SUMMERS COUNTY, (Hinton News) – It is time for another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Every week, local history collector, William Jones, talks about the significance of one or more pieces in his vast collection. In this edition, we are talking about orchard companies within the county.
To look at the area now, many may find it difficult to believe there were once multiple orchards in Summers County. Jones said, “Most people wouldn’t be able to imagine that Summers County had so many orchards and businesses that centered around them at the turn of the century. I will be talking about three, although I am sure there were others. The weather has changed over the years and is not necessarily supportive of allowing fruit bearing trees to produce business scale in this area. As a child we had a pear tree and an apple tree that were originally from an orchard here in Pence Springs, but they never produced during my time.”
Digging right into the information, Jones describes the first business on his list. He said, “The first orchard I will delve into is the Kesler Orchard Company. The capital stock certificate book you see here I purchased from Roger Hicks at the antique store he had in Forest Hill, W.Va., called Old School Antiques. The charter for the company was granted in 1909 and lists its offices as being in Lowell, W.Va. But the orchard itself was in Greenbrier County, around Alderson, W.Va. You most likely heard of the late Summers County historian John Kesler who lived in Lowell. Not sure of the exact connection, but this company had ties to his family. I have to take a moment and give Mr Kesler credit with instilling the passion of local history in me from an early age. He was always willing to help, teach or show you anything about the history of Summers County, especially the Talcott area.”
Moving on to the second orchard, Jones stated, “The second is Col. Bob Carr’s Fruit Farm. This farm is my family’s farm that I currently live on and is the site of the 1800s Hines Boarding House in Pence Springs, W.Va. Mr. Carr was from Charleston but went into the business of developing a large orchard in Pence Springs. A newspaper article from the Hinton News from 1911 refers to his company as ‘one of the biggest orchard companies on the Greenbrier River’. It also states in this same article, ‘he and his associates plan on setting out 5500 more trees’. Another article from that time states they had 2700 peach trees and 20 acres of crimson clover.”
“While first developing the orchard, two workmen were engaged in planting the trees on the farm that Col. Carr recently purchased, that was known as the ‘Hines Farm’. Saint Hume had 150 dynamite caps in a box and was attempting to pass them to James Cox when a spark dropped in the box and set them off. The explosion was terrific! Mr Hume lost both of his hands, and Mr Cox lost one of his. The article from 1911 that this information came from said that Dr. Pence from Pence Springs was immediately summoned to address the two men, and a nurse from the Hinton Hospital was brought by train to attend the two men. The article ends with stating that Mr Carr was developing 160 acres, and the work is being watched with interest by other fruit men in the county. So that just goes to show you there were more than the two orchards I reference in this piece. The photo of the orchard during its early days of development, the late Suzanne Humphrey of Pence Springs allowed me to copy. This photo also shows the Hines Boarding House in the center next to the big oak tree.”
The last business on the list was located in Talcott. Jones said, ” Lastly, is an orchard that my great great grandfather L. W. Thompson had on his farm in the Talcott area. He was known as ‘the well known fruit man of Talcott’, because he would ship large railroad cars of winter apples to Haddad & Company in Charleston, W.Va. In a Hinton News article from 1919 it talks about him having 220 bushels of strawberries and 120 bushels of black raspberries that season. When he sold his farm in 1923, he advertised it as a ’48 acre farm two miles from Talcott’. Had an eight room house with running water that was pumped from an oil engine. It had a frost proof greenhouse, large barn, large workshop, grainary, garage and packing sheds.”
Jones stated that the ad read, “Two acres of strawberries, two acres of blackberries, 375 apple trees, 140 cherry trees, 30 damson trees, 100 grape vines, old peach orchard of 350 trees, young peach orchard of 380 trees, 100 Elberta peach trees in nursery all ready to set out next spring; two crops will more than pay for the place. A real bargain if sold at once. Write for particulars or come and see: L. W. Thompson, Talcott, Summers County., W. Va.” Jones said, “It is hard to believe that he was so successful with his orchard to have built an eight room house and all of those buildings in the early 1900s in Summers County nonetheless.”
“He [L.W. Thompson] moved to Talcott proper to focus on building his construction company. He also built a great deal of mission oak furniture during the 1920s through the 1940s. Had a shop in Talcott where he built boats. And even had one of the hardware stores in Talcott that sold Kurfees Paint. My mother has the Kurfees Paint sign that hung on the front of his store and has the 1910s water pump that he used to water his trees and plants in his orchard. Attorney David Zeigler and his wife Myra now own his farm. The photo of all the people is actually a postcard of this farm. My Great Grandfather Orice Thompson is the boy sitting on the shipping crate, he and the family were most likely in the process of placing an order for Haddad & Company in Charleston. And the back of the card reads ‘L.W. Thompson’s peach orchard’.”
This brings us to the end of another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Did you know about all of the orchards in the area? Be sure to come back next week for another edition to see what item Jones will discuss.
Do you have a story about Summers County’s past that you would like to share? Send us an email to news@hintonnews.com.
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