The site where the Seckel home once stood is now "a region given 

 over to the growth of plethoric cabbages, endless tomatoes, and onions 

 infinite." Near the old farm-house is a white post which marks the 

 location of the Seckel pear, the tree itself having succumbed to a 

 wind-storm in 1905. A shoot from it was grafted upon a tree nearer 

 the house. 



Gavel Made From Historic Trees 



The fashioning from historic wood, of a gavel, presented to the 

 Fifth Pacific Coast Congress of Congregational Churches, held in 

 Portland, Ore., in 1911, has brought to light some interesting facts in 

 connection with the material used. Each piece of wood in the gavel 

 was numbered to correspond with a printed list of descriptions. Two 

 of the sections were taken from fruit trees, an apple and a cherry, 

 representing events in the history of the early settlements of the great 

 North West. 



One of these was from a seedling apple, a tree which grew neai 

 the Hudson Bay Company's Fort, Vancouver, now Vancouver, 

 Wash., from seed brought from London to that place in 1825. Mrs. 

 Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, one of the two first American women to 

 cross the plains to Oregon, arrived at Fort Vancouver on September 

 12, 1836, and her husband, Dr. Marcus Whitman, and her traveling 

 companions Rev. Henry H. Spalding, Mrs. Eliza Hart Spalding 

 and William H. Gray were entertained by Dr. John McLoughlin, 

 Chief Factor of the Hudson Bay Company. Mrs. Whitman, in her 

 diary under the date above mentioned, made the following entry : 



"What a delightful place this is; what a contrast to the rough, 

 barren sand plains through which we have so recently passed. Here 

 we find fruit of every description apples, peaches, grapes, pears, 

 plums and fig trees in abundance ; also cucumbers, melons, beans, peas, 

 beets, cabbage, tomatoes, and every kind of vegetable, too numerous 

 to be mentioned. Every part is very neat and tastefully arranged, 

 with fine walks, lined on each side with strawberry vines. At the 

 opposite end of the garden is a good summer house covered with grape 

 vines. Here I must mention the origin of these grapes and apples. 

 A gentleman, twelve years ago, while at a party in London, put seeds 

 of the grapes and apples which he ate into his vest pocket; soon after- 

 wards he took a voyage to this country and left them here, and now 

 they are greatly multiplied." 



The Traveling Nursery 



The piece of cherry wood used in the gavel is of the variety known 

 as the Royal Ann, and acquaintance with it opens up a little known 

 page in the development of the western fruit industry. The Royal 

 Ann, in company with seven hundred other fruit trees, belonged to 

 the Traveling Nursery, which was brought across the plains in 1847, 

 by Henderson Lewelling, of Salem, Henry County, Iowa. 



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