Capt Robert L Berry Wilson Naval Aide

President's New Naval Aide Monday, July 26, 1915  Patriot (Harrisburg, PA)
    

From  Army-Navy-Air Force Register and Defense Times, Volume 60

The officers of the navy yard, naval hospital and ships stationed at Washington were hosts Wednesdays evening at their first ball of the season when several hundred guests were entertained. The Marine Band Orchestra furnished music for the dancing, which took place in the sail loft. The decorations, which were unusually effective, consisted of groups of tall palms and ferns, while the walls and ceiling were hung with flags of all nations, interspersed With rows of tiny electric lights in red, white and blue, producing a veritable fairy land. A buffet supper was served at midnight. Mrs. James H. Glennon, wife of the commandant of the navy yard, received the guests, assisted by Mrs. Daniels, wife of the Secretary of the Navy; Mrs. William S. Benson, Mrs. Robert M. Kennedy, Mrs. Robert L. Berry, and Mrs. Edward J. Marquart. Mrs. Giennon wore a lovely gown of blue satin trimmed in silver, the tulle drapery heavily embroidered in beads; Mrs. Daniels was in a becoming gown of white brocaded silk and lace with touches of silver, Mrs. Benson wore an attractive gown of black tulle and sequin trimming: Mrs. Berry was in a dainty gown of white lace embroidered in silver; Mrs. Marquart‘s gown was of white satin draped in tulle, the bodice being of cloth of silver with pastel rosebuds on the corsage, and Mrs. Kennedy was in an attractive gown of pink satin combined with silver cloth.

The Secretary of the Navy and Mrs. Daniels were the guests of honor Wednesday evening when Lieutenant Commander and Mrs. Robert L. Berry entertained at dinner aboard the U. S. S. Mayflower, of which Lieutenant Commander Berry is in command. Lieutenant Commander and Mrs. Berry later attended the dance with their guests at the navy yard. The guests besides the honor guests included Admiral and Mrs. William S. Benson, Admiral and Mrs. Frank F. Fletcher, Admiral and Mrs James H. Glennon, Admiral and Mrs. Leigh C. Palmer, the superintendent of the Naval Academy, and Mrs. Edward W. Eberle, Representative Swargar Sherley, Interstate Commerce Commissioner and Mrs. Charles C. McChord, Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Wolley, Paymasier General McGowan, Captain and Mrs. James H. Oliver, Captain and Mrs. Rodman, Captain and Mrs. William D. Leahy, Captain and Mrs. Arthur L. Willard, Surgeon and Mrs. Edward H. H. Old, Commander and Mrs. Ralph Earle and Mrs. Lloyd H. Chandler.

Death 1933 

Camp Berry & Civil War

Concord Civil War Camps (1861 - 1862), Concord Heights
Civil War training camps were Camp Belknap (1862), Camp Colby (1862), and Camp Berry (1861). Located at the "Concord Plains" on the east side of the Merrimack River.  See Chapter 7 Disgrace at Gettysburg: The Arrest and Court-Martial of Brigadier General Thomas A. Rowley, USA Camp Berry was a "depot for drafted men" Below are articles and other archival material.

The Portland Rolling Mills was built near Calvary Cemetery on the site of Camp Berry of Civil War fame in 1865-1866. It became a company town, with forty-seven homes and sixty-five families by 1870. The village, compromising eighty-five acres, would eventually include a school, auditorium, ball field, stores, and rows of dark barn-red houses. Some of the old military barracks were modified into dwellings, while other homes were built on and off from what became Central Avenue. The Mills was managed by Portland entrepreneur John Bundy Brown until 1878 and manufactured railroad, bar, hoop, and other iron products. In 1872 the company turned out 14,000 tons of rails and employed 200 men. The works was connected by a railroad bridge to Portland.

