Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-19
VETERAN FRUIT GROWER
OF SAN GoRG0NI0 PASS
TOM MELLON is FAMOUS run
WORLDS PRIZE
Owner of Vast Estate valued q
$4,000 Lives in secIusion and
Cultivates Only Fifteen
Acres

Perched on narrow shelf of land
awav up in San Gorgonio pass, lives
q mute. jnglorious Luther Burbank Dul
in the hall of fame his name has been
written. 1t is a far cry from the
rugged surroundings of the San Ber-
nardino mountains to the beaten tracks
of modern conditions, but for the ap-
preciative visitor Tom Mellen VIII go
into his treasure box and abstract
long roll. He will take off tissue paper
wrappings and then at last, spread out
before the astonished vision diploma,
certifying that he, in competition with
the fruit raisers from all parts OF the
globe. won first prize at the Chicago
worlds fair for his exhibit OF drled
fruits. while Mrs. Mellen received high
commendation for the manner IN Whlch
the fruit was packed, For tWenty-1our
years Tom Mellen has studied SOIL ana
temperature, rainfall ana suhshlhe' anu
crystallized his knowledge into the most
delicious products of the orchard. Let
not the ever suspicious think this is an
insidious bit of advertising. for Tom
Mellen has cultivated only fifteen acres
of his 700. and already there are hum
dreds of buyers who would pay fancy
prices for a crate of his Scanty output.
1t was twenty-four years ago that
Tom Mellen, a venturesome Canadian
farm hand, and his Yankee wife came TO
seek their fortunes, with nothing more
than their strength of body and will
ingness to toll. They reached San Cor
gonio pass, at the summit of which the
town of Beaumont now stands, and
there obtained employment with DR..
Edgar, the original settler in that dis
trict. whose widow now is rated among
the largest property owners in Los
Angeles. In this employment Mellen
learned something of horticulture and
the possibilities of the district in which
he had become located. Going up in
the foothills he found a bench of COM
paratively level land, situated pic
turesquely beside Little San Gorgonio
creek in Edgar canyon, named for the
pioneer doctor. He filed his homestead
claim, obtained the water rights and
started to raise fruit
"No Credit to Me"
'It is no credit to me-" says Tom
Mellen. MY wife and l scratched up
the soil a little as you see, but that
isn't what makes the fruit sweet and
firm. Don't you smell the breath of the
mountains and the nipping flavor of
the air? Take that and add to it the
sweetness of the sunshine, the spark
ling mountain water and the blue sky
and anybody can grow fruit. We are
near heaven up here, and fruit just
naturally goes back to the old garden
of Eden days, before apples were sour"
So perched on his narrow strip of
land surrounded by mountains far
from the noise and hustle of the world,
Tom Mellen has elevated the growing
of fruit to a fine art. With his indus
trious wife he has made the little strip
worth $35, 900, although there is only a
little corner of thirty-fve acres under
cultivation He stood on the edge Of
his mountain promontory and watched
the invasion of Dr. f. P. Sigler who
bought out DR.. Edgar with the inten-
ton Of making Beaumont an ideal COM
munity in an ideal climate. He
watched DR.. Sigler cut up the plain