ORIGIN OP thi: CATAWBA 55 



dearly those of the wild fox-grape, Vitis Labrusca. Tim 

 Catawba was found wild in the woods of Buncombe 

 County, in extreme western North Carolina, by < »n«- 

 Murray, who emigrated to that country from Pennsyl- 

 vania about 1^<M. settling <>n tin- Kentucky ami Warm 

 Spring trail. The farm ami neighborhood was called 

 Murraysville, ami it lies ten miles southeast of the 

 at Asheville. Tin- grapes were found upon this 

 farm in 1802, growing wild in great profusion. An- 

 other variety was also found, bearing very long, 

 crowded clusters of dark purple grapes, but the fruit 

 was not so good as that of tlit- variety whose history 

 w.- are tracing. This Letter variety had open clusters 

 of reddish grapes, — features which the grape-grower 

 will recognize as characteristic of the Catawba. When 

 the forest was removed, the grapes became larger and 

 better. The following year, 1803, there came to Mur- 

 raysville commissioners to settle the disputed boun- 

 daries of North Carolina and Georgia, ami these per- 

 sons tasted of the grapes and pronounced them good. 

 Quakers from Newberry District, South Carolina. 

 passed through the place in 1805 on their way to 



Ohio, and they took some of these grapes with them, 

 hut nothing is known of any offspring of these fruits 

 which may have originated with the emigrants. In 

 l>n7. General Davy, United State- Senator, a resi- 

 dent <»f Rocky Mount, on the Catawba River, trans- 

 planted some of the vines to his own place; and 

 ■ome time between 1807 ami 1816 lie took cuttings 

 <>r vine- to Washington ami distributed them amougsl 

 friend- in Maryland as the Catawba Grape. Mrs. 

 Bcholl probablj obtained her vines of him or of his 

 friend.-, ami from her Adlum Becured hi- cuttings. 



