The Pears of New York. U. P. Hedrick
changed. The house on the estate was built in 1812, having replaced one which was pulled down after standing 150 years. Within the period of a generation there were standing in Salem several trees of the Orange pear, some of which were reputed to be more than two centuries old, and all of which were undoubtedly very ancient, but they are all now gone except Capt. Allen’s, the last one having been blown down in the winter of 1874–75. I have heard a tradition that this last mentioned tree was one of several imported from England and planted in gardens at intervals on the northerly side of the principal street in Salem. This tradition may or may not be true with regard to these trees, but it would not apply to the Allen tree, for the height at which it was grafted forbids the idea that it was imported from England in a grafted state.
“The Anthony Thacher Pear. This tree stands near the meadows about a fourth of a mile north of the Universalist church in Yarmouth, where Anthony Thacher’s house formerly stood. It is a large, rotten-hearted old tree. It has lost nearly all its old branches, but has thrown out many new ones. The late Judge George Thacher, who, if now living, would be 120 years old, inquired into its history, and made the matter certain that it was planted by Anthony Thacher about 1640. It is believed to be a grafted tree, as it contracts two or three inches at about a foot and a half from the ground. It is taken good care of and will probably last many years. It is now owned by the heirs of James C. Hallet. There are other trees of the same kind in the vicinity, but their age cannot be proved.
“The fruit is of medium size, ovate pyriform, green, changing to yellow at maturity, of tolerable quality, ripening early in September. For the specimens exhibited, as well as the facts above noted, I am indebted to the kindness of Amos Otis, Esq., of Yarmouth Port, who had made the local history of Cape Cod his study for the last fifty years, and who died much lamented on the 19th of October last.
“Anthony Thacher came from England in 1635, and after residing in Marshfield, removed to Yarmouth in 1639, being one of the three original grantees of land in that town. The late Dr. James Thacher, of Plymouth, author of the ‘American Orchardist’ (published in 1821), was a descendant of Anthony in the sixth generation. Anthony Thacher accompanied his cousin, Rev. John Avery, in that disastrous voyage of which Whittier has perpetuated the memory in his ballad, ‘The Swan Song of Parson Avery.’ Anthony Thacher got ashore on Thacher’s Island, the headland of Cape Ann, and gave name to the island. (See Whittier’s ‘Home Ballads’ and Young’s ‘Chronicles of the First Planters of Massachusetts,’ p. 485.)
“I endeavored, but without success, to obtain fruit from the pear tree planted at least as early as 1650, by Governor Prence, or Prince, at Eastham, on Cape Cod, and now owned by Capt. Ezekiel Doane. It is known as the Fall pear. It is about the size of a hen’s egg, tapering towards both ends, green, nearly covered with thin russet, of inferior quality, but not as coarse as the Endicott. In 1836 it was a flourishing, lofty tree, producing an average of fifteen bushels of fruit. It consisted of two stems, branching from the ground, the larger of which was blown down in the great storm of April, 1851. The portion now remaining is thirty-five feet high. It is a natural tree and has not failed of bearing for twenty years. It stands in low ground.
“The Pickering or Warden Pear. This tree was grafted on the 19th of April, 1775, the day the battle of Lexington was fought, and must have been at that time a small tree. It is called by the owner the Uvedale Warden or Pickering pear, which are synonyms of the Uvedale’s St. Germain or Pound, but it is entirely distinct from that variety, being much smaller as well as otherwise different. It resembles, and very probably is identical with, a variety which I have known as the English Warden, but which I do not find described in any pomological work, and have not seen for years. It is of medium size, turbinate, light yellow, with a dull brownish cheek, in use in winter, for cooking only. Paul Dudley says, in the paper above quoted, ‘I have a Warden Pear Tree that measures five Foot six Inches round.’
“The Pickering tree contracts suddenly at about a foot from the ground, where it must have been grafted. It shows no sign of being grafted elsewhere. Below the point of grafting, it is full two feet in diameter and is about twenty-five feet high. It stands in a low, moist place. The top was much injured by the great gale of September, 1869, losing several large limbs, but the tree is on the whole in good preservation. In the same garden is a tree probably as old or older, believed to be a Messire Jean.
“The estate, now much circumscribed from its original extent, on which this tree stands, has been in the same family since 1642, having been purchased in that year by John Pickering, who came from England in 1637, and built the house, now standing and occupied by the owner, in 1651. It is on Broad street, Salem. The tree was grafted by John Pickering, of the fifth generation.
“The Hon. Timothy Pickering, eminent for his incorruptible integrity and immovable firmness, who successively held the offices of Adjutant-general and Quartermaster-general in the Revolutionary army, and of Postmaster-general, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Washington, and continued to hold the last named office under President Adams, was a brother of John. At the breaking out of the Revolution he was Colonel of the Essex regiment, and on the day when this tree was grafted by John Pickering, who was an invalid, his more vigorous brother mustered his regiment and marched to intercept the retreating British troops. Timothy Pickering was also interested in agriculture, having been Secretary of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, the oldest agricultural society in the United States, and after his return to Massachusetts, was the first President of the Essex County Agricultural Society. The estate on which the old pear tree stands was devised by John Pickering, who died unmarried, to his nephew John, son of Timothy, the most eminent American philologist of his time. On his death, it descended to his son John, the present owner, to whom I am indebted for the facts here stated, as well as for the specimens of fruit exhibited at Chicago last September.”
Out of an embarrassing number of references in regard to the early introduction of the pear in New England one may choose the following: Francis Higginson, writing in 1629, notes that pears are under cultivation in New England.[6] In the same year, a memorandum of the Massachusetts Company shows that seeds of pears, with those of other fruits were sent to the colony.[7] Trees from these seeds grew amazingly fast in the virgin soils of the colony, for John Josselyn, who made voyages to New England in 1638 and 1639, writing in his New England Rarities Discovered, notes that “fruit trees prosper abundantly” enumerating, among others, those of the pear.[8] Josselyn further says “the Kernels sown or Succors planted produce as fair and good fruit, without grafting, as the trees from which they were taken,” and that “the Countrey is replenished with fair and large Orchards.” As early as 1641 a nursery had been started in Massachusetts and no doubt was selling pear-trees. These probably came from seeds, for trees were not imported until in the next century. Varieties were few then as for many years later. In 1726, Paul Dudley, one of the Chief Justices of Massachusetts, in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions, says, “Our apples are without doubt as good as those of England, and much fairer to look to, and so are the pears, but we have not got all the sorts.” In another paragraph, Justice Dudley gives the following account of several varieties of pears in these first orchards in New England.
He says:[9]
“An Orange Pear Tree grows the largest and yields the fairest Fruit. I know one of them near forty Foot high, that measures six Foot and six Inches in Girt, a Yard from the Ground, and has borne thirty Bushels at a Time: and this year I measured an Orange Pear, that grew in my own Orchard, of eleven Inches round the Bulge. I have a Warden Pear Tree, that measures five Foot six Inches round. One of my Neighbors has a Bergamot Pear Tree that was brought from England in a Box, about the Year 1643, that now measures six Foot about, and has borne twenty-two Bushels of fine Pears in one Year. About twenty years since, the Owner took a Cyon, and grafted it upon a common Hedge Pear; but the Fruit does not prove altogether so good, and the Rind or Skin, is thicker than that of the Original.”
Thus, early in the history of Massachusetts, the pear was largely planted and became a prominent fruit. These early plantations grew so well that no doubt they inspired the horticulturists of the first half of the nineteenth century, of which the names of Dearborn, Hovey, Kenrick, the two Mannings, and