~ DHiosraphy. 
WILLIAM SOMERVILLE, VIOLA, MINN. 
(SEE FRONTISPIECE) 
The subject of this sketch was born in Beaver county, Pa., in the 
year 1819. He came with his parents to Ripley county, Ind., at six- 
teen years of age, where he worked at the carpenter's trade for a 
period of five years. He then bought forty acres of land in the tim- 
ber and began clearing a farm, adding thereto from time to time 
until he became the owner of 200 acres. His wife’s health becoming 
impaired, and a change of climate being deemed desirable and to 
her advantage, he sold his farm and removed to Olmstead county, 
Minnesota, in the spring of 1860, purchasing two claims, partly of 
smooth prairie and partly of grub land. Inthe spring branch lay 
twenty apple trees that had been purchased the preceding fall from 
Mr. A. W. Sias, who was then canvassing in that part of the country 
for a New York nursery. He grubbed out the hazel brush and set 
the trees, the varieties being Talmon Sweet, Golden Russet, Wine 
Sap and one Duchess of Oldenburg. (The last mentioned tree is still 
alive and in bearing condition.) Being resolved to grow fruit, if pos- 
sible, he prepared the ground and in 1862 gave Mr. Sias an order for 
two hundred more trees, including fifty of the Duchess. The latter 
were set in his orchard in the form of a square,where they still stand 
in a healthy and thrifty condition. The other varieties have long 
since disappeared. 
In the winter of 1872-3, he was a member of the state legislature. 
In the years 1874 and 1875, he was employed by the Hon. L.B. Hodges - 
as foreman to set trees along the line of the St. Paul & Pacific Rail- 
road, at Willmar, Benson, Morris and other towns along that line. 
Having experimented with Eastern fruit trees and become dis- 
couraged with the results, in 1877 he started asmall nursery of apple 
trees and evergreens. Scions were obtained from seedling fruit 
trees which had withstood previous trying winters, anda small sup- 
ply was also received from the Agricultural Department. In 1880an 
orchard of some 200 trees was set, including a number of Russian 
varieties. These trees all grew well, but the seedlings were mostly 
killed by the trying winter of 1883-4. A few trees in the orchard and 
nursery escaped where well protected on the north by a willow 
hedge, but the Russian varieties withstood the test, and these still re- 
main in a fruitful condition. Encouraged by this experience, he 
added thereafter some hundred or more Russian varieties and a 
limited number of the better varieties of seedlings, and he now has 
some 2,000 trees. This experimental work he has conducted inde- 
pendent of outside aid, seeking to obtain a few of the best varieties 
_for hardiness of wood and fine quality of fruit, which farmers can 
set with some degree of certainty. 
Mr. Somerville was on the staff of the Minnesota Farmers’ Insti- 
tute, as lecturer on horticulture, for somethree years. Heexhibited 
fruit at the first state fair heJd at Rochester. He was one of the first 
or charter members of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society 
with J. S. Harris, A. W. Sias and others,and was afterwards made an 
honorary life member of that society. 
