In the summer of 1847, Mr. Henderson Luelling,[1] of Iowa, brought across the plains several hundred yearling grafted sprouts—apple, pear, cherry, plum, prune, peach, grape, and berries—a full assortment of all the fruits grown in the then far West. These were placed in soil in two large boxes, made to fit into a wagon bed, and carefully watered and tended on the long and hazardous six-months' journey with an ox team, thousands of miles to the banks of the Willamette just north of the little townsite of Milwaukie, Clackamas County.
Here a little patch in the dense fir forest was cleared away with great labor and expense, and the first Oregon orchard was set that autumn with portent more significant for the luxury and civilization of this country, than any laden ship that ever entered the mouth of the Columbia. A fellow traveler, William Meek, had also brought a sack of apple seed and a few grafted trees; a partnership was formed and the firm of Luelling & Meek started the first nursery in 1848. Roots from seedling apples planted at Oregon City and on French Prairie, and sprouts from the wild cherry of the Vicinity, and wild plum roots brought in from Rogue River Valley, furnished the first stock. And it is related that one root graft in the nursery the first year bore a big red apple, and so great was the fame of it, and such the curiosity of the people, that
- ↑ It will be noticed that there is a difference in the spelling of the names of Henderson Luelling and Seth Lewelling. As they were brothers the discrepancy may seem to suggest an error in one case or the other. The explanation is this, it being given me by Alfred Luelling, a son of Henderson, a few years ago: The family, originally, came from Wales, and in the latter part of the eighteenth century settled in North Carolina. Soon after arriving the head of the family decided to change the name from the usual Welsh style of writing it—Llewellyn to Luelling, in order to simplify it as much as possible. This was the practice of the family when the children were born—Henderson on April 23, 1809, and Seth several years later. During his whole life Henderson followed the spelling adopted by his father; and that was the custom of Seth until late in life—at least as late as 1875—as is shown by his nursery catalogues which I printed. Soon after the latter year he adopted "Lewelling" as his mode of spelling the name, but "Luelling" was the style retained by the remainder of the family.—George H. Himes.
