APF'LES 



63 



onions are attached to ropes, when they 

 are exposed for sale in our markets." 



On December 6, 1835, Dr. Samuel Par- 

 ker, who arrived at Fort Vancouver sev- 

 eral weeks before that date, says: "Fruit 

 of various kinds, such as apples, peaches, 

 grapes and strawberries, for the time 

 they have been introduced, flourish, and 

 prove that the climate and soil are well 

 adapted to the purposes of horticulture." 



These references antedate Mrs. Whit- 

 man one and two years. Somewhere I 

 have a reference from another source 

 substantially confirming what Mrs. Whit- 

 man says about the first introduction of 

 fruit seeds. At the same time, I think 

 it is unsafe to say these seeds were 

 planted before the year 1825. Dr. Mc- 

 Loushlin did not arrive until late in De- 

 cember, 1824. 



B. F. Brown established a Nursery on 

 "Puget Sound two miles below Olympia," 

 September 27, 1854. 



The Hudson's Bay Company estab- 

 lished a branch known as "The Puget 

 Sound Agriculture Company" at Fort 

 Nisqually, Pierce, county, now known as 

 Dupont, in 1833. Soon after that date, 

 probably within a year or two, seedling 

 fruit trees were taken there, one or two 

 of which can still be seen or could be 

 seen up to six years ago. 



The first grafted fruit in the Puget 

 Sound country was taken there by David 

 J. Chambers in 1849 and 1850, all of 

 which was bought of Luelling & Meek, 

 Milwaukee. 



This firm was composed of Henderson 

 Luelling and William Meek, who came 

 across the plains in 1847. Meek was a 

 nursery man and was doing business in 

 Van Buren county, Iowa. He made the 

 acquaintance of Luelling in 1846, and 

 thus learned of his plans for taking a 

 stock of selected fruit trees to Oregon; 

 and not only that, but he made the ac- 

 quaintance of Mr. Luelling's daughter, 

 and was deeply impressed by her appear- 

 ance. He returned home and decided 

 that he, too, would take a small stock 

 of fruit trees to Oregon. Accordingly 

 needful preparations were made, and 

 on April 1, 1847, he started to Oregon 

 across the plains and arrived at Oregon 



City September 9 followin.g. He drove 

 on at once to the "Forks of the Santiam," 

 a section of country a few miles east of 

 Albany. Here he "heeled in" his trees 

 for the winter. A few weeks later he 

 made it "convenient" to call on Mr. Luel- 

 ling, below Milwaukee, primarily to see 

 the condition his trees were in, but 

 really to renew acquaintance with the 

 daughter. To his surprise he found Mr. 

 Luelling's trees properly set out and all 

 in good condition. An arrangement was 

 then made to add his trees to the Luel- 

 ling stock, and thus the firm of Luelling 

 & Meek was formed. And not long after 

 that, having found favor in the eyes of 

 the young lady already alluded to, a sec- 

 ond co-partnership was foi-med, the high 

 contracting parties being Mr. Meek and 

 Miss Luelling. 



The partnership with Mr. Luelling con- 

 tinued from 1848 to 1854, when the lat- 

 ter sold out to his brother, Seth, and H. 

 W. Eddy, and removed to California, 

 where he died on December 28, 1878. In 

 1859 Mr. Meek sold out to J. H. Lambert 

 and removed to Alameda county, Cali- 

 fornia, and carried on fruit growing and 

 general farming until he died in 1882. 



Henderson Luelling was born in Greens- 

 boro. N. C April 23. 1809, and his ances- 

 tors were Welsh who removed from Wales 

 to North Carolina before the Revolution- 

 ary war. His father was a nurseryman 

 in North Carolina, and taught his boy 

 Henderson how to graft as soon as the 

 latter was old enough to whittle. Early 

 in 1831 Henderson Luelling removed to 

 Henry county, Indiana, in the eastern part 

 of the state, not far from Newcastle, 

 and began the nursery business. Soon 

 after establishing himself he acquired a 

 book containing an account of the Lewis 

 and Clark exploring expedition to Ore- 

 gon in 1804-06, and the reading of that 

 work was what caused him to begin his 

 plans to go to Oregon at some future time. 

 In 1839 he I'emoved to Iowa and engaged 

 in the nursery business, as already in- 

 dicated, still cherishing the idea of re- 

 moving to Oregon. At length a plan was 

 evolved which he began putting into exe- 

 cution in 1845, that of making a selec- 

 tion of seeds of what he considered the 



