Shadow Lake Orchards, 1895



Orville K. Gerrish Estate, Bedford Street, Lakeville, MA, photograph, 1904
The home and outbuildings of Orville K. Gerrish near Loon Pond are pictured as they appeared about the time of Gerrish's retirement from horticultural work.  In 1889, Gerrish had purchased 113 acres between Bedford Street, Precinct Street and Loon Pond on which he established a fruit tree nursey with over 100,000 specimens.  Many of the trees were peach trees, and in 1895, the New York Tribune made note of Gerrish's eforts to revive peach cultivation in Massachusetts.

In the early 1890s, Orville K. Gerrish established a large scale tree nursery on land adjoining Loon Pond in Lakeville on the site now occupied by the former Ted Williams Camp. Acquiring 113 acres between Bedford Street, Precinct Street and Loon Pond on March 12, 1889, from Horatio N. Sampson and the Washburn family, Gerrish laid out an extensive peach orchard which he operated for several years. Gerrish’s was a model operation, with carefully tended specimens, and modern innovations, including a windmill which pumped pond water to the nursery.

Gerrish had been born in 1841 at Sumner, Maine, to farmer Nathaniel Gerrish, from whom he learned the rudiments of farming. The younger Gerrish later focused upon nursery work, both in Maine, and (for a short period of time) at Geneva, New York. As can be discerned from his comments to the New York Tribune in 1895, Gerrish was a well educated man with an inquisitive mind. In the late 1880s, he was engaged not only as a dealer in nursery stock at Portland, Maine, but as a lawyer as well.

By 1895, the scope of Gerrish’s Lakeville nursery was enormous as indicated by the following description carried in the Middleboro Gazette on September 13 of that year. The article, itself, was taken from the New York Tribune which had taken note of Gerrish’s nursery as well as his effort help revive peach culture in Massachusetts.

The time was when Massachusetts raised great quantities of peaches, and everybody had plenty, as now is the case of pears. Then came a blight, and the industry failed, and the trees almost entirely disappeared, and it came to be believed that this was finally and forever.

But a better day appears to be at hand, and the prospect is that Massachusetts will become again a peach producing State. The man who has made this turn in the tide is named Orville K. Gerrish, and the house is in Lakeville, one of the southernmost towns in Plymouth County. His place is called the “Shadow Lake Orchards,” from a lonely little lake nearby. Mr. Gerrish is a native of Maine, and a nurseryman of twenty-eight years practical experience at Geneva, in western central New York. On a hundred acres of poor soil on which nothing but bayberry bushes, briars, wild ferns and weeds grew for many years he has now large orchards of thrifty, bearing peach trees and blocks of nursery trees – apple, peach and plum – to the number of 100,000 or more. Mr. Gerrish says he believes he has triumphed over natural climate obstacles and by the simplest and most inexpensive of methods. His system briefly stated, is to avoid forcing the growth of his trees, thereby making tender wood; to avoid long-bodied trees on which the early spring sun may shine, causing the sap to rise too soon, and to plant his trees close together. These seem to be the cardinal principles of a plan designed to combat the severe frost of winter.

“I planted small, one-year-old, low headed trees, using no fertilizer of any kind about tree roots, and removed no limbs from the trees except bruised and dead ones. Immediately after planting, a mixture of potash and ground bone, in equal parts, was spread about the trees, which was all the dressing they received the first year. Since, they have been similarly dressed about twice each year with unleached ashes about the tree as the limbs expand, so as to keep a space cultivated and fertilized about as far as the limbs extend. I do no other cultivating after the first two years, than that which can be done with hoes, hoeing about the trees, clearing weeds, and grubbing the earth before fertilizing. Potash, an element which seems to be nearly exhausted in this soil, is essential to the peach tree, and must be supplied. I think unleached ashes is almost perfect fertilizer for the peach, and believe that people who burn wood for cooking, etc., could if they have ground, cultivate a few peach trees and, with the judicious use of ashes from stoves applied to the trees, easily supply themselves with peaches and have a surplus for market.

