In the early days of agriculture on the prairie, one way to make corn production more profitable was to turn corn, which was heavy and hard to transport, into something more valuable and easier to move. Much of the corn produced was converted to cornmeal and pork. As Samuel B. Ruggles said in 1860, “Corn thus becomes incarnate; for what is a hog if not fifteen or twenty bushels of corn on four legs?” And many a farmer knew the phrase, “walking his corn to market.” Hog drives were held in this part of the country, until railroads and refrigeration made feasible the shipment of dressed pork to market. The hog house on Fairview Farm was an integral part of the agricultural enterprise as it still is on many farms in the region.