- John Adlum
John Adlum (
April 29 ,1759 toMarch 1 ,1836 ), was a pioneering American viticulturalist, a surveyor and an associate judge.Background
He was born in
York, Pennsylvania . He was a soldier and then a major in the American Provisional Army during theAmerican Revolutionary War . He would later be promoted toBrigadier General in the Pennsylvaniamilitia . His surveying experience was sufficient for him to work in many state surveys. He was soon appointed to study navigation of the Susquehanna and Schuylkill rivers. He served asLycoming County ,Pennsylvania associate judge for three years. However his life-long dream and greatest service was to the cultivation and science of American grapes.Primary career
He created a convert|200|acre|km2|sing=on farm and nursery at Georgetown,
Washington, D.C. which was partly on the present day site of the Bureau of Standards. He was one of the first to urge the U.S. federal government to support research institutions, agricultural one in particular, an endeavor which would qualify as a successful 90 years later. Later he grew an experimental farm, after an unsuccessful similar proposal offered to the federal government was refused.He received valuable assistance in his field via his correspondence withThomas Jefferson and an earlier acquaintance, one Dr.Joseph Priestly . He excelled in American viticulture andwine making. He first grew several European and American varieties. However he would later restrict grape and wine production to native varieties, looking to improve them, an idea he shared with Thomas Jefferson. Current popular production and consumption ofCatawba grapes owes itself to his earlier pioneering propagation, cultivation and distribution of the variety. He married Margaret Adlum, a cousin, in 1813 and had two daughters. In memorial to his work, the climbing plant,Adlumia , was named in his honor. He died at "The Vineyard" near Georgetown, Washington, D.C.Other
The
Williamsburg Winery in Williamsburg, VA, sells a John Adlum Chardonnay, named specifically after Adlum.Notable Works
*"A Memoir on the Cultivation of the Vine in America and the Best Mode of Making Wine". 1823.
*"A Memoir on the Cultivation of the Vine in America and the Best Mode of Making Wine". Enlarged ed. 1828.
*"Adlum on Making Wine". 1826.References
*Johnson, Allen, ed. "Dictionary of American Biography". New York:Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936.
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