From Local towns played important role in Civil War
By Michael Kelley mkelley@keepmecurrent.com

Hiram Gregory Berry (August 27, 1824 – May 2, 1863)

Although much of the action took place hundreds of miles away, south of the Mason-Dixon line, southern Maine played a large role in the Civil War, which began 150 years ago this week with the firing on Fort Sumter.

Kathy DiPhilippo, a historian for the South Portland Historical Society, said one of the state's three camps to train soldiers was located along the Fore River in present-day South Portland. She said that camp, which was officially set up by the state in 1862 and named Camp Lincoln, before being renamed Camp Berry in honor of Hiriam Berry, a Maine native killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville, served as the training grounds for soldiers from York, Cumberland, Oxford and Androscoggin counties.

"Our role in the Civil War was significant because people came from all over southern Maine and western Maine to muster in and train here in South Portland," said DiPhilippo.

According to Paul Ledman, a Cape Elizabeth resident, history teacher at Scarborough High School and author of "A Maine Town Responds: Cape Elizabeth and South Portland in the Civil War," 410 men from Cape Elizabeth were credited as serving in the Civil War.

Ledman spoke Monday about the impact of the Civil War on Cape Elizabeth at a Cape Elizabeth Historical Preservation Society event at the Thomas Memorial Library. Ledman's discussion this week was just the first of many events that will be held during the next few years as museums and organizations and historians throughout the state turn their focus to the Civil War.

DiPhilippo said last week that two of Maine's most famous infantries, the 17th Maine and the 20th Maine, both trained at Camp Lincoln in the summer of 1862.

The 20th Maine, the famed infantry lead by Brunswick native Joshua Chamberlain, came to the camp to train in August 1862, DiPhilippo said, before heading off for three years of battle, including the defense of Little Round Top in the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828-1914)

Soldiers in Cape Elizabeth, which at the time also included the city of South Portland, played a significant role fighting for the Union side. Company E of the 17th Maine Infantry was almost entirely made up of Cape Elizabeth men. The 17th Maine was in service from August 1862 to June 1865 and saw action in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, including the battles of Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, and Locust Grove, as well as the Siege of Cold Harbor.

Of the 33 Cape Elizabeth men in Company E, commanded by Cape Elizabeth residents Captain Ellis Sawyer and First Lt. George Fickett, only five left the infantry in June 1865 unscathed.

In fact, of the 1,371 soldiers who were enrolled in the 17th Maine, 207 were killed, 552 were wounded and 163 died of disease. It is the highest loss of any Maine infantry.

"They were welcomed as conquering heroes and marched down Congress Street with the citizens wildly cheering them. Probably never had a returning regiment been so enthusiastically received in Portland," said William Jordan in his book, "A History of Cape Elizabeth."

While Maine sent many of its men to fight down south, Fort Preble, now the site of Southern Maine Community College, played a role in the only Civil War battle that was fought in Maine, the Battle of Portland Harbor.

On June 26, a group of Confederate raiders, led by Lt. Charles W. Read, entered Portland Harbor in a fishing vessel they had captured and attempted to destroy ships and shipping facilities in the harbor. The Confederates captured the Caleb Cushing, a cutter ship that belonged to the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, a precursor to the United States Coast Guard.

Lt Charles W. Read

"To have the Confederates come right up to Portland Harbor, it was quite a bold move," DiPhilippo said. "You really didn't see activity like that here during the war."

That bold move was foiled, however, after it was witnessed from atop the Portland Observatory. News of the attack spread quickly, and the Confederates were not able to leave the harbor before Union forces intervened. The raiders were captured, but not before abandoning the ship and setting it on fire. They were held at Fort Preble for a few days, but because of the outrage of having Confederate forces in Cape Elizabeth, they were moved to Fort Warren in Boston.

During Read's raid, which lasted from June 6 to June 27, 1863, he traveled along the eastern seaboard commandeering ships and destroying them. In total, Read captured or destroyed 22 U.S. vessels.

These tactics by the Confederates disrupted the shipping economy in Cape Elizabeth, said Ledman. "It sent up insurance rates and it had a chilling effect on commerce," he said.

