The Community that Farming Built

Kailyn Shepley, Sombra Museum Curator, and Mara Garva, Curatorial Assistant

Lambton County has a rich agricultural history and tradition of growing a diverse selection of food, cash crops, and livestock. When settlers first came to Lambton County, farming was more difficult than it is today. Settlers first arriving and hoping to build a new life on the land had to construct a shelter (typically a log cabin), clear the trees from the land, drain the soil, and plant their crops in time to take advantage of the summer growing season. Many farmers struggled, as one storm, drought, cold spell, or pest could take out their entire crop and leave them with nothing. Despite this, they persevered and laid the foundation for the rich farmland the County has today.

One of the first items harvested by European settlers to the area was maple syrup. Thick and vast swaths of Carolinian forest provided a reliable source of sugar maple trees for harvesters. They tapped the sugar maple trees from mid-February to mid-March, collecting the sap and then boiling it until it formed a thick syrup or until all the liquid boiled away, leaving behind maple-flavoured sugar. In 1861, Lambton County produced 136,496 pounds (about 61913.49 kg) of maple sugar, and in 1921, the County made $24,545 ($381,696 in 2022) from maple syrup products.

Along with maple syrup, Lambton has produced a diverse selection of crops over the last 200 hundred years. A variety of items have been grown in response to factors like susceptibility to cold and parasites. In 1851, the most prominent crop was wheat, with 279,989 bushels being produced compared to 79,955 bushels of oats. In 1901, however, as the price and shelf life of wheat decreased, farmers diversified their crops to increase economic and cultivation success. Oats were the most prominent crop, with 2,706,790 bushels recorded as being grown that year, while there were 1,051,880 bushels produced.

During the nineteenth century, many farmers started raising animals for profit. Previously, farmers usually kept a couple of animals on their farm as a source of food for their own family, but with the quickly growing meat and dairy industry, they decided to raise additional stock for more profit. In 1882, Lambton County shipped over 4,000 head of beef cattle and 7,000 sheep and lambs to Britain.

Sombra was famous for its cheese factory in the late 1800s. Farmers could make profit without travelling too far to get their products to market. In its first year, the factory produced 193,000 pounds (about 87543.26 kg) of cheese, with production led by head cheesemaker Dick Richmond and assistant George Wale! The Sombra Cheese Factory stood out on piers over the St. Clair River, and it operated from 1881 until 1904. It was converted to the Thistle Rubber Type Works in 1906. Becher (intersection of Lambton Line and Kimball Road) also had a cheese factory, with assistant cheesemaker Chris Wale of Sombra.

As the number of livestock in Lambton County grew, so did the need for barns to house the animals and crops. In earlier years, farms had smaller outbuildings or stables. As the farming industry grew, large barns constructed out of heavy wooden beams and cementblock walls were built all around the County. The community came together to support each other with barn raisings. This gathering of people working together created a strong bonds in the community. These barns are in various states of repair and are often inadequate for farm use today due to the size of modern farm equipment and changes to crop storage methods. However, dozens of the barns built back in the late 1800s and early 1900s are still standing today or are being lovingly restored.

Agribusiness boomed, allowing farmers to replace the small log cabins on their property with larger frame homes that they could live in with their families, while still being able to work out on the farm whenever they wanted. A lot of these homes are also still standing today, including the old W. Auld Residence in Warwick and the former Graham residence in Dawn-Euphemia Township. Sombra Museum’s Abraham Smith log cabin, built c. 1830, is an example of a temporary home that was vacated and turned into a milk shed once the family built a larger, permanent home.

The former Sombra Township - named the Spanish word for ‘shade’ due to the dense oldgrowth forest covering the area when Europeans permanently settled here about 1820 – grew up from the logging trade to become a farming community, which it remains to this day. The presence of the St. Clair and Sydenham rivers (vital for transporting farm goods to market and receiving goods, such as plough blades, in return), another ‘crop’ of sorts contributed to the local harvest – ice.

During the months of January and February when the ice became 10”-12” thick, Sombra men would drive their sleighs equipped with saws, tongs, chisels, and hooks out on the river to cut large blocks of ice. Then, they were packed in sawdust. The ice was stored until summer when they were delivered to the local ice boxes to preserve food, add a refreshing chill to a pitcher of lemonade, or even to make ice cream for the church picnic. Sombra Village’s former icehouse – also Ansell’s Livery and Dray – is still standing in 2022, at the corner of Smith Street and Water Street.

Today, 80% of land in Lambton County is owned by farmers and Lambton farmers operate over 550,000 acres of farmland. Lambton County produces the largest volume of soybeans in Ontario and the second-largest volume of sugar beets and wheat. This is especially impressive for a small community that was only sparsely populated forest land only 170 years ago.

Visit Sombra Museum in 2023 to view the farming exhibit “Grit, Passion, Determination” and check in with @SombraMuseum on social media for updates on the highly anticipated 2024 barn calendar and related events.