History of Switzerland County, Indiana

Switzerland County has its origins in the original wine making Swiss immigrants that migrated into the Ohio River Valley in the early Nineteenth Century. These families were an important part of United States wine making history, as they produced the first commercial wines in the nation.New SwitzerlandThe immigrants named their principal town Vevay, after the Swiss town from which most of them originated. The industrious settlers soon turned the hills and valleys of their new settlement, often called New Switzerland, into productive farms and vineyards.Hay FarmingBlight ruined the vines and as wine making declined, Switzerland County became a major hay farming region. Hay presses turned out huge quantities of hay to feed the horses that were vital to the agriculture and transportation needs of the era.