A little History about Yoder Bros in Barberton!!
In 1911 the two Yoder Brothers approached O. C. Barber about buying his land in Copley Township near Wolf Creek. This is where Barber would eventually build the Anna Dean Farm Duck Department. After Barber’s death in 1920 this is where the Barberton Reservoir is now located.
Barber refused their offer for his land out right. At the time he was still the largest land owner in Summit County. Eventually he would be surpassed by Columbia Chemical.
Barber was impressed however with these two Mennonite brothers from Holmes County and so he made an arrangement with them to run his greenhouses on the Anna Dean Farm. The Yoder Brothers suggested expansion of the green houses on Robinson Ave for fruits and flowers and the Anna Dean Farm Perennial Gardens on Snyder at Van Buren for his hot house vegetable operation and so began their working partnership. Barber always thought big and so the Yoder Brothers easily talked him into further expansion.
After Barber died in 1920, the Yoder Brothers incorporated in 1921 and made a gutsy purchase from the estate of O.C. Barber. All of the greenhouse operations for $400,000, about $6 million in today’s money. From 1922 until 1930 the Yoder Brothers relied on the production of vegetables calling themselves, “The Yoder Brothers Hot House Vegetable Company.”
In 1930 they contacted the Ohio agricultural substation in Wooster for information on how to grow Pom Poms, or what were then called Football Mums. In their hay day Yoder Brothers, headquartered in Barberton had greenhouse operations around the globe and would eventually control 1/5 of the world’s mum production, AND it all started in Barberton, Ohio.
So when you are the Mum Festival the last weekend in September it was O. C. Barber and the Yoder Brothers that made it all possible. – Frank Sr.
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