“I planted most of the trees ten feet apart each way, and they have succeeded better than those planted farther apart in all respects. Hence I would not plant farther apart than ten feet. The branches grow together so as to cover the ground, shading it, preventing the weeds from growing and causing it also to retain moisture longer, and therefore better withstand dry weather. The low head is desirable for several reasons. It obviates exposure of a long trunk or body to the sun in the winter and spring, when thawing weather is liable to be followed by sudden freezing and injury. It prevents injury by winds which might result to all trees, and it certainly is a great advantage in gathering fruit. Since convenient roadways are left among the trees fertilizer can easily be carried from cart to trees. From my experience close planting and low heads are conducive to success in peach culture.”

This in brief, is the account, which we have condensed from the New York Tribune, of a success achieved only a few miles south of us, which deserves the attention of every tiller of the soil in southeastern Massachusetts. Our County Fair people should make a special point of this; for if our county could grow its own peaches, that would be a great improvement.

At the time this article was published, peach cultivation was a hotly debated topic in Massachusetts agricultural circles. While some like the Tribune blamed the decline in the commonwealth’s peach production on “blight”, others like J. H. Hale who spoke before the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture in December, 1892, attributed it to an increasing lack of snow on the ground during the winter which had previously provided a protective seasonal blanketing for the trees. Hale also remarked that peach cultivation required patience, noting the example of a man who cut down his peach trees only a few years after planting when they did not produce the crops he expected. “If a man has no more spunk than that, he ought not to plant peach trees in Massachusetts”, stated Hale. Hale nonetheless recommended peach cultivation, though with a caution. “If you go into peach culture, you must not expect to get a crop every year, because the frost will catch you every now and then; but when you get a crop what fun you will have, and how your neighbors will say, ‘How lucky you are!’”

By 1905, Gerrish had retired, and he enjoyed his new free time by traveling abroad. In 1922, Gerrish’s widow Alice sold the nursery which was owned and operated as a summer camp by Boston Council, Boy Scouts of America (1923 -1957) and as the Ted Williams Camp and Lakeville Baseball Camp.

Sources:

J. H. Hale, “Fruit Growing in Massachusetts”, Fortieth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, Together with the Tenth Annual Report of the State Agricultural Experiment Station. Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1892.

Middleboro Gazette, “Massachusetts Peaches Again”, September 13, 1895, page 2.

Plymouth County Registry of Deeds 571:502; 576:104; 854:399; 932:132; 1406:117; 1431:411; 1542:338; 2613:66; 2704:403



Huckleberries

Prior to the propagation of cranberries, one of Middleborough’s principal fruit crops had been the wild huckleberry. While huckleberries may never have proved a crop of enormous commercial value for Middleborough, their role in the social history of the community is, nonetheless, noteworthy, and recorded references to huckleberrying are frequent in the period preceding the First World War.

The wild huckleberry was noted in the earliest written accounts of the region made by European explorers. About 1602, Captain John Smith had described nearby Cape Cod as “overgrown with shrubby pines, hirts [huckleberries], and such trash.” Areas closer to Middleborough were likewise marked for their “considerable undergrowth of vines, huckleberry bushes and other shrubby plants.” Huckleberries thrived in both the swamps and uplands of South Middleborough, particularly, and they grew there in such abundance that they gave their name to nearby Huckleberry Corner in Carver near the end of Pine Street, where residents would sell their berries to the occupants of passing stages en route to New Bedford. Local residents would make their way into the woods each summer in search of the berry, and so great was their allure, that in August, 1879, a 90-year old woman is recorded as having "filled in some spare time this summer by picking a goodly quantity of huckleberries."

