What was characteristic of the Sugar Creek community before the 1850s? Pioneers were basically pre-capitalist, practicing subsistence agriculture and engaging in local, non-monetary exchanges of goods and labor in the "borrowing system." Most Sugar Creek citizens worked in factories such as textile mills or a boot factory. Farmers specialized in the production of cash crops, such as raising hogs or growing corn or wheat, rather than diversifying their farming. Sugar Creek pioneers depended on gold and silver coins for local cash purchases, since paper money was so unreliable.

What was characteristic of the Sugar Creek community before the 1850s? Pioneers were basically pre-capitalist, practicing subsistence agriculture and engaging in local, non-monetary exchanges of goods and labor in the "borrowing system." Most Sugar Creek citizens worked in factories such as textile mills or a boot factory. Farmers specialized in the production of cash crops, such as raising hogs or growing corn or wheat, rather than diversifying their farming. Sugar Creek pioneers depended on gold and silver coins for local cash purchases, since paper money was so unreliable.