Mower County transcript., 1903-02-25

Ing IN the now city OF Lacrosse, Wis
but it turned out a very dry season an,
he became discouraged trying to rails,
anything on the old sand bar, and un
der date of June first of the same yea
sold his property in Lacrosse, ant
bought 20 acres Of land across the rive
in Minnesota and named it Sunny, Side
This was before Minnesota was admit
ted. into the union and at least this Dor
ton was practically wilderness. He
spent q. few days building a. shanty
and settling up affairs and on June /;
moved his family over and: immediate
y began clearing and planting a small
patch of ground to vegetables. Spent
remainder Of the summer caring fo1
this and disposing of his crop raised in
La Crosse. Although in poor health he
went to work cutting cord wood the
next winter and hired a man to haul it
to- market with two yoke of oxen bought
tor the purpose and it kept him busy
too.: Next spring he began to clear off
and broke more ground and planted a
small bundle of apple trees also some
goosebcrry and currant bushes and 9th
er shrubbery and the following year set
out more apple trees. In 1860 bought a
few grape vines and set out strawberry
plants in 1861. The small fruit was a
success from the start and has never
failed to bear fruit annually since. In
the winter of 81 I find him reading up
on fruit growing and ordering more
trees. Next year he established green
house and continued this with veget-
able gardening business. ..
The opening of the war brought hard
times and I find we were out of provi-
slons and got credit at the village store
for sack flour 1926 but still making
plans to plant larger orchard First re-
cord of gathering apples Sept. 1864,
variety and quantity not stated. From
that time forward we always had a few
apples to eat and within: q few years
generally at least a surplus to sell and
help exc out a living.
Full well can 1 remember when 90.
ing to school how We always had our
pockets stuffed with apples and how
wewore the envy off alI st1e scnolars
and many an apple;we sold for q nickle
or traded for other treasures. Yes,
and they were good ones too, st. Law
renee, Bailey's Sweets, Seek-no-f further
and other eastern varieties.
"sept. 2, 1852, great excitement pre-
walls about the Indian outbreak. Peo-
pie are leaving the state by hundreds" {"
We met lot of them when returning
from school and hurried home, to flee
with our folks but they concluded to
remain and we were not molested. :.
Attended the state fair at Rochester
in Oct: 1855 and took first money on
apples and grapes, and met few hor-
ticulturists one evening and organized
a state society. This I have a strong
suspicion was the birth of the Mime.
sofa State Horticultural Society. From
that time on he never failed to exhibit
fruit at the annual state fair and gen.
orally with success. When we moved
here he was badly in debt and contin:
ued paying interest till he had paid for
land twice without owning it, but in
1870 he began to prosper and got out of
debt and began making improvements
and in few years had built new house,
barn and larger green house. I was
under two years ofage when we moved
here so practically my lifetime has
been spent on the place. Being the
Oldest boy it was my privilege to go to
market and hold 4 the horse as soon as
big enough, and early in life 1 began to
take an interest in = the work. AS a
matter of fact I never earned $40 at
any other work. Upon reaching my
majority in 1875 entered into partner,
ship with him and soon after bought
20 acres more land aud began tolaunch
out in small fruit growing and a few
years later abandoned green house on
account of his failing health and my
dislike to the business: continued veg
etable growing till !: about 1890 and
since that time have been exclusively
engaged in fruit growing. This part
nership continued in a measure during
the remainder of his lifetime but dur
ing his last years he retired from active
business and devoted all his time to
literary work and experimenting in
nursery and trial orchard.
or1x, s,o% %h1 -