The Ghost Orchard

by Helen Humphreys

  Yellow Meadow: This southern apple was large and oblate, with a greenish-yellow skin and yellow flesh that was sub-acid in flavour. It was a good-quality apple and ripened midseason.

  Young America: Listed in Virginia in 1895, this yellow apple was medium to large in size and ripened early in the summer.

  Zane: Also known as the Zane Greening, this Virginia apple was listed in 1853. It was a large apple with greenish-yellow skin and greenish-white flesh that had a sub-acid flavour. It was of overall poor quality and ripened very late.

  Zoar: Listed in 1895, this Ohio apple, also known as the Zoar Transparent, was of large size and was round to oblate in shape. It had white skin with red and scarlet patches, and the yellow flesh was very juicy and tender. The quality of the apple was very good, and it was used for dessert. It ripened midseason.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  As always, and with ever-increasing gratitude, I would like to thank my agent, Clare Alexander.

  Thanks to my editors, Jane Warren and Jennifer Lambert, for believing in this book and making it better.

  Thanks to my stellar companions on the various apple research trips—Nancy Jo Cullen, Susan Mockler and Lori Vos (navigator extraordinaire!).

  Thanks to Barbara Adams, Mary Louise Adams, Steve Heighton, Mary Huggard, Frances Humphreys, Jenna Johnson, Joy McBride, Eleanor MacDonald, Kirsteen MacLeod, Marco Reiter, Merilyn Simonds, Alex Simpson, Raymond Vos and Mary Wight-Young, for apple research assistance.

  Special thanks to the BDL members—Kirsteen MacLeod, Susan Olding and Sarah Tsiang. (Best group I ever joined.)

  Thanks to Andrew Westoll and University of Toronto Scarborough, and to Irwin Streight and the Royal Military College of Canada, for residencies where some of this manuscript was written.

  I am grateful to the Guilford College Archives, Guilford, North Carolina, and the Robert Frost Collection, Rauner Special Collections Library, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, for material used in this book.

  Thanks to Kris Dimnik of Bellevue House.

  Thanks to Karen Osburn of the Geneva Historical Society, Geneva, New York, and to Barbara Lamb of the Geneva Fortnightly Reading Club, for their wonderful research assistance.

  Thanks to Noelle Zitzer.

  Lastly, I would like to thank Emily Herring Wilson for her help, her company and her continuing friendship—all of which have been the unexpected windfall of writing this book on apples.

  NOTES

  1.Originally the word was parmain or permain, from the Middle French for “apple or pear.”

  2.Michael Tortorello, “An Apple a Day, for 47 Years,” New York Times, October 22, 2014. The article references The Illustrated History of Apples in North America by Dan Bussey, forthcoming from JAK KAW Press.

  THE INDIAN ORCHARD

  1.Gary Paul Nabhan, “The Fatherland of Apples,” Orion Magazine, May 30, 2008.

  2.Anita Vickers, The New Nation (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002), p. 113.

  3.John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Particular to the United States (New York: Little, Brown, 1877), p. 313. It is interesting to note that the following entry is for “Indian Peaches.” These are described as “ungrafted peach-trees, which are considered to be more thrifty and to bear larger fruit than the others.”

  4.Letter from D. W. H. Howard of Wauseon, OH, Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture for the Year 1889 (Columbus, OH: Board of Agriculture, 1890), p. 271.

  5.Letter to the editor from E. P. Powell, Garden and Forest, vol. 4 (December 30, 1891).

  6.J. H. French, Gazetteer of the State of New York (Syracuse, NY: R. Pearsall Smith, 1860), p. 495.

  7.Letter from John Eliot, in James Constantine Pillig, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1891), p. 179.

  8.James C. Benner, History of Georgia Agriculture 1732–1860 (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2009), p. 155.

  9.“Bumper Crop: A History of the Apple Industry in Northwest Arkansas,” from the website of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, http://www.shilohmuseum.org/exhibits/apples-intro.php.

  10.W. W. Clayton, History of Lafayette, New York (Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., 1878).

  11.Indian Orchard Report from Secretary of the State Horticultural Society of Michigan, vol. 10, part 1880 (Michigan State Horticultural Society, 1881), p. 237.

