First Fruits: The Lewellings and the Birth of the Pacific Coast Fruit Industry

Everyone is welcome at this free author event.  Linda Ziedrich will tell the story of Henderson, John, and Seth Lewelling, co-founders of the Pacific coast fruit industry. 

Best known among the brothers is Henderson, who hauled a wagonload of fruit trees from Iowa in 1847 and planted the first grafted-fruit orchard in the Oregon Country. Seth kept the nursery going for more than forty years and won his own fame by originating the Bing and Black Republican cherries. John, after helping to establish the Oregon fruit business, founded a nursery and orchards in California and led in the development of the Napa Valley wine industry. But the brothers were much more than horticulturists; they were also abolitionists, gold miners, and Quakers turned Spiritualists. One attempted to found a utopian colony in Honduras, another helped grow the Grange in California, and the third fought for democratic reforms in Oregon. Spanning the continent and nearly a century, the brothers’ lives provide fresh perspectives on nineteenth-century westward expansion.

Books will be available for sale by Grass Roots Books & Music