This article earlier appear in the March / April 2016 issue ofNorthern Gardenerand was save in celebration of the hundred-and-fiftieth Anniversary of MSHS . Our caption of MSHS pillar put in readers to icons of MSHS history .
Peter Gideon ( 1818 - 1899 ) was a pioneering plantsman and yield raiser whose give chase persistence in arise hardy apples in Minnesota was most overshadowed by his eccentric personality .
In 1853 , Gideon locomote from Illinois to a 160 - Accho call he staked near Excelsior , where he lay out out to grow orchard apple tree that could withstand Minnesota winter . He met with much bankruptcy over many years , until he discovered that compound hardy Cancer the Crab apples with varieties of larger common apple produced good quality fruit that could hold this clime . In 1868 , the adept of these varieties , Wealthy , ( name after his wife ) became the first commercially successful apple from Minnesota .
Peter Gideon
Wealthy brought Gideon recognition among other growers and horticulturists , but ironically fiddling wealth . In 1878 , he was named superintendent of the first Experimental Fruit Farm , a parcel of Din Land contiguous to his belongings that was purchased by the Minnesota Legislature and station under the supervision of the University of Minnesota . There , he continued to try out with improving hardy apples while barely recognise the university ’s legal power over his action . This lonely - wolf posture did n’t endear him to university administrator , nor did his habit of promoting his view about religion , spirituality ( he was guided by flavour ) , slavery , temperance , morality and other issue both hard-nosed and peculiar , such as military personnel ’s beards ( hat them ) .
An early member of MSHS , Gideon ’s outspoken nature also estranged him from the society . He was bitterly opposed to horse racing , so much that for a time he refused to demonstrate his fruit at the Minnesota State Fair where race were a staple shape of entertainment . At one MSHS meeting he assay to record his paper “ Fruit Culture and Fast horse cavalry , ” but the extremity in attendance had heard enough and passed a movement stop windup of his talk . Years later , attitude toward him softened , and he was finally made an honorary phallus of MSHS and officially recognized as “ the sire of yield bringing up on the prairies . ” This procure his place in MSHS history .
Yet he never softened his own feeling , and suffer challenges to them with the same stiff resolution that he showed while confront down all those bare Minnesota winters on his apple farm .
Wealthy apple — photo courtesy of Creative Commons
— Tom McKusick
