Fond Recollection: Country Life, 1918-1941

Edgar McCormick describes the lives of the people who persevered with dignity in a rural northeast Ohio township during the early decades of the 20th century. After World War II their way of life disappeared under the relentless advance of urban sprawl and modem highways. As such, Brimfield is a microcosm of America, its fate mirroring what has happened across the United States.

The then less populous Brimfield had a truer sense of community. Neighbors knew and could depend on one another. What wonderful people, McCormick recalls. Among the many are Doctor Warburton, who made house calls by horse and buggy. There are the Kurtz brothers, who angered they could no longer spit from the township’s only store, began a store of their own. Social life centered around church, school (a one-room wooden building when McCormick entered first grade), and visits at the local general store.