In today’s column, we will be looking back at Northampton County in 1914. During that era, the landscape was rural in nature. Agriculture dominated much of the county.

Recently, my friend Larry Oberly was given a Farmers Directory of Northampton County. The book was published by Wilmer Atkinson Company for Farm Journal. The agriculture magazine is still very popular, with more than 300,000 subscribers. The publication has served the farm community for more than 143 years.

The book gives us a vivid picture of agriculture in the county in 1914. The statistics are very revealing! In 1914, Northampton County had a total population of 127,667 people, with only 343 people per square mile.

The number of farms listed was 3,565, averaging in size of 51 acres. The average value of a farm with buildings, implements and domestic animals was only $5,137! The value of all property, according to the 1910 census, was $18,314,227.

Today, a housing development close to my home with 50 homes exceeds 25 million dollars! One hundred and eighty-three of the farmers were foreign born. Sixty-eight percent were operated by their owners; the remainder of the farms were rentals or worked on shares.

The directory also listed county officials. Presently, counties are led by an elected county council. In 1914, three elected commissioners were the governing body. Several county positions were very interesting and different from today. The positions included five prison inspectors and nine road viewers, who checked the county roads. There was also a director of the poor. In 1914, 90 justice of the peace offices served the legal needs of Northampton County.

Northampton and Monroe counties were represented by A. Mitchell Palmer, of Stroudsburg. We were in the 26th Congressional District. Our state senator was J. Henry Morgan, of Bethlehem. There were 39 post offices in the county. In Northampton, we had two post offices — the Northampton and Siegfried offices.

In two weeks, we will look at farms in Northampton County today.