Article from the Oregon Trail Pioneer Newspaper, January, 1993

The Luellings of Milwaukie, Oregon

MILWAUKIE BIRTHPLACE OF OREGON'S FRUIT

INDUSTRY
Henderson Luelling brought first grafted fruit trees over the
Oregon Trail in 1847
by Gail J. McCormick
With his little bunch of grafted fruit trees perched atop two specially
constructed boxes in a covered wagon and lured by tales of the Lewis and
Clark expedition, bold, imaginative Henderson Luelling, set out April 17,
1847, to cross the Oregon Trail. Accompanying him from Salem, Iowa, were
his wife and eight children.
The collection of nursery stock consisted of 700 small trees and shrubs and
were carefully planted in a compost of 12 inch deep charcoal and rich
earth. Railings had been placed around the sides of the wagon to guard
the tender sprouts from hungry cattle. The party had four wagons and the
lead wagon, with the grafts, was pulled by three yoke of oxen.
The Luellings crossed the Missouri River about ten miles from St. Joseph
and a few days later fell in with the 147 member wagon train led by Lot
Whitcomb. The wagon train soon broke up into smaller groups and started
moving at staged intervals in order to make the most of the grazing and
watering-holes. The Luelling party traveled most of the rest of the journey
across the plains alone, with their 16 year-old son Alfred driving the lead ox
team, daily seeking out watering places for their precious cargo of graft
trees. They covered about 15 miles per day.
Although the family was relatively free of mishaps crossing the plains, they
lost two oxen in the swift Sweetwater River of Wyoming and Eliza Luelling
later related that a Christian Indian told her father that their strange
traveling nursery saved the lives of the family when they camped near a
large band of Indians. He told her that Indians believed that the Great
Spirit lived in trees and seeing a man crossing the wilderness with a wagon
load of them, they had thought that he must be under the special care of
the Great Spirit, and so they did not harm him.
After entering the Oregon Country, they were met by Marcus Whitman who
guided them as far as Rock Creek, southeast of the Columbia River. Rev.

Whitman tried to persuade them to settle near Walla Walla but they
determinedly drove on to The Dalles, reaching there in October.
At The Dalles, two rafts were built to take their disassembled wagons down
the Columbia to the Willamette. Several times they loaded and reloaded
their boats in an attempt to negotiate the upper and lower Cascade rapids.
The small trees were wrapped in cloth and fires were kept burning at night
to prevent them from freezing.
Finally they reached a point across the Columbia River from Fort Vancouver
on November 17, 1847. On December 3, 1847, Mrs. Luelling was ready to
give birth to another child. An Indian with a canoe was hired to ferry her
and Alfred and Mary across the river. Only a short distance was covered
when a landing had to be made. A son was born and appropriately named
Oregon Columbia Luelling.
Search for Perfect Spot
After resting up from the trip, Henderson Luelling set out to find land on
which to plant his graft trees. A donation land claim in the Milwaukie area
directly north of Lot Whitcomb's was selected in February, 1848, and
purchased from a man named Wilson. (Lot Whitcomb later plotted the-town
of Milwaukie and named it for his home place, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.)
Luelling paid Wilson $500 worth of woolen cloth, boots and shoes and other
stock from their store in Iowa that they had carted across the plains.
Wilson had already felled the trees and they lay in great heaps all over the
ground., The Luellings set about the work of clearing the land. Alfred later
said, "With ax and fire plied almost day and night, for we kept the fire welltended until ten o'clock at night and were up and at it again by four in the
morning. We soon had the land cleared on which to plant our orchard."
(Today the Waverly Country Club resides on this same acreage.)
In March of 1848, a man named William Meek (no relation to our Joe Meek)
arrived in Oregon with some nursery stock in a box fastened to the tail gate
of his wagon. Henderson Luelling and William Meek decided to join forces
and became partners in the nursery business. Meek purchased the claim
adjoining the Luellings on the north from a Mr. Kilburn. Meek and Luelling
then threw their claims together and divided the whole by a line running
north and south, Meek taking the eastern portion and Luelling the western.
Meek who was 30 years old and a widower, married the Luelling's 15 yearold daughter, Mary, in July of 1848. According to pioneer custom, a girl
was eligible for marriage when she turned 15.
Orchard Planted

They then planted the nursery which included apple, pear, quince, plum
and cherry trees. Also some grapes and common varieties of berry bushes.
This orchard became the nucleus of the great multi-million dollar nursery
and orchard business on the West Coast.
The Luelling and Meek nursery business prospered so well they were able
to place this ad in the September 18, 1852, edition of the Oregon Weekly
Times: "Fruit trees - We have for sale about 20,000 apple, 2,000 pear and
1,000 cherry trees, of large size, for orchard planting, comprising about 60
varieties of the choicest fruit that could be found in the States. Also plum,
apricot, nectarine and almond trees. Also currant and gooseberry bushes,
and grape vines. We have had a number of our varieties bear fruit and we
find the size and flavor of the fruit to surpass our most sanguine
expectations. All orders for trees, accompanied with the cash, will be
promptly attended to as though the purchaser were present. Milwaukie
Nursery, Oregon. Luelling and Meek."