Wild huckleberries were picked also for sale throughout the last decades of the nineteenth century. In 1875, Middleborough produced 4,756 quarts of the berry valued at $421, a not inconsiderable amount when contrasted with the value of Middleborough’s other agricultural output. At the time, Middleborough ranked third in the production of huckleberries in Plymouth County, behind Scituate and Marshfield. The Gazette, noting the local sales from its woods and dairy farms remarked “only think of the bowls of huckleberries and milk.”

Attempts were made at Middleborough, as elsewhere, to commercially exploit this natural bounty and, in July, 1885, an unnamed South Middleborough man was in fact shipping several crates of huckleberries a week to Nantucket, reportedly “doing a good business … and realizing good prices.” However, because the huckleberry plant was wild and had yet been domesticated, harvests were highly dependent upon the vagaries of nature. In November, 1902, it was reported that “South Middleborough bushes have become so twisted as to the season that they have been blossoming.” On October 25, 1913, the Gazette reporter was shown a cluster of ripe huckleberries and blossoms on the same branch by Elmer Hatch who just previously had been able to harvest enough berries for a pie. In 1919, South Middleborough residents were surprised to find ripe huckleberries as early as June.

Because of the wild and therefore unpredictable existence of South Middleborough huckleberries, harvestable quantities fluctuated greatly on an annual basis. In 1877 it was reported that “the swamp huckleberry is scarce.” In August, 1888, huckleberries were considered scarce and “when you find them they are not worth the seeking.” Similarly, in August, 1912, “huckleberries have not as yet been found very plenty,” and in August, 1918, they were “a scarce article.” In 1922, their scarcity drove the price up to thirty cents a quart. Other years, however, produced bumper crops. In July, 1906, “prospects of huckleberries are good.” Thirteen years after, in 1919, huckleberries were being gathered “in great abundance and everyone ought to have enough, as there are plenty now in the swamps,” in fact, so many that “many bushels will go to waste.” In 1935, “the oldest inhabitant never remembers a season when huckleberries were more plentiful than they have been this summer.”

Clearly, as long as huckleberries remained uncultivated, they would never form the basis for a successful or stable commercial enterprise, though South Middleborough natives readily took advantage of the crop in the years when it was available to them. Elmer Hatch, in particular, had an especial knack for locating the ripe berry. “We think Elmer Hatch must have been about the first to find ripe huckleberries, as it was three weeks ago he reported them.” In September, 1919, Hatch was still able to locate ripe berries, picking several quarts and bringing “home bushes with a good display of large blue ones which were as nice as those of the earlier part of the season.”

Illustrations:

"Wild Berries", photograph by Stefan Klopp, August 8, 2008. Used under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

USGS Map, Snipatuit, 1943.

The map shows the location of Huckleberry Corner in Carver just up East Street from Middleborough and the Weweantic River. Residents from nearby South Middleborough likely were among those selling huckleberries here to passing stages, a practice which gave the neighborhood its name.

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"Huckleberry Bush", photograph by farmerjulie, July 5, 2007. Used under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

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"Huckleberries", photograph by Geoffrey Smith, September 13, 2009. Used under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.
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Sources:

Middleboro Gazette

Old Colony Memorial

Dahlias

Following the Civil War, Middleborough developed an active horticultural industry with C. D. Kingman, Levi P. Thatcher, Timothy Creedon, Keyes Brothers, and other florists and nurserymen establishing themselves to sell plants and flowers to local residents. Among the plants that these growers raised were dahlias, a flower for which Middleborough would become particularly known in the era between the 1920s and the 1950s.
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H. C. Monroe is noted in 1897 by the Middleboro Gazette as perhaps the first local dahlia grower of note. " H. C. Monroe is a successful grower of that superb autumn flower, the dahlia and at his garden on Main street he has over 200 plants in cultivation and 100 varieties, some of which are very rare, are embraced in the collection." [Middleboro Gazette, "What the Gazette Was Saying Twenty-Five Years Ago", September 22, 1922, page 7] Monroe's efforts as an amateur grower, however, were eclipsed by those of Francis R. Eaton of Rock Street.

