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1000 B.C. 1883 A.D.

400 BC

Pipes wrapped in hemp cloth containing cannabis residue were discovered in the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley buried with Hopewell Mound Builders.

1619

In James town Colony, Virginia farmers were ordered by law to grow Indian Hemp.

1631  1800's

In most colonies of America cannabis hemp was legal tender (money) through out this time period. You could even pay your taxes with hemp for over 200 years.

1631

In Massachusetts farmers were ordered by law to grow Indian Hemp.

1632

In Connecticut farmers were ordered by law to grow Indian Hemp.

1681

1683

Pennsylvania General Assembly passes “An Act for the Encouragement of Raising Hemp in Pa”

1685

William Penn issues the first agricultural report, observes hemp thriving in the colony.

1685

Thomas Budd urges every Pennsylvania farmer to grow 1 acre of flax & 2 acres of hemp

1720

John Gardner erects the first known hemp mill in Lancaster County at the mouth of the Chickies Creek.

1729

Lancaster County is formed and the original Hempfield Township is named for the vast quantities of hemp raised there.

1747

Ben Franklin observes that “most of our hemp comes from Conestoga” – Lancaster County, PA

1752

Source: The Bethlehem Oil Mill 1745-1934 German Technology in Early Pennsylvania Excerpt: “Although spinnable hemp could be produced by hand labor alone, softening the fibers by pounding them with a hammer was extremely arduous work. At Bethlehem this softening step was mechanized using water-powered equipment of traditional Germanic design. ThirtyfiveHemp stamping mills were built in the 1752 and the 1765 oil mill buildings, and in 1767-1768 a hemp roller mill was added. Many mechanical details of the two machines at the 1765 oil mill have survived so that we can clearly understand how they operated.”

1763-67

In Virginia you could be jailed, if you were a farmer, for not growing hemp during times of shortage.

1765

Lancaster County Farmer Writes Essay On Raising Hemp for Ben Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac”

1769

Lancaster County Encourages Everyone To do their Patriotic duty by raising hemp for self-sufficiency.

1775

Hemp first grown in Kentucky on April 25 ,in Boyle County.

1776

Declaration of Independence drafted on hemp paper.

1770

“Spinning Jenny” is invented and cotton prices fall dramatically,

1789

Lancaster & York Counties Send representatives to the First Federal Congress to urge a tariff on imported hemp to protect the home hemp industry at the time.

1794

George Washington visits David Witmer’s hemp mill in Paradise, Lancaster County Pennsylvania. His Quote "Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere." -President George Washington, 1794

1801

Canada, on behalf of the King of England, distributed seed free to farmers.

“In 1824, domestic hemp was pitted against Russian hemp by rigging the USS Constitution on one side with American and the other with Russian grown hemp, 'and after being thus worn for nearly a year, it was found, on examination, that the Russian rope, in every instance, after being much worn, looked better and wore more equally and evenly than the American.' But the commander said, 'the difference between them was not so great as to warrant a declaration that the proof was conclusive in favor of the Russian.'" Dodge, C. A. 1896. A report on the culture of hemp and jute in the United States. USDA Office of Fiber Investigations.Report No. 8 p.15.