Colonial Crab Apples
1737 - Robert Prince in 1737 established the first commercial apple tree nursery in America called William Prince Nursery in Flushing, New York. The nursery survived under four generations of the Prince family until just after the Civil War. Prince's Nursery gathered trees and plants from around the world for resale, and became renowned through the American colony for its exotic wares.
1775 - The British who occupied Long Island during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) had considered the William Prince Nursery so important that they put an armed guard around the nursery to protect it.
1779 - In 1779, Marquis de Lafayette entertained George Washington, general of the Continental Army, for dinner in 1779 under the shade of an old apple tree to map out Revolutionary War strategy against the British. Lafayette returned in 1824, during his tour of the United States, and was presented with a cane carved from this tree. The tree blew down in 1821
1789 - George Washington, six months after he became the new nation's first president, made a trip by barge to visit the William Prince Nursery. He was accompanied by Vice President John Adams and others. Washington was not overly impressed, perhaps because the nursery had not yet fully recovered from the war or perhaps because his Virginia standards were so high. In his diary for Oct. 10, he notes:
"I set off from New York, about nine oclock in my barge, to visit Mr. Princes fruit gardens and shrubberies at Flushing. These gardens, except in the number of young fruit trees, did not answer my expectations. The shrubs were trifling and the flowers not numerous.''
I cannot help but think that our first, fair President failed to see the sweat and labor that went into working a crab apple orchard--but who am I to question history? Hope that you will enjoy Arms of Love and its great attention to historic detail in the lives of the colonial Amish, and in the Wyse family's history...(Wyse as in Jacob and Seth from Lilly's Wedding Quilt!)
Peace,
Kelly
Until we moved, we had a crab apple tree on our yard. Made delicious applesauce!
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lOVE THE HISTORY YOU POST!! tHX
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I would think the researching part of preparing to write a book would be so interesting. When I was teaching, I loved learning something new. It made the material so much more exciting to me if I hadn't worked with it before. I would think it would be the same for being an author. Researching different time periods make American History so much more fun for my students and me.
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Hiya...yep, Seth and Grace will have their story but first comes Arms of Love----a look at Colonial Amish through the Wyse family's ancestors...a darker, richer book, I think, than even Lilly was.....hope you'll enjoy it all!
KL
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Hiya...yep, Seth and Grace will have their story but first comes Arms of Love----a look at Colonial Amish through the Wyse family's ancestors...a darker, richer book, I think, than even Lilly was.....hope you'll enjoy it all!
KL
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So you can cook with the humble crabapple? I have a crabapple tree in my yard, and I've only used them for decorating. One gorgeous idea was at my sister-in-law's wedding. She filled the bottom of vases with vibrant crabapples and then put sprigs of bittersweet for the flowers. It was a beautiful combination of red and orange. (But I like the idea of applesauce better!)
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