Underwood Farms Rural Historic District

Along State Route 73 in northwestern Clinton County, Ohio, a row of three farmsteads, a Baptist church and a cemetery make up a 280-acre rural district. Each farm has a historic brick or frame house and a group of outbuildings set well back from the road among mature trees, with working fields in front or behind. Twenty resources contribute to the district, including sixteen buildings, three structures and the cemetery site. The farms belonged to the Underwood family across several generations. Zephaniah Underwood's orchard was the largest in Chester Township according to the 1880 agricultural census, with 70 acres and about 2,000 trees. Later family members continued apple growing and dairy work, leaving a brick fruit barn, large barns, a milk house and corncribs. The 1921 remodeling of one farmhouse and Daniel Underwood's Delco electric plant of 1919 show the family's progress. Jonah's Run Baptist Church and its cemetery add to the rural character of the setting.