herd of pigs and some of the best maple syrup in the area. Of the some 300 acres owned by the Agnew family, only the site of the lawn and garden tractor business remains today.