Henderson Luelling and Beth Lewelling. 105 



^ubstalltia!. proraiuent aud honored citizens of Alameda County. He died at bis 

 home in Oakland r)ecember 28, 1879. 



The sei'vices i-endei'ed to Oregon by Henderson Luelling in bringing his trav- 

 t'ling nursery across the plains in 1847 have never been overrated. It is often said 

 of the man who has performed an act of great service to his country that if he 

 had not done it some one else would have rendered the service. This saying is 

 far more often false than true. There are no grounds to justify a belief that 

 cither grafted trees or scions would have reached Oregon before 1852 if it had 

 not been for Henderson Luelling. There were others who conceived the plan of 

 bringing trees across the plains in wagons, but the only person who actually 

 brought live trees to Oregon, aside from Mr. Luelling, was Mr. Meel\, and Mr. 

 Meek would not have come across with his trees if Mr. Luelling and his family 

 had remained in Iowa. There was not at that time any practical method of 

 bringing trees to Oregon except the one adopted by Mr. Luelling. The great rush 

 of gold hunters to California a few years later led to the establishment of regu- 

 lar transportation routes by way of the Isthmus of Panama, but the first fruit 

 trees which came to Oregon by that route did not come until 1852. The five 

 years gained by Oregon by reason of the arrival of Henderson Luelling's stock 

 in 1847 gave Oregon a prestige in the nursery business, and as a producer of 

 apples of the best (juality which it has never lost. 



Who can measure by dollars and cents the pleasure and satisfaction it gave the 

 settlers of Oregon, after a number of years of abstinence, to pick and eat from 

 their own trees the favorite varieties of fruits grown at their old homes, and to 

 tind that these old favorites, grown in Oregon, were of surpassing quality and 

 iieauty V 



The financial aspect of the case was a large one. The gold miners of Cali- 

 fornia were hungry for fruit and careless as to prices. The first shipment of 

 grafted apples from Oregon to California was made in 1853, and the fruit sold in 

 San Francisco for .$2.00 per pound. The volume of shipments increased rapidly 

 until 1800. when the supply of California-grown apples had become sufficiently 

 large to affect the demand for Oregon apples. Prior to 1860, however, the farm- 

 I'rs of Oregon had found in California a market for a great amount of fruit at 

 prices far higher relatively than those of other farm productions. During the 

 time when the Oregon farmer was selling his grafted apples at from ,$5.00 to 

 .$10.00 per box he was getting from $1.00 to $1.50 a bushel for his wheat; 30 to 

 50 cents a p('uud for butter ; 20 to 40 cents per dozen for eggs, and from 75 cents 

 TO $1.50 a bushel for potatoes. That he en.ioyed the benefit of one high-priced, 

 as well as abundant, crop was due to tlie work of Henderson Luelling. 



Seth Lewelling was born March 6th, 1820. ^Yhen his brothers, ^Yilliam, 

 Henderson, and John, moved to Iowa he remained in Indiana. Prior to 1850 he 

 was for a number of years engaged in the boot and shoe business at Greensboro, 

 Indiana. In the fall (.f 1850 he came to Oregon and engaged in the nursery busi- 

 ness established by his brother and Meek. In partnership with others or alone he 

 continued the nursery business at Milwaukie until his death, which occurred on 

 February 21st, 1806. 



Seth Lcwelling"s great work for the fruit-growing industry was in originating 

 new varieties. He commenced the work by planting in 1851 the seeds of Isabella 

 grapes, the only variety then grown in Oregon. From this planting he secured 

 one variety named the Lewelling. which yielded fruit of high quality aud twice 

 the size of the Isabella. lOncouraged by this success he grew during the next 

 twenty years a great numl)er of trees from the seeds of apples, pears, plums, 

 prunes, cherries, small fruits, etc. Of the great number of seedling apples and 

 pears he deemed none worthy of propagation. In 1860 the original Black He- 

 publican tree grew from the seed of a Black Eagle cherry. In 1875 the Golden 

 prune tree grew from the seed of an Italian prune, and the Bing cherry tree from 

 the seed of a Black Republican cherry. In 1872 the true Lewelling cherry tree 

 grew from the seed of a Black Tartarian cherry, and the cherries grown from 



