HISTORY OF MICHIGAN HORTICULTURE. 243 



the markets for our surplus? These questions we leave future historians to 

 answer. 



Judge Geo. W. Lawton has kindly furnished the following account of 



THE PIONEER ORCHARDS OF VAN BUREN COUNTY. 



Inquiry has been made for the names of the pioneers who planted the first 

 orchards in the various counties of the State. The question suggests some- 

 thing interesting, and the answers so far as made have proved quite so, espe- 

 cially when coming from the southern portion of the State. In many instances 

 there is well-grounded dispute over the person to whom the honorable enter- 

 prise shall be attributed. In others there is a general acquiescence in the name 

 given. 



The inquiry is answered from Van Buren county very fully and satisfactorily. 

 The members of the family of the late Dolphin Morris possess very accurate 

 information in regard to it, and his son, Amos Morris, Esq., of Lawton, fur- 

 nishes the following details and dates. 



His father, Dolphin Morris, with his family, moved into this State from Koss 

 county, Ohio, in the fall of 1S28, and in the spring of 1829 they settled on 

 Little Prairie Ronde, and within the limits of Van Buren county. Mr. Jones, 

 who resided on McKinney's Prairie, Cass county, had procured some apple 

 trees from Long Island, and he sold fifteen of them at one dollar apiece to Mr. 

 Morris. They consisted of the following varieties, viz : Two Bellllower, one 

 Burrassa, two Winesap, one Vandivere Pippin, one Golden Pippin, one New- 

 town Pippin, two Spitzenburg, one Leather Coat, one Limber Twig, two sweet 

 apples, and one fall apple (name unknown). About this time Mr. Morris also 

 set out a seedling tree, which was originally planted and grown by the Indian 

 chieftain Pokagon. It was planted on the rise of ground near the cemetery, 

 on Prairie Ronde, and not far from the "old Indian burying ground." The 

 site is now owned by Wm. Rosewaren. The tree was always known as the "old 

 Indian apple tree." The fruit was of good flavor, medium sized, and striped 

 red. 



In 1833, Mr. Morris again set apple trees, purchased of Mr. Moreland, which 

 the latter had grown from the seed. In 1844, a tornado swept over the Prairie, 

 and uprooted thirteen of the first setting, including the "old Indian tree." 

 "With the assistance of the neighbors, eleven of these trees were reset, and sev- 

 eral of them are yet alive and bearing fruit. Recently one of them, the largest, 

 being measured three feet from the ground, gave seven feet and two inches as 

 its circumference, but this pioneer among the apple trees of Van Buren county, 

 has since succumbed to a heavy wind, and now lies prostrate and broken upon 

 the earth, with no friendly hands to raise and reset it. 



In the fall of 1830, Mr. Morris revisited Ohio, and on his return to Mich- 

 igan the same season, he brought three roots of the Bell Pear variety, which he 

 planted and succeeded in growing. They were small, — he brought them in his 

 saddle-bags, but they are now standing on the west side of the dwelling house 

 of the Morris farm, very substantial trees. He also brought with him some 

 Damson plums, Morello cherries and peach pits, from which he succeeded in 

 propagating fruit. 



In 1833, Mr. Morris' neighbors, Mr. LeGrand Anderson, Geo. Tittle and Mr. 

 Swift, who came from Ohio, set out orchards. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Swift 



