Endicott Pear Tree

The Endicott Pear Tree, also known as the Endecott Pear, is a European Pear ("Pyrus communis") treecite book
author = Essex Institute
title = Bulletin of the Essex Institute
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Sn0SAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA84&dq=%22Endicott+Pear+Tree%22
accessdate = 2008-08-11
volume = X
year = 1878
publisher = The Salem Press
location = Salem, Massachusetts
pages = 84 ] located in Danvers, Essex County, Massachusetts. It is believed to be the oldest living cultivated fruit tree in North America.cite web
url = http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/pyrus/endicott.pear.html
title = The Endicott Pear Tree: Oldest Living Fruit Tree in North America
accessdate = 2008-08-08
last = Postman
first = Joseph D.
date = 2002-08-05
work = National Clonal Germplasm Repository – Corvallis, Oregon
publisher = Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture ] cite web
url = http://danversoracle.media.mit.edu:4000/servlet/pluto?state=30303470616765303037576562506167653030326964303033313237
title = The Endicott Pear Tree
accessdate = 2008-08-08
last = Brown
first = Thurl D.
date = 1978-11-13
publisher = Danvers Senior Oracle ] [cite journal
author = Catling, Paul M., and Ernie Small
date = January 10, 2008
title = Cultivated Pears in Canada: Past & Present
journal = Botanical Electronic News
issue = 386
issn = 1188-603X
url = http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/ben386.html
accessdate = 2008-08-08 ]

History

Early history

The Endicott Pear Tree was planted in its current location between 1632 and 1649 (William Bentley reports dates of 1630, 1631, and 1639 in his diary) by John Endecott—a governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, one of the Colony's earliest settlers, [cite book
last = Nicholson
first = Katharine Stanley
title = Historic American Trees
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Ewo3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA96&dq=%22Endicott+Pear+Tree%22
accessdate = 2008-08-08
year = 1922
publisher = Frye Publishing
location = New York City
pages = 96 ] and ancestor of Endicott Peabody—and was likely brought from England on the "Arbella" in June 1630. (Various reports indicate an alternate import year of 1628.) [cite book
last = Cole
first = Samuel W.
title = The American Fruit Book
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=E9c1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA141&dq=%22Endicott+Pear+Tree%22
accessdate = 2008-08-11
year = 1849
publisher = John P. Jewett
location = Boston, Massachusetts
pages = 141 ] [cite book
last = Blake
first = John Lauris
title = A Family-text Book for the Country; Or, The Farmer at Home: Being a Cyclopaedia of the More Important Topics in Modern Agriculture, and in Natural History and Domestic Economy, Adapted to Rural Life
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Af1KAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA322&dq=%22Endicott+Pear+Tree%22&lr=
accessdate = 2008-08-11
year = 1857
publisher = C. M. Saxton
location = New York City
pages = 322 ]

Tradition holds to the notion that the tree was planted by Endecott himself, according to Harriet Tapley in "Chronicles of Danvers" and to Judge Alden Perley White. According to Charles S. Tapley, a President of the Bay State Historical League, White recounted that Endecott personally planted the pear tree in the presence of his children and farmworkers and reportedly declared: "I hope the tree will love the soil of the old world and no doubt when we have gone the tree will still be alive."

The 1925 USDA Agriculture Yearbook, citing the memoir of Samuel Endicott—a descendant of Endecott (the spelling of the family name changed in the 18th century)—suggests that the tree may have been transplanted from Endecott's garden in Salem. An article in the "Salem Observer", written in 1852 by Samuel P. Fowler, lends further credence to this idea, noting that it was in Salem proper that Endecott "probably planted his famous pear tree". Flower also reports that Endecott was likely among the first to cultivate fruit in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

19th century

The diary of Rev. William Bentley, who visited the Endecott estate (at the time known as Collins Farm and owned by Capt. John Endicott) on several occasions, makes numerous mentions of the Endicott Pear Tree starting in 1800. Bentley's diary confirms that the tree regularly produced fruit. In September 1809, Bentley passed along some pears harvested from the tree to former President John Adams; he received a letter from Adams concerning the pears the following month. On April 11, 1810, Bentley visited Collins Farm to obtain twigs from the pear tree to send to Adams. Thurl D. Brown, in a lecture before the Danvers Historical Society, suggested that " [t] he twigs must have taken hold", citing a letter from Adams dated September 24, 1815 that noted: "The hurricane of yesterday has covered the ground about me with pears."