Ledman said while 410 men from Cape Elizabeth were credited as serving in the Civil War, only 140 of them were listed on the town's 1860 census. This, he said, can possibly be explained by the fact many wealthy men both locally and across the nation could pay either young men or immigrants to serve in their place. Because of this policy, he said, it is difficult to determine how many residents of Cape Elizabeth actually fought in the war.

Regardless of the number, Jordan noted in his book that the Civil War was something that was closely followed in town.

"As the war progressed, Cape Elizabeth continued to do its part," said William Jordan in his book. "There was hardly a public or private meeting held that did not involved some direct reference to the rebellion."

According to a section about the Civil War in Scarborough in the town's 350th anniversary book, Earlene Ahlquist Chadborne said Maine residents, including many in Scarborough, were quick to embrace the Union's fight against slavery.

"When the southern forces captured Fort Sumter signaling the war's start, the hills and valley's of Maine resounded with martial fervor," Chadborne wrote. "Several Maine communities raised volunteer regiments within 24 hours of President Lincoln's call to arms. Like Mainers everywhere, Scarborough residents supported the Union cause."

Chadborne said while many residents in Scarborough went to fight, many more were at home doing what they could to support the effort.

"The entire community rallied behind the troops. Residents in each section of town met at local schools to roll bandages, knit socks and gather provisions to send to the front."

That is not to say that everyone in the area was sympathetic to the Union's cause. The local opposition to the war, Ledman noted, could be seen in several of the 140 letters written to and from Scott Dyer, a Cape Elizabeth resident who fought in the war. The letters are in the Cape Elizabeth Historical Preservation Society's collection.

Below The 20th Maine Infantry, which was led by famed general and Maine native Joshua Chamberlain, reconnected for a reunion at Little Round Top in Gettysburg, Pa., in 1889. The regiment trained in Cape Elizabeth.

"Cape Elizabeth had a lot of opposition to the war," Ledman said. "This was a very conservative community in many ways."

Camp Berry Date: Thursday, January 26, 1865 Paper: Daily Eastern Argus (Portland, ME)

Camp Berry and Its Men Date: Wednesday, February 3, 1864
Paper: Daily Eastern Argus (Portland, ME)

Brevet Major General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Camp Berry Date: Saturday, December 5, 1863 Paper: Daily Eastern Argus (Portland, ME)

A Window on the Past Lost neighborhood: South Portland’s Ligonia By Craig Skelton
South Portland Historical Society
By all appearances, progress washed away all traces of Ligonia long ago. Except, I did find one small remnant tucked away in a distant corner of Calvary Cemetery. Difficult to make out in the accompanying photograph, the marquee is now hanging upside down, yet I’m sure I once saw a picture of this gate with the village name clearly displayed.

In the mid-1800s, the entire area from today’s Cash Corner to the waterfront was referred to as Ligonia. The area along the waterfront was the site of a Civil War training camp under the name Camp Abraham Lincoln and later was renamed Camp Berry. Following the Civil War, a company called Portland Rolling Mills built a facility along the waterfront and worker housing; a school and a church soon sprung up. Since roughly the 1880s, the intersection of Main Street and Broadway took on the name Cash Corner and the Ligonia village name became affiliated just with the area closer to the waterfront.

A historical researcher named Hazel Spencer Mack shared some of her fond memories of Ligonia, which were published in the “History of South Portland,” printed in 1992. She recalled there was only one grocery store, called Fuller’s, which was well-kept and clean. Customers did not frequent the store, however, because a driver would stop by in the morning for their grocery order and return to deliver the order in the afternoon. The children of Ligonia did frequent the store for its penny candy.

One item you would find very little of on the shelves was bread, as Hazel recalled that it was a disgrace for a housewife of that time to not bake her own for the family. In the early part of the 20th century when automobiles became more common, Fuller’s Grocery Store closed when people became more mobile and were attracted to bright new grocery stores in Portland.

