Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station (OAES)

Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station (OAES)
Native name	Ag Station; Experiment Station; Research Station
Industry	Agriculture; Professional & Technical
Fate	Active
Successor(s)	Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center
Headquarters	Wooster, Ohio, United States
Key people	Simon Rice; Charles E. Thorne (Director: 1887-1921); Carlos G. Thorne Williams (Director: 1921-1937); Edmund Secrest (Director: 1937-1948); Leo L. Rummell (Director: 1948-1960); W. E. Krauss; Roy M. Kottman (Director: 1960- )

Locations

Madison Hill 0000 Unknown St., Wooster, Ohio 44691

City Directories

1930 Wooster Directory, C. G. Williams, Director, p. 168

Comprehensive History

In 1892, the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station (OAES) moved from the Ohio State University campus at Columbus, to Wooster, in Wayne County, Ohio. The 1892 move was done by wagon train and followed the present Route 3 from Columbus to Wooster. The station took possession of 470 acres of farmland just south of the town of Wooster. The bulk of the land was composed of the two "Rice Farms" established by Barnhart Riceand Simon Rice in 1822. Both of the original farm houses are still on campus and are historical landmarks. Wayne County's proposal to fund the purchase of the station via tax bonds was declared unfair by the Ohio Supreme Court and the debt was assumed by the state, but the station stayed in Wayne County anyway. Over the next three decades, Director Charles E. Thorne supervised the growth of the station both physically and scientifically: one of farm land reclamation, fertilizers, horses and steam power. The sandstone building complex on central campus was constructed, with the Administration Building being dedicated in 1897.