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Eaton, a leather cutter working for the Alden, Walker & Wilde shoe manufactory, appears to have been the first Middleborough resident to grow dahlias on an extensive scale. By 1909 he was cultivating over 125 varieties, a number of which had been awarded prizes. Eaton propogated the plants on the small plot on which his house stood at 14 Rock Street (the land totaled three eighths of an acre). It became a local landmark, particularly in early autumn when the flowers came into bloom.

Francis R. Eaton's dahlias at his garden on Rock street have attracted the attention of many during the past month. He has 125 varieties, including many rare specimens of the cactus, and the flowers when in the height of bloom made a decidedly handsome appearance. Mr. Eaton has had numerous exhibits of the fall flowers in various stores about town and has been very generous in presenting boquets to friends. At the councillor convention, Tuesday, many of the Fall River delegates visited the garden and were given handsome flowers." [Middleboro Gazette, October 15, 1909, "Middleboro", p. 2]

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As late as 1922, Eaton's Rock Street gardens remained a showplace:

Lovers of the beautiful should take a stroll down Rock street before the frost ruins the magnificent display of dahlias in Francis R. Eaton's garden. The collection includes over 600 splendid plants, all in full bloom and so artistically placed as to bring out the richness and beauty of each flower and to make an harmonious whole of a varied mass of color. Most of the plants are of rare varieties, for as Mr. Eaton says, 'It takes no more ground or time to grow a fine flower than a poor one.'" [Middleboro Gazette, "Middleboro", October 20, 1922, p. 1]

Not to be outdone, however, was Elmer O. Drew whose Forest Street home featured "a beautiful display of dahlias... [which] is a source of much pleasure to all whose paths lie in that vicinity. Over 300 varieties are represented in the collection, many being seedlings raised by Mr. Drew." [Middleboro Gazette, "Middleboro", October 6, 1922, page 1]

While these gardeners were likely responsible for popularizing the flower locally, it was not until the 1920s that professional Middleborough horticulturalists took up dahlias on a commercial scale. In the 1920s, dahlias became a specialty in Middleborough with a number of growers concentrating on the flower including F. L. Millis & Co. at 96 East Main Street which was advertising cut flowers, dahlias, gladiolus and asters in July, 1922.
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J. Herbert Alexander was the first Middleborough grower of dahlias of note. Alexander was the son of J. K. Alexander of East Bridgewater who operated an extensive nursery business in that town and billed himself as "The Dahlia King." Alexander was a noted specialist in dahlia propagation, and he developed the first American collarette dahlia in 1912.

The younger Alexander began operations in 1924 on Summer Street (he was exhibiting at the annual dahlia show at the Horticultural Hall in Boston that fall). The farm later known as Dahliatown occupied nearly 25 and a half acres of land on either side of Summer Street just south of Murdock Street which was later owned by the Dutra family. "Those who visited 'Dahliatown' this summer will be interested to learn that the work of harvesting the six acres of gladioli bulbs is well under way and that in a short time the dahlia crop will be dug", noted the Gazette in October, 1927, hinting at the large scope of the Alexander enterprise. In addition to the namesake dahlias, Alexander specialized in other bulbs including tulips (offering 66 varieties in 1928), crocus (white, yellow, blue, purple and variegated), and hyacinth (pink, blue, white, yellow and red). Also sold were vegetable seeds including those advertised in early 1929: pepper, tomato and early cabbage. "A complete line of strictly fresh VEGETABLE SEEDS" touted the advertising. To help promote his business, Alexander exhibited at agricultural and horticultural fairs and shows throughout Massachusetts and in 1927 his flowers won prizes at the Topsfield, Hingham, Brockton, Barnstable, Springfield and Worcester fairs.
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Word of Alexander's prize-winning flowers spread rapidly, and in early January, 1930, he reported "an order for 250,00 gladiolus bulbs involving more than $2,000.... Mr. Alexander said the deal, which was made by a New Jersey wholesale seed house, was the largest of its kind on record. Last year, the farm sent 150,000 bulbs in a single order which eclipsed previous sales. The recent order which will eventually decorate gardens of 6,000 homes will not be delivered until March." [Middleboro Gazette, "Middleboro", January 10, 1930, p. 1] The following year, Alexander reported an even larger order - 300,000 gladioli bulbs - which were sold to a bulb retailer who sold throughout the United States and Canada. "Mr. Alexander figures that this order of bulbs will total from ten to fifteen tons in weight and will require three hundred packing cases for shipping." [Middleboro Gazette, "Record Sale of Gladioli Bulbs", January 23, 1931, p. 2]