  12.Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Horticultural Society of Michigan, vol. 17, part 1887 (Michigan State Horticultural Society, 1887), p. 339.

  13.Andrew H. Green, Kanadesaga: An Historical Sketch of the Indian Landmarks of Geneva, N.Y. (report of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society to the Legislature of the State of New York), (Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Company, 1909), p. 285.

  14.Frederick Cook, Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779 (Auburn, NY: Knapp, Peck and Thomson, Printers, 1887), p. 336.

  15.The Journal of Lieut. John L. Hardenbergh of the Second New York Continental Regiment from May 1 to October 3, 1779, in General Sullivan’s Campaign Against the Western Indians (Auburn, NY: Knapp and Peck, Printers, 1879), pp. 82–87.

  16.Cook, Journals of John Sullivan, p. 576.

  17.Ibid.

  18.Ibid., p. 46.

  19.Ibid., p. 365.

  20.John Riley, The Once and Future Great Lakes Country: An Ecological History (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013), p. 67.

  21.French, Gazetteer of the State of New York, p. 499.

  22.Green, Kanadesaga: An Historical Sketch, p. 305.

  23.Arthur Caswell Parker, Iroquois Uses of Maize and Other Food Plants (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1910), pp. 94–95.

  24.Lewis Morgan also made a very extensive survey of the beaver, preparing a detailed map of 150 beaver dams in northern Michigan and studying the activity of those dams.

  25.In a rare image of the area from 1879 in the collection of New York Heritage (https://www.nyheritage.org/), the apple trees are huge and plentiful.

  26.S. A. Beach, The Apples of New York, vol. 1(Albany: J. B. Lyon Company, 1905), p. 5.

  27.The text that accompanies this photograph says: “Within sight of the Geneva Experiment Station are two very old Indian apple trees, the only ones in this vicinity now left out of many hundreds which the Indians were growing in the clearings about their town of Kanadesaga, which was located here. The illustration shows the present appearance of one of the trees. Both bear winter fruit of medium size. The fruit of one is very good for cooking, that of the other is pleasant flavored, subacid and very good for eating. Neither has been propagated.” Ibid., p. 6.

  28.For example, the theme in 1909 was “Scotland: Its History and Romance,” and among the topics discussed were Physical Scotland; History of Macbeth; Witchcraft and Superstition; John Knox; Mary, Queen of Scots; Clans and Tartans; Scottish Music and Ballet; Presbyterianism; Edinburgh. There are no minutes available for 1908, but seeing as they erected the burial mound marker that year, it might have been when they discussed “Indians.”

  29.This information was found in a letter from a former member of the Fortnightly Reading Club, sent to a friend on February 9, 1945. This letter is in the collection of the Geneva Historical Society in Geneva, New York.

  30.Editorial in the Geneva Gazette, August 8, 1879.

  31.Silas Tertius Rand, Dictionary of the Language of the Micmac Indians: Who Reside in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and Newfoundland (Halifax: Nova Scotia Printing Company, 1888).

  32.George Johnson and Charles Henry Lugrin, Canada: A Memorial Volume (Montreal: E. B. Biggar, 1889).

  33.Malcolm Dunn, Apples and Pears 1885: Report of the Apple and Pear Congress Held by the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society, Edinburgh, from 25th to 28th November 1885 (Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1887).

  34.Annual Report of the Secretary
of the State Pomological Society of Michigan, vol. 18 (Lansing, MI: W. S. George & Company, 1889), p. 157.

  35.Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society for the Year 1871 (Albany: Argus Company Printers, 1872), p. 622.

  36.Creighton Lee Calhoun, Jr., Old Southern Apples: A Comprehensive History and Description of Varieties for Collectors, Growers, and Fruit Enthusiasts (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2010).

  37.A. J. Downing and Charles Downing, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (New York: John Wiley & Son, 1872), p. 251.

  38.Letter to the editor from Silas McDowell, Southern Cultivator, vol. 15 (1857), p. 123.

  39.This is according to research done by Tom Brown, who has tracked down many old and previously extinct varieties of North American apples. Brown’s findings are available on his website, www.applesearch.org.