Apples Bring High Price

Soon apples became like gold in the Oregon Territory and the wisdom of
their venture proved out in 1852 when their first box of apples sold for $1
each or $75 per box in Portland. Four bushels shipped to the California
gold fields brought $500.
Summer apple varieties included Sweet June, Red Astrachan, Golden
Sweet, Summer Pearmain, Gravenstein and Summer Belleflower. Autumn
apple varieties included Red Cheek Pippin, Rambo, Seek-No-Further and
King of Tompkins County. Winter apple varieties included Golden Russett,
Yellow Belleflower, Baldwin, Tulpahocken, Lady, Whfte Pearmain, Northern
Spy, Esopus, Spitzenburg, Winesap, Yellow Newton, Pippin, Janetting, Rhode
Island Greening, Gloria Mundi and Early Harvest. The cherry trees included
Royal Ann, Black Tartatian and Black Carnation.
Other Ventures Launched
In September of 1848, word came of the discovery of gold in California and
ft was decided that Alfred Luelling and William Meek should go and try their
fortunes. They moved on the first wagon train south.
Alfred relates their trip: "On the ninth day of September, 1848, we hooked
up five yoke of oxen to a good wagon and started to the mines. We went
via Portland, Hillsboro, Lafayette, Dallas and Roseburg and followed the
Southern route of the then recent immigrations to Oregon, to a point near

the lower end of Klamath Lake, thence to the east and south . . . until we
struck the trail of a group of immigrants being piloted over the Sierra
Nevada Mountain by Peter Lassen . . . William Meek took an active part in
searching out a way for us to get through with our wagons, and we finally
reached Lassen's Ranch on the Feather River on the 28th day of November,
1848."
They had but little luck and Alfred had also decided he was not suited for
mining life. They returned home by sailing from San Francisco to Portland
in June of 1849. Then Meek and Henderson Luelling built a sawmill a short
distance above the mouth of Johnson Creek and carried on a lumber
business in addition to the nursery. Lumber was shipped to California and
was also used to build their personal homes. In 1850, Meek and Luelling,
with W. P. Doland and Charles Hopkins, formed the Milwaulkie Milling
Company and for some time ran several sawmills and a grist mill in and
near Milwaulde.
Seth Lewelling Joins
Nursery Business
Impelled by his brother's glowing accounts of Oregon, in 1850,
Henderson's brother, Seth, moved from Iowa to Milwaulkie and became a
member of the nursery firm of Luelling and Meek. Henderson was an
adventurous entrepreneur and went on to other ventures but Seth was
scientific and a man with much patience and during the following 20 years
he created many new varieties of fruit, most famous of them being the
Black Republican and Bing cherries. He also developed the Lincoln cherry,
the Sweet Alice apple and the Luelling grapes. He became a more famous
horticulturist than his brother, as well as one of the best loved pioneers of
the Oregon country.
Seth Lewelling was a great admirer of Lincoln and an organizer of the
Republican party in Oregon and the naming of the Black Republican Cherry
was a humorous gesture of defiance to the Oregon Democrats. He stated
that his Black Republican Cherry would make his critics relish "Black
Republicans."
Equally famous and one that buyers watch for, even today, is Seth's Bing
cherry, It was named for a beloved foreman who supervised 30 Chinese
workmen in the orchards.
The six foot two Manchurian Chinese named
Bing worked on contract and supervised his own rows in the nursery. It was
the custom for Seth to have one row of cherries that he cared for and Bing
would have the next row. The cherry originated in Bing's row, so Seth
named it the Bing Cherry. Bing had a family back in China that he regularly
sent money to and around 1889 he returned to China. While there the