Alexander's operation was so successful, that on August 25, 1930, he had leased a portion of the former Eliphalet W. Thomas Farm on Wareham Street near Tispaquin Pond from Thomas's daughter Lurana ("Lulu") Tinkham. "Mr. Alexander is establishing a new branch of his farm on the Cape road in South Middleboro near Carver's Grove," reported the Gazette at the time, slightly misnaming the location as South Middleborough. [Middleboro Gazette, "Record Sale of Gladioli Bulbs", January 23, 1931, p. 2]. In January, 1931, Alexander purchased a portion of the Thomas Farm and in time his entire nursery operation would be consolidated to the Wareham Street location which continued to do business under the Dahliatown name. The location presented a startling sight to those who drove past on their way to the Cape. "Motorists on route 28 are familiar with the great fields of dahlias and gladioli on both sides of the highway during the summer season and the jars of blossoms on sale on the porch" of the sales office building. Assisting Alexander in his work were several employees including Edwin F. Shaw of Plymouth Street who acted as a sales manager for the firm, as well as Mary Allison, stenographer.

Unfortunately for Alexander, Dahliatown was a business plagued by fire. On April 20, 1940, a fire destroyed the large farm barn on Wareham Street which Alexander used for the storage of "wooden bulb trays, cardboard shipping containers, bushel boxes and baskets and miscellaneous equipment." Though the fire took place "during the gale-driven rain storm", the winds spread the flames quickly through the wooden structure, and efforts were devoted to saving Alexander's nearby home, a smaller barn, the Dahliatown sales office and a 24-sheet billboard. "A considerable crowd rushed from town to the scene in spite of the cold, driving rain, and automobiles were parked along Wareham street, both sides of the fire."
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More serious was a fire on the night of February 22, 1943, which destroyed the sales office, stock rooms and work rooms of Dahliatown. The fire started from an overheated stove pipe, which due to the wartime shortage of oil, Alexander had been compelled to install just months prior to the fire. "'Our work of some 20 years of propagation and crossing was wiped out in 20 minutes, more or less,' said Mr. Alexander. 'Everything we had is gone. There was just one order packed and ready for shipment that was not in the burned building.'" The fire seems to have ended Alexander's association with dahlia-growing, and his interest turned to other areas of horticultural pursuit, particularly blueberry cultivation at which he became quite successful.

In addition to Alexander, Wilfred D. Deane cultivated dahlias at his farm, located on Plymouth Street at Warrentown. In February, 1928, Deane acquired the former William Quindley property on Plymouth Street near Nemasket Springs through the E. A. Strout Agency, and he immediately began the propogation of dahlias and other flowering bulbs, naming the business Eastvale Farms for its location along the east side of the Nemasket River just north of Muttock. Like Alexander, Deane participated in numerous shows throughout the region in an effort to draw attention to his products, and again like Alexander, Deane was generally successful in winning prizes for his specimens. In 1939, Deane won first place for the best commercial display at the prestigious Dahlia Society of New England exhibition. Two years later, in 1941, Deane won ten prizes at the society's show, including six first places.

