The History Of Cornhole

The History of Cornhole


About 1325 in the fields surrounding villages in northern Bavaria, farmers gathered annually, to celebrate the return of the growing season, as spring burst out upon the
land typically, around May.


It was there, Matthias Kuepermann, a cabinet maker renowned for his carpentry skills, lived and peddled his wares. One fine May morning, Kuepermann was taking his daily stroll through the farm fields of corn and wheat, when he came upon a few young boys tossing stones back and forth trying to hit a hole that had been carefully dug in the ground, it seems, by a ground hog.


Unfortunately, in the short time he watched, Kuepermann noticed that the children were constantly, in danger of being hit by a flying rock, especially, the boys standing near the hole; (to collect the stones), were in the way of the “toss” and the boys were not very good with their aiming.


Eventually, Kuepermann returned to his home and contemplated a solution to make the game the boys were playing, much safer! The stones were obviously the problem,weighing about 1 Pfund, in Old German, or about 1.13 pounds.Realizing that 1 pound seemed to be about right for tossing just shy of 2 Ruthens (an Old German measurement of approximately 16 feet), Kuepermann decided to look around for something less dangerous to toss.


Corn, which was abundant and easy to grow across Europe; was a common commodity sold by weight, just like most other commodities. Weight scales became a common way to sell or barter most goods. Metals such as iron were mainly used for weaponry and were too rare to obtain for use as weights for scales. More commonly,corn was poured into cupped hands, then into burlap bags and tied. This was used as a unit of measure.


That measurement even today is approximately, 16 ounces or 1 pound. Pounds are still a unit of measure (commonly money) in a few countries today. Bags or (pounds) were placed on one side of the scale while the other commodity was placed on the other side,thus measuring the commodity for sale. Many 1 pound corn bags had to be used to weigh heavy commodities such as grain and flour which were sold in larger burlap bags. After a day at the market weighing and selling their goods, merchants would then have their help collect all the weighted bags and place them in wooden boxes with lids so the rodents wouldn't chew through the burlap to get to the corn.


Now back to Kuepermann.  Matthias recognized that these bags were just the item and set about constructing a box with a 6 inch hole that could be used as a goal. After showing
the game to the locals, Kuepermann was astounded by the interest in his concoction. Owing to the wood requirements, the unbridled popularity of the game resulted in the deforesting of much of middle Europe. Obviously, this caused great concern among woodworkers who were not cornhole friendly.


So, it came to pass that many noble merchants in wood products sought recourse from their lords and thereby resulted the Corn Laws of Britain, which, were first enacted in the 15th Century. Enforcing exorbitant tariffs on the import of corn and other grains, these laws caused a great uproar in the Cornhole Game trade; production of the bags of corn for tournament play became cost prohibitive. Soon thereafter, the game fell into oblivion and did not surface again until German emigrants to the new world, revived the game in the area of Cincinnati, Ohio, where corn was plentiful!


And, Now You Know... How Cornhole was started !!!


"Be A Blessing...
You Will Be Blessed!"


Bart Ebinger
aboutcornhole.com@gmail.com
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