These Thousand Acres by Thomas Bachelder
Louis Bromfield was born in Mansfield, Ohio on December 27, 1896. In early 1939 he
established Malabar Farm in Pleasant Valley, fifteen miles south of Mansfield. His energetic promotion of Malabar Farm as a showplace for agricultural conservation soon made Malabar “The Most Famous Farm in America.”
However, Pleasant Valley had a rich and varied history long before Louis Bromfield ever
dreamed of having a farm there – a history that included a prominent Delaware Indian chief, a transient fur trader who later returned to the Valley with his family, a pioneer farmer who practiced a peculiar form of medicine, a newly married Civil War soldier who died far too young, and even a gruesome triple murder. These Thousand Acres tells the story of this vibrant landscape – and how Louis Bromfield became a part of it.