Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1906-10-19

Pears Grown On Ancestral t.trtu.
! The Rockefeller Family association re-.
Gently jourueycd To FirH.u.tln. \. J.
for lis annual meeting AND tn uuvrti 4
monument 10 one of the first two mem
bcrS of the elan to reach America. and
II came back. bound tu all parts OF The
| Union via New York. eating smail
pears and little apples picacl from
trees said To have been planted hy Old
Johann Peter Rockefeller himself say,
the New York World.
When Johann Peter took M the littlc
farm ut l.ariSon's Corner ana set out
The pear trees in 1870 the pears wcr,
large and luscious Since then the va.
'riety has been growing smaller ana
smaller but as Aunt Catherine
| Abrams. who is more than eighty.
said, they have been getting swretpr
and Swcetcr, till now they melt in your
| mouth"
The lines of the original farm have
been blotted out, the site of the old
house is tangled with the running
blackberry and goldcnrod but the
third and fourth generations of old
'"ii"nn it'er KIM ana hlh huirhvl
| "pp"S an" pears from the place aud
| got more fun out of them than they
diu Ill adlhItIllG ule monument that
tileir rlch COUSIN Jnhn H., has er"cte!
| to the memory of his Dutrh ancestor.
Inc hlGht preceding they had turned
sobeF oiu IelnlhGton INTO Il gay place
! py h"lalhg banquet ana dance in the
| opera house ANA ming every hotel in
town To overlooking. They We're out
with the bfrdS early the next morning,
lralhplhg about the village, aud by Ia
| O'Clock had started in teams for the
| little cemetery to dedicat" the nDnu
ment. Everybody went along, and the
farmers Gaped rs the teams swept
| past their fields of ruStling cUrnStlkS,
the younger folks singing;
"Wc're here because, were here because.
We're here because were here"
At the tiny graveyard given 10y old
| Johann Peter for buIying place for
his descendants and neighborS Il circle
was formed about the new monument
Aaron X. Lewis, the personal reprc-
sentative of John -. ut the reunion, de-
livered an address. lie traced Johann
Peter and his brother, piehI Peter,
from Holland TO America. lie quoted
Judge William NJ itocE".ellcr of
Pennsylvania as saying that of the
4. -. A. 4. a..
descendants OF OLD Johann "IhG+s are
hundreds if not thousands of the seed
who have always leen known as peace
able. industrious. home loving folk, and
| have never seen one of them begging
The applause was as great as when
\ on the night before NJ. Lewis in his
toast TO "our rich relatives called at
tention to the fact that the lc%efel-
Ter women had never used their wealth
to edge into society or to purchase
prayer 10y the Rev. j. y. Black the
party looked through the little old
church near the graveyard and started
back.
Reaching the farm. descent was
made on the gnarled old pear and ap-
ple trees of their ancestor, but not till
II. f.. Rockefeller of Springfield. Mass,
had got permission ana paid cent for
cent for the fruit Everybody had Il
nocketful or thnm whom they rot bucl
to the village, ana the cores We're seat
tered along the railway track all the
way to Jersey City.
Not only was their rich relative, John
d.. hardly spoken of during the day,
but there was distinct feeling in the
atmosphere that the association did not
exist on his account and that he was
: not missed any more than any other
member who could not he present.
I'VE are MT very wealthy" said one
member. but we are most of us com
fortably well off. and there are some
here whose little fortunes amount to
over n hundred thousand or so We are
proud of John u. because he is a
Rockefeller and successful but not be
cause of his money. He is losing n
good time today. that's all"
! The Flemington folks gathered Mt the
station to see the family off in their