The Schmale Farm, 600 block of Old Swede Road.
This home was built in 1813 by Jonathan Jones. Jonathan was the great grandson of Mouns Jones. Mouns Jones is one of the founding fathers of Amity Township in the early 1700’s. This farm was part of 200 acres that Mouns Jones willed to his son Jonas in 1727. Jonas first built a log home here and raised his family. The farm was handed down through the family and became Jonathan’s in the early 1800’s. The large barn was built in 1817 and various silos and outbuildings have come and gone over the years.
The farm has obviously had many other owners throughout the last 200+ years. Today it is most commonly referred to as the Schmale Farm. Horace Harbold sold the farm in 1923 to Levi Schmale for $4925. Levi passed the farm to his sons, William and Walter around 1953. In 2008 the Schmale’s sold the farm to an investment company for $4,000,000.
Since 2008 the investment company has made numerous attempts to develop the farm into a single family home subdivision. As recently as 2020 plans have been submitted for review to Amity Township.
Today the 1813 home sits abandoned and boarded up. The barn is slowly deteriorating and will undoubtedly fall to modern development.