  40.“Indian Orchard: Area Girl Scouts to ‘Rough It’ at New Seneca Day Camp Site,” Geneva Daily Times, July 3, 1952.

  41.Statement of purpose from the Oneida Community Integrated Food Systems in Green Bay, WI, https://oneida-nsn.gov/resources/oneida-community-integrated-food-systems/why-buy-local/.

  ANN JESSOP

  1.Calhoun, Old Southern Apples.

  2.Terri L. Premo, Winter Friends: Women Growing Old in the New Republic, 1785–1835 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990), p. 164.

  3.Algie I. Newlin, The Battle of New Garden (Greensboro, NC: North Carolina Friends Historical Society, 1977). All details of the Battle of New Garden have been derived from Professor Newlin’s account—which is the definitive source for this particular battle of the Revolutionary War.

  4.Margaret Supplee Smith and Emily Herring Wilson, North Carolina Women Making History (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), pp. 62–63.

  5.Thomas Jessop, will dated November 20, 1783, in Jasper Newton Jessup, Jessup Family: Containing a History of the Jessup Family in England and America (Little Rock, AK: 1908), p. 41.

  6.Ibid.

  7.William Wade Hinshaw and Thomas Worth Marshall, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, vol. 1 (Baltimore, MD: 1938), p. 509.

  8.State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania, A List of Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums and Cherries (Harrisburg, PA: Meyers Printing and Publishing House, 1889), p. 47.

  9.This is according to Ann Jessop’s great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Emily Herring-Wilson.

  10.Quaker Meeting Records: Minutes 1783–1800, Guilford College Archives, Greensboro, North Carolina.

  11.Jasper Newton Jessup, Jessup Family, p. 40.

  12.These wagons were driven by four to six horses and were covered with canvas that was stretched over wooden hoops set along the wagon bed. The bed of the wagon curved up at each end so that the contents wouldn’t fall out. For reasons unknown, the Conestoga wagon was named after the Conestoga people, who were essentially wiped out by the settlers.

  13.Henry Griswold Jesup, Edward Jessup of West Farms, Westchester Co., New York and His Descendants (Cambridge, MA: John Wilson and Sons, 1887), p. 365.

  14.Daniella J. Kostroun and Lisa Vollendorf, Women, Religion, and the Atlantic World (1600–1800) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009).

  15.All information on Hannah Stephenson cited in this chapter is derived from William and Thomas Evans, Piety Promoted: In a Collection of Dying Sayings of Many of the People Called Quakers, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Friends’ Book Store, 1854).

  16.Ibid., p. 332.

  17.Addison Coffin, “Early Settlement of Friends in North Carolina: Traditions and Reminiscences” (unpublished paper written in 1894), Friends Historical Collection, Guilford College Archives, Guilford, NC, library.guilford.edu/fhc.

  18.On June 22, it was ninety-one degrees in London; the entire summer was a hot one for the UK. See http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/metindex.htm, a blog by Martin Rowley about historical British weather.

  19.Coffin, “Early Settlement of Friends in North Carolina.”

  20.Calhoun, Old Southern Apples, p. 161.

  21.Ibid.

  22.Presumably the second S was left out for the sake of the effort it would have taken to carve it, given that the carving was done by hand with rudimentary tools.

  23.Westfield has a Quaker connection to New Garden, and the meeting houses were linked, with Westfield literally the “western field” of the New Garden Friends society.

  24.The book was In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri.

  USDA WATERCOLOUR ARTISTS

  1.This is according to General N. P. Chipman in the Official Report of the Fruit Growers’ Convention of the State of California, vol. 10 (Sacramento: J. D. Young, 1889), p. 140.

  2.Ibid.

  3.Newton’s seven objectives for his term as commissioner were (1) collecting, arranging and publishing statistical and other useful agricultural information; (2) introducing valuable plants and animals; (3) answering inquiries of farmers regarding agriculture; (4) testing agricultural implements; (5) conducting chemical analyses of soils, grains, fruits, plants, vegetables and manures; (6) establishing a professorship of botany and entomology; and (7) establishing an agricultural library and museum.

  4.Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Year 1862 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1863), p. 17.

  5.When painting apples, the watercolour artists usually showed seeds in one ovary, leaving the other empty, so as to give comprehensive knowledge of what an apple would look like with seeds and without.