An area of South Portland known as Ligonia has all but disappeared. A marker in Calvary Cemetery can still be found.
There were few conveniences before indoor plumbing and area residents would walk to a water spigot with their buckets each day to fill them. In the wintertime, the spigot frequently froze and residents would have to wait for hours while the water company tried to get the flow going again. 
Trenches left behind by the men in training when the area was occupied by Camp Berry served as an area for the kids to play “soldier” and it is also said those trenches were used by a manufacturer of sugar in the processing of beet sugar.
Many changes have occurred in this area and the proximity to the harbor fueled a transition from neighborhood homes of commercial and industrial uses. If you drive today on the spur from Main Street to Route 295 or Veteran’s Bridge, large brightly painted oil tanks and cemetery expansion occupy most of what was once Ligonia.
Although there may be fewer and fewer folks around that share memories of the village once located there, I find it interesting when listening to scanner frequencies that the police dispatchers still refer to this area around Main and Lincoln Street as Ligonia.
Note to readers: we are searching for a photograph of Bix Furniture Stripping, formerly located at 158 Pickett St. If you have a photo to share, please contact the society at 767- 7299.
Craig Skelton is a guest columnist and member of South Portland Historical Society.

• War Letter Minor Lots
• For a short of list of discharged people to be removed from the pay roaster for the Union Army after the Civil War - 1870. see here. Two letters to sister Hannah from Charles Bettes stationed at Camp Berry in Maine during 1865. read more
• One civil war letter written Captain George Roby of to Provost Marshal's Office in 1864 to Thomas Campbell of Cynthiana, Pike County talking about enrollment. read more
• Private John W. Haley's detailed Civil War
• City of Concord
• Nashua in the Civil War
• New Hampshire and the Civil War: Voices from the Granite State By Bruce D. Heald

Orchards in Colonial America & the Early Republic

A Share from Barbara Wells Sarudy and her blog American Garden History Blog

Most colonists planted at least a few fruit trees or a larger orchard as soon as possible, when they settled on their land. An orchard is an enclosed garden used to grow fruit trees which provided both food and drink to the colonial family.

Cider was one of the most important drinks of the colonial period. Growing barley for beer, or any other traditional European grains that the settlers might have been accustomed to raising, required the use of a plow. Because the colonists' lands were freshly cleared; stumps remained dotting the landscape, and the use of a plow was nearly impossible.

In 1655, Adrian Van der Donck observed, "The Netherlands settlers, who are lovers of fruit, on observing that the climate was suitable to the production of fruit trees, have brought over and planted various kinds of apples and pear trees which thrive well...The English have brought over the first quinces, and we have also brought over stocks and seed which thrive well and produce large orchards."


In Jamestown, Virginia, it was reported that by 1656, "Orchards innumerable were planted and preserved." Jamestown, more than many other settlements, needed to grow domestic fruit to convert into a safe liquid to drink. Illness was a serious problem in early Jamestown due, in part, to the settlers' drinking water from shallow wells often polluted by the risky high water table. The colonists did not seem to mind the mellowing alcohol content of the quickly fermented apple juice either.

A 1 to 6 acre apple orchard became a rather common feature on farmsteads & plantations in the British American colonies. Apples were grown primarily for their juice, which was the most common colonial beverage of choice, because well-water generally was regarded as unsafe. Everyone in the family drank the hard cider year-round, and most families produced 20 to 50 barrels of cider each autumn for their own consumption & to use as barter for other goods & services.

Peach Blossoms

Some settlers also converted distilled cider into "applejack," which was even stronger than hard cider. The first hand-cranked cider mills appeared in the colonies around 1745. Prior to this cider was made by pounding apples in a trough & draining the pomace.

Gabriel Thomas wrote of Pennsylvania in 1698, "There are many Fair and Great Brick Houses on the outside of the Town which the Gentry have built for their Countrey Houses... having a very fine and delightful Garden and Orchard adjoining it, wherein is variety of Fruits, Herbs, and Flowers."