In 1951, Deane sold the Plymouth Street farm to the Reynolds family and relocated to Wood Street where he continued to operate a dahlia farm under the Eastvale name. In the fall of 1950, Deane featured his first annual visitors' day, inviting residents to enjoy the displays and dahlias in bloom. Shortly afterwards, Deane's operation ended, probably partially due to a decline in the demand for dahlias which were increasingly seen as "old fashioned".
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Unlike some other flowers, the popularity of dahlias has fluctuated over the years, and they have come in and out of fashion among gardeners. Clint Clark, in his popular Gazette column "By the Way ...", in 1978, wrote a paean to the then long-forgotten dahlia.

My mother loved flowers. Her pride an joy was a backyard plot in which dahlias flourished in many forms and marvelous colors. All we can remember of their culture is that we dug holes and pit them in in the spring, dug them up and stored them in the cellar for the winter; and that, without education as to their special needs, they multiplied for us and made a glorious beauty spot.

Dahlias were in nearly every garden then, popular, we think, because their vareity of form ranged from compact globes to huge, exotic blossoms. They were perfect for cutting and arranging in boquets.

But their popularity, we've noticed, has faded in recent years. Someone said it is because their care is too much of a chore .... So we consulted a gardener who we know grows dahlias, and were told exactly what we hoped to hear - simply dig a hole and cover the bulbs with about 3-4 inches of soil, sprinkle a little fertilizer. We'll get acquainted with bugs and blights later.

Today, though no dahlia farms continue to operate in Middleborough, "The Dahlia Farm" name itself remains. Today it is run as a community supported agriculture venture by Jim Reynolds on the former dahlia farm purchased by his parents in 1951 from Wilfred Deane. Appropriately, cut flowers have continued to be grown on the property since that time. Visit The Dahlia Farm website and blog to learn more.
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Illustrations:
"Decorative Dahlia, Emily D. Renwick, Raised by Mrs. Stout", Mrs. Charles H. Stout, The Amateur's Book of the Dahlia (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1922), plate 1.

Richard Dean, The Dahlia:Its History and Cultivation (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903).

The book was an early standard reference on the dahlia, and was undoubtedly known to Middleborough's earliest growers.

"Dahlia close", Steve Plass, photographer, 2008. Republished under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

"World's Largest Dahlia Grower", advertisement.

Mrs. Charles H. Stout, The Amateur's Book of the Dahlia (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1922), title page.Another book which was successful in popularizing dahlias was this volume, published at the start of the 1920s, a time when professional dahlia propagation in Middleborough was expanding rapidly through the efforts of J. H. Alexander and Wilfred D. Deane.

USGS map, "Bridgewater", 1940 ed., with the locations of Dahliatown and Eastvale Farms superimposed. Michael J. Maddigan, 2009.
Interestingly, Middleborough's two largest dahlia farms - J. Herbert Alexander's Dahliatown and Wilfred D. Deane's Eastvale Farms were located only a few miles appart on either side of Warrentown.

"Dahlia", audrey, photographer. Republished under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Eastvale Farms advertising card, c. 1940, paper.

"Two Dahlias", Steve Plass, photographer, 2007. Republished under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Sources:
Clark, Clint. Middleboro Gazette. "By the Way ..." "Dahlias - an oldtime delight", June 8, 1978, page 2.
Dean, Richard. The Dahlia: Its History and Cultivation. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903.
Middleboro Gazette, Eastvale Dahlia farms advertisement, September 4, 1952, page 4.
Middleboro Gazette, "Middleboro", September 19, 1924, page 1;
Middleboro Gazette, "Record Sale of Gladioli Bulbs", January 23, 1931, page 2.
Peacock, Lawrence K. The Dahlia: A Practical Treatise on Its Habits, Characteristics, Cultivation and History. Atco, NJ: W. P. Peacock, 1896.
Plymouth County Registry of Deeds, (Alexander) 1463:364, 1604:442, 1610:575
Plymouth County Registry of Deeds, (Deane) 1549:242, 1549:243, 2143;43, 2583:383, and 3068:112.
Stout, Mrs. Charles H. The Amateur's Book of the Dahlia. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1922.