  6.List of federal employees from the Register of Civil, Military, and Naval Service, 1863–1959, vol. 1. From the Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, Official Register of the United States, Containing a List of the Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service (Salem, OR: Oregon State Library), available online through ancestry.com.

  7.Ibid.

  8.The illustrators were given job titles such as clerk, modeller, botanical artist, artist and associate botanist. This information is derived from Alan E. Fusonie, “The Heritage of Original Art and Photo Imaging in USDA: Past, Present and Future,” Agricultural History, vol. 64, no. 2 (Spring 1990): pp. 300–14.

  9.From the Washington Post, October 20, 1905.

  10.Fusonie, “The Heritage of Original Art and Photo Imaging in USDA.”

  11.All the USDA watercolour paintings have been digitally preserved and are available to view online at https://usdawatercolors.nal.usda.gov.

  12.The artists often painted less-than-perfect specimens of apples, showing not the homogenous glossy object we are used to encountering in our grocery stores but the kinds of fruit that would be found in a small orchard or in the “wild.” The apples were often lopsided or full of blemishes and spots, and a few were even rotten in places.

  13.She had it constructed out of concrete to save it from fire because her family home had burned to the ground a few years earlier.

  14.The collection of Ellen Schutt’s apple watercolours is held at the University of California at Davis. The entire collection is now available online. See http://blogs.lib.ucdavis.edu/specol/2015/03/03/ellen-schutt-pomological-watercolors-now-online/ for more information.

  15.Cherrydale Historic District, National Register of Historic Places, National Parks Service, https://npgallery.nps.gov/nrhp/.

  16.My grandfather’s name was Ronald Brett. Examples of his posters can be found online at various fine art auction houses.

  17.This unpublished and anonymous biography of Deborah Griscom Passmore is in the collection of her papers at the National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, Beltsville, MD. See https://specialcollections.nal.usda.gov/speccoll/collectionsguide/passmore/124ExtBio.pdf.

  18.Ibid.

  19.Marianne North (1830–1890) travelled widely, painting botanical specimens that were then exhibited at Kew Gardens in England. Today, you can still see her work on display there at the Marianne North Gallery, http://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/attractions/marianne-north-gallery.

 
20.This work remains unpublished and is in the special collections of the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, MD, https://www.nal.usda.gov.

  21.This information also comes from the unpublished and anonymous biography at the National Agricultural Library.

  22.Ibid.

  23.Ibid.

  24.James Marion Shull, Rainbow Fragments: A Garden Book of the Iris (New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1931), p. 11.

  25.James Marion Shull, The Washington Peace Carillon; A Brochure Issued by Lovers of the Bells and Dedicated to Others of Their Kind (Washington, DC: M.W. Darling, 1919).

  ROBERT FROST

  1.Thomas wrote five books in eight years and frequently produced fifteen book reviews per week.

  2.Matthew Hollis, Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas (London: Faber & Faber, 2011), p. 338.

  3.Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Edward Thomas: From Adlestrop to Arras (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), p. 242.

  4.Matthew Spencer, ed., Elected Friends: Robert Frost and Edward Thomas to One Another (New York: Handsell Books, 2003), p. xviii.

  5.Ibid., p. 210.

  6.Ibid., p. 32.

  7.Wilson, Edward Thomas: From Adlestrop to Arras, p. 280.

  8.Spencer, Elected Friends, p. 136.

  9.Hollis, Now All Roads Lead to France, p. 151.

  10.Ibid., p. 327.

  11.Mark Richardson, ed., The Collected Prose of Robert Frost (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), p. 158.

  12.The poem was originally written by Callimachus in 260 BC. This translation is by William Johnson Cory (1823–92), an Eton schoolmaster.

  13.This has not happened before or since, although at the time we did not credit it with being unusual.

  14.Joanne Page, “Bateau Channel,” unpublished poem in the collection of the author.

  15.Carole Thompson, “An Unforbidden Variety: The Story of Robert Frost’s Apple Trees at the Stone House, Shaftsbury, Vermont” (an essay for the Robert Frost Stone House Museum in Shaftsbury, VT), http://www.frostfriends.org/apples.html.