NATIVE AMERICAN SPECIES OF PRUNUS. a; 
of ‘Old Hickory” plums. He planted these in some newly broken sod, and they 
did not do so well. Having left a brother in Knox county, Tenn., to come to Illinois 
the next spring, he wrote to him to bring more sprouts of the noted ‘‘Old Hickory.”’ 
His brother left Tennessee the spring of 1824-5, and instead of going to Sangamon 
county he went to Galena, taking with him a bundle of the plum sprouts intended 
for his brother. Finding himself so far from his brother, the sprouts were given away 
or sold, and for aught I know Mr. Hinckley may have received some or all of them. 
Anyhow it can be abundantly proved this is how this now noted plum first came to 
Galena. 
Some of Wm. Dodd’s trees in Sangamon county finally got to growing, fruiting, 
and sprouting, and they were distributed to some extent among his neighbors, but 
not, so far as known, among nurserymen. In Sangamon county the plum was called 
“Wm. Dodd” and ‘‘Chickasaw Chief.’”’ Some time after moving to Illinois Mr. 
Dodd, hearing of some very fine plums near Galena, sent for some cions, and behold 
he got the identical Wm. Dodd plum. Upon putting this and that together, of 
course Mr. Dodd felt satisfied that the famous plums at Galena had sprung from the 
sprouts taken there by his brother in 1824 or 1825. 
In those early days no one disputed the fact that Mr. Dodd really brought this 
plum from Tennessee. If any more special proofs are wanted for the facts (for facts 
they are) we have given, it can be gained by applying to Wm. Dodd’s grandson, 
living at Flint, Mahaska county, Iowa, or his mother’s sister—now over 70 years of 
age—near Springfield, Ill. 
Another account by H. H. McAfee (44, 45, 46), a resident of Free- 
port, Ill., and later of the University Farm, Madison, Wis., differs 
somewhat from that given by Mr. Giddings. Mr. McAfee says the 
plum was known under various names, “Miner, Townsend, Isbell, 
Peach, Chickasaw, etc.,”’ and relates its history as follows: 
In 1832,a man named Knight brought from southern Ohio, by boat to Galena, a 
stock of small trees, which he disposed of to the late Major Hinckley and others. The 
trees planted by Major Hinckley are still in full vigor, and bearing, and may be seen 
at his old place nearGalena. The year following the first importation, Knight brought 
a second lot of trees, and planted most of them on Mr. George Townsend’s farm, in the 
eastern part of Joe Daviesscounty. From these stocks the most if not allof the trees 
disseminated under the various names mentioned above have sprung; and as Major 
Hinckley was largely instrumental in securing the general planting of the plum, gen- 
erously giving them away to his neighbors and friends, and as he grew them first in 
the west, it was decided by that society [Northern Illinois Horticultural Society] 
that the name “‘Hinckley” could with more propriety than any other be applied to 
all these plums springing from Knight’s importation, except the seedlings. The 
name ‘‘Miner,’’ applied by Mr. Barber at a late date in honor of the man from whom 
he derived his trees, is not defensible on any rules of pomological nomenclature; and 
the other names mentioned above are in a like manner objectionable. 
It appears from a later account (47) that trees were disseminated 
by Maj. Hinckley, and the variety came into the possession of a Mr. 
Townsend, who grew the trees in a nursery for sale. From this cir- 
cumstance the variety was often known as the ‘‘Townsend.” A 
relative of Mr. Townsend took some of these trees to Lancaster, Wis., 
and from this stock trees were grown by Joel Barber, who gave 