The Endicott Pear Tree was damaged by the Storm of October 1804, a late-season major hurricane in the 1804 Atlantic hurricane season, but recovered to "yield many bushels" of fruit. The tree was damaged by hurricanes at least twice more in the 19th century: in 1815 and 1843. By 1875, the Endicott Pear Tree stood at approximately convert|80|ft|m|abbr=on. [cite web
url = http://food.oregonstate.edu/faq/uffva/pear2.html
title = What is the history of the pear?
accessdate = 2008-08-08
date = 2007-05-22
work = Food Resource
publisher = Oregon State University ] Sometime in the mid- to late-1800s, a wooden fence was erected to protect the tree.

20th century

In the early 20th century, Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick, a botanist and author of "The Pears of New York"—a 1921 monograph belonging to a series of publications on fruits, "all of which have become classic references on the fruit cultivars of the period" [cite web
url = http://www.ars-grin.gov/ars/PacWest/Corvallis/ncgr/pony.html
title = The Pears of New York by Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick
accessdate = 2008-08-08
last = Postman
first = Joseph D.
date = December 2000
work = National Clonal Germplasm Repository – Corvallis, Oregon
publisher = Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture ] —confirmed that the Endicott Pear Tree had not been grafted, as was suggested in a 1837 article about the tree in "Mr. Hovey's Magazine".

A 1919 account of the Endicott Pear Tree by James Raymond Simmons, author of "The Historic Trees of Massachusetts", describes the tree as follows: [cite book
last = Simmons
first = James Raymond
title = The Historic Trees of Massachusetts
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=K_8CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT90&dq=%22Endicott+Pear+Tree%22
accessdate = 2008-08-11
year = 1919
publisher = Marshall Jones Company
location = Boston, Massachusetts
pages = 67–68 ]

The Endicott Pear Tree was damaged by a hurricane once more in 1934. In the 1940s, The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry attempted to acquire possession of the tree from its then-owner, a Mr. Simard, who had acquired the property from George Endicott in 1941. This move was prompted by the discovery that Simard had "stripped the soil near the tree", leaving it exposed. [cite news
first = Thurl D.
last = Brown
title = Soil Stripping Dooms 316 Year Old Pear Tree
work = Danvers Herald
date = 1946-04-18 ] In 1946, at a town meeting, the town of Danvers passed a resolution to "accept a plot of land on which the so-called Endicott Pear Tree is located, subject to an agreement drawn by the owner and in form agreeable to the Town Counsel"; however, the town did not purchase the tree due to the inability of the Town Counsel, a James H. Sullivan, and Simard to agree on the terms of the acquisition. On January 1, 1947, Sullivan was replaced as Town Counsel, and no further action was taken regarding acquisition of the Endicott Pear Tree.cite news
first = Cathryn
last = O'Hare
title = Pear Tree will be sitting pretty
url = http://www.wickedlocal.com/danvers/homepage/x680955680
work = Danvers Herald
date = 2007-09-26
accessdate = 2008-08-11 ] Eventually, Simard deeded the property on which the tree is located to North Shore Industries; it was subsequently transferred to CBS-Hytron, which erected a wooden fence around the pear tree, Matchlett Laboratories, and finally Osram Sylvania.

On July 27, 1964, vandals cut off the tree's branches and all but convert|6|ft|m|abbr=on of its trunk using hacksaws. [cite news
title = 335-Year-Old Tree Felled, Apparently by Vandals
url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C1EFC395E147A93CAAB178CD85F408685F9
work = The New York Times
page = 31
date = 1964-07-28
accessdate = 2008-08-08 ] As of August 2002, it was surrounded by a chain-link fence and located near the headquarters of Osram Sylvania in Danvers. [cite web
url = http://essexheritage.net/heritagelandscapes/danvers.pdf
title = Danvers Reconnaissance Report
accessdate = 2008-08-11
author = Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and Essex National Heritage Commission
date = May 2005
work = Essex County Landscape Inventory
publisher = Massachusetts Heritage Landscape Inventory Program ]

In 1997, scions were collected from the Endicott Pear Tree for the pear germplasm collection of the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon, and a fruit-bearing clone of the tree was grown.

Cultural impact

According to a 2007 article in the "Danvers Herald", the Endicott Pear Tree "holds a special place in the hearts of many Danversites". In 2004, the Danvers Preservation Commission sought to have the tree featured on a stamp of the United States Postal Service. [cite news
first = Melissa
last = Beecher
title = Helen comes home to Holten House
url = http://www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/s/thestor2.pl?slug-dnbook4
work = The Salem News
date = 2004-08-20
accessdate = 2008-08-11 ]

Lucy Larcom composed a poem, titled "The Governor's Tree", about the Endicott Pear Tree in 1890 for Arbor Day.

See also

* List of oldest trees

References