Oriental exclusion law was passed and he was never able to return to the
United States.
Grafting Methods Unusual
Seth had some unusual grafting methods used to develop new strains. If
the fruit of a new tree did not please him, he would plant another tree
beside it and graft the two tops together to form one tree, in the belief that
the fruit thus produced would be better than the first. It is said that he
grafted trees together in this manner until there was one with sixteen
trunks and but a single top, besides many with a lesser number of trunks.
In 1859, Seth raised the first strawberries grown in Oregon and sold them
for 75 cents per pound. But the fruit was so little known that, in 1860, he
abandoned its cultivation. Around this time he originated the Luelling
rhubarb and, in 1865, he platted and planted, as an experiment, the first
prune orchard in Oregon, five acres in extent. In 1869, Seth again tried
raising strawberries, developing a new variety. In 1875 he originated the
Golden Prune. The famous Bing cherry was propagated in 1878.
On March 3, 1896, Seth died in Milwaukie and the Luelling nursery was
sold.
Adventurous Henderson Blazing More Trails
Ever adventurous, in 1853, Henderson Luelling, along with Meek expanded
and started four branch nurseries in Oregon. One at Salem was in the
charge of Alfred Stanton; one in Polk County in the charge of Amos Harvey;
another on the Long Tom, in the charge of Joseph Kelsey; and another near
Albany, in the charge of a Mr. Knox. The winter of 1852-3 they put out
100,000 grafts and employed 14 men to do the grafting. But other people
were already planting orchards and an orchard boom began which grew in
such proportion that in 1856 Oregon exported 20,000 boxes. Soon the fruit
boom collapsed and prices fell low.
Henderson Moves On
Perhaps it was just his spirit of adventure but more likely because both his
wife, Elizabeth, and his oldest daughter, Mary, died within four months of
each other, that Henderson felt the need to move on, Mary Meek died in
December of 1850, probably of typhoid. She was the first to be buried in
the Milwaukie Pioneer Cemetery. Thirty-six year-old Elizabeth Luelling died
in March of 1851 from a lingering illness after suffering a miscarriage with
her eleventh child. And in March of 1852, little Andrew J. Davis Meek died.

Shortly after his mother's death, Alfred Luelling married Mary E. Campbell,
a pioneer from Massachusetts. They filed for a donation land claim of 640
acres north of Henderson Luelling's claim.
In 1854, taking stock from the Milwaukie nursery, Henderson Luelling and
his son, Alfred, left for California and set up a nursery near Oakland,
California, which was named Fruitvale by Alfred's wife Mary.
There
Henderson prospered. and accumulated a fortune. He remained content
there but a few years.
In 1859, he sold his property in Fruitvale and, with the proceeds, purchased
a ship and supplies. He and two sons, Alfred and Levi, and a few other
families, settled in Honduras. This venture proved a failure and Henderson
returned to California. He settled on a small plot, near San Jose but never
regained his wealth. On December 28, 1879, he passed away in Oakland,
California.
In 1924 two redwood trees were planted at the site of
Henderson's Fruitvate nursery as a memorial to Henderson Luelling and
Luther Burbank, 'The two great horticulturists of the west coast."
Ancestry
The Luellings were Welsh in ancestry and the family emigrated from Wales
to North Carolina in the eighteenth century. The father of Henderson and
Seth, Meshach Lewelling, was a physician, but combined that profession
with nursery business. He and his wife were Quakers and abolitionists.
Luellings also became active in the underground railroad, assisting
Southern black runaways.
The Luelling name has had many different spellings over the years. It was
originally spelled Lewelling and Henderson changed the spelling to Luelling
after arriving in Oregon. Seth later changed the spelling of his name back
to Lewelling. You will note both spellings in the Milwaukie area today. The
Lewelling School in Milwaukie is named after Seth and the Llewellyn School
in Sellwood is named after Henderson.
Henderson Luelling
Henderson Luelling was married four times. After Elizabeth passed away
he married Phoebe Grimes in 1851. She passed away and he then married
Betsy Ann Eddy in 1856. That marriage was short-lived and he married
Mary Warren Lee around 1858.
Henderson and Elizabeth's children were:
Alfred (b. 1831, m. Mary Elizabeth Campbell)
Mary (b. 1833, m. William Meek)
Asenath (b. 1835, m.John Bazarth)

Rachel (b, 1837, m.Seth Eddy, then Charles Wilson)

Jane (b. 1839, m. Henry Eddy)
Hannah (b. 1841, m. Mr. Wood, then Col. Hawse)
Levi (b. 1843, m. Emma Eaton)
Albert (b. 1845, m. Mary Gardner)
Oregon Columbia (b. 1847, m. Emily Norris)
Eliza Anne (b. 1849, m. Isaac Wood)
Henderson and his fourth wife, Mary, also had a son, William.
Seth Lewelling
Seth Lewelling was born in 1820 and died in 1896.
He was married twice. His first wife was Clarissa Hosier and they had four
children:
Elva
Alice
Adelaide (m. James Dale Smith)
William Anton (b. 1854, m. Mary Harlan)
His second wife was Sophronia Olson nee Vaughn. They had one child: Don
Vaughn (b. 1888).
Many thanks to Chris McDonald of the Milwaukie Historical Society for her
assistance with this story. For the children there is a book written on the
Luellings called'Tree Wagon" by Evelyn Sibley.