“But the largest enterprise in Ohio has always been and remains agriculture. That always surprises me. Then again, people gotta eat.”
I don’t think so. In the 60’s we had NCR (national cash register , Dayton) Proctor and Gamble, cincinati, Hoover vacuum, Canton, Firestone, Goodyear and Goodrich all in Akron, Standard Oil of Ohio, cleveland, Marathon oil, Findlay, Toledo Scales, Toledo, Youngstown sheet and tube, Nationwide Insurance, Columbus, Cincinati Milacron (machine tools) and a lot of auto plants.
Even now, we have Wendys, columbus, Bob Evans, columbus, First Solar (toledo), Honda, Marysville, Worthington Industries, columbus (specialty steel), Limited Stores, Columbus which have replaced a lot of the old industries.
Check the numbers and you’ll find agriculture still Ohio’s largest industry