WWI, Women, and the Rise of Grand Rapids Farmers Markets

by Jayson Otto

Celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Fulton Street Farmers Market in 2012, Jayson Otto will share its story on Thursday, March 8 at 7 p.m. at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.

After managing the local market between 2005 and 2007, Otto researched its surprising beginnings and has placed it in the broader history of retail farmers markets in Grand Rapids. Prior to 1917, no official spaces allowed Grand Rapids residents to buy fresh produce directly from local growers. In fact, city ordinances declared it illegal for farmers to sell on city streets between 1897 and 1917. Once inflation caused food prices to skyrocket, some local residents believed farmers markets and community gardens could help feed struggling families in Grand Rapids.

“Hunting Old Hi” cartoon of women shopping at the Leonard Street Market in 1917. The caption on the cartoon reads: They come in autos, on horseback, in one-hoss shays, on bicycles and velocipedes and on foot to the city retail market to hunt old Hi Cost o living and in lots of instances they find him and give him a wallop or two. Here the lady from the limousine and the lady with the market basket on her arm mingle and vie with one another in seeking out the bargains. They carry away their purchases in everything from big eight cylinders to baby carriages and, above all, everybody has a good time doing it.

Based on archival research, Jayson Otto’s story will reveal how prominent local residents, mainly women, worked during the first quarter of the twentieth century to fight the “High Cost of Living” by bringing fresh food production closer to home. It will recount their failures and successes convincing local leaders to institute farmers markets and to support the community gardens dotting the city prior to World War I.

An “accidental” women’s historian, Otto did not realize until he started researching the history of the Fulton Street Farmers’ Market that women in Grand Rapids were instrumental in the battle to get healthy food into the city. Led by Eva McCall Hamilton, later elected to the Michigan senate, the Grand Rapids Federation of Women’s Clubs, Ladies Literary Club, and the Woman’s Committee of the Council of National Defense were involved.

Farmers markets in Grand Rapids were started through civic engagement. Ninety years later, the Fulton Street Farmers Market stands as a testament to the work of not only Progressive Era women, but of everyone supporting the market through its ups and downs.

While finishing his thesis in historical agriculture for Michigan State University, Jayson Otto has taught for Aquinas College, Grand Valley State University, and Muskegon Community College.

“WWI, Women, and the Rise of Grand Rapids Farmers Markets”, March 8, 2012, 7:00 p.m. co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, by Jayson Otto