On a visit to Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1722, Hugh Jones noted that, "the Palace or Governor's House, a magnificent structure built at the publick Expense, finished and beautified with Gates, fine Gardens...Orchards."

A house-for-sale adverisement in the South Carolina Gazette in June of 1736, in Charleston, touted the orchard as a strong selling enticement, "To be Sold A Plantation containing 200 Acres...An orchard well planted with peach, apple, cherry, fig and plumb trees: a vineyard of about two years grownth planted with 1200 vines: a nursery of 5 or 600 mulberry trees about two years old, fit to plant out."

Pear Blossoms

In April of 1742, Eliza Lucas Pinckney wrote in South Carolina, "I have planted a large figg orchard with desighn to dry and export them. I have reckoned my expense and the prophets to arise from these figgs."

Peter Kalm noted on his travels through North America on September 18, 1748, "Every countryman, even a common peasant, has commonly an orchard near his house, in which all sorts of fruit, such a peaches, apples, pears, cherries, and others are in plenty."

By the middle of the 18th century, a wide variety of orchard trees was available to the general public. William Smith advertised trees he was growing in his nursery in Surry County, Virginia, in the 1755 Williamsburg newspaper, as did Thomas Sorsby of Surry County in 1763.


In 1755, orchardist William Smith offered, "Hughs’s Crab, Bray’s White Apple, Newton Pippin, Golden Pippin, French Pippin, Dutch Pippin, Clark’s Pearmain, Royal Pearmain, Baker’s Pearmain, Lone’s Pearmain, Father Abraham, Harrison’s Red, Ruffin’s large Cheese Apple, Baker’s Nonsuch, Ludwell’s Seedling, Golden Russet, Nonpareil, May Apple, Summer Codling, Winter Codling, Gillefe’s Cyder Apple, Green Gage Plumb, Bonum Magnum Plumb, Orleans Plumb, Imperial Plumb, Damascene Plumb, May Pear, Holt’s Sugar Pear, Autumn Bergamot Pear, Summer Pear, Winter Bergamot, Orange Bergamot, Mount Sir John, Pound Pear, Burr de Roy, Black Heart Cherry, May Duke Cherry, John Edmond’s Nonsuch Cherry, White Heart Cherry, Carnation Cherry, Kentish Cherry, Marrello Cherry, Double Blossom Cherry, Double Blossom Peaches, Filberts Red & White."

Nurseryman Thomas Sorsby had available in 1763, "Best cheese apple, long stems, Pamunkey, Eppes, Newtown pippins, Bray’s white apples, Clark’s pearmains, Lightfoot’s Father Abrahams, Sorsby’s Father Abrahams, Lightfoot’s Hughes, Sorsby’s Hughes, Ellis’s Hughes, New-York Yellow apples, Golden russeteens, Westbrook’s Sammons’s, horse apples, royal pearmains, a choice red apple, best May apples, Sally Gray’s apple, Old .England apple, green apple, Harvey’s apple, peach trees [Prunus persica], and cherry trees."

In 1756, from Annapolis, Maryland, Elizabeth Brook wrote to her son Charles Carroll, who was attending school in England and France, "This place... is greatly improved, a fine, flourishing orchard with a variety of choice fruit." Charles Carroll of Annapolis and his son annually put away vast quantities of cider for their family and servants. In 1775, the elder Carroll put away 190 casks of "cyder" (he estimated 22,800 gallons) for the coming year.

Apple Blossoms

Peter Hatch, who managed Monticello's grounds, reports that, "between 1769 & 1814 Thomas Jefferson planted as many as 1,031 fruit trees in his South Orchard. This orchard formed a horseshoe-shape around the two vineyards & berry squares. It was organized into a grid pattern, in which he planted 18 varieties of apple, 38 of peach, 14 cherry, 12 pear, 27 plum, 4 nectarine, 7 almond, 6 apricot, and a quince.

"The earliest plantings, before 1780, reflect the experimental orchard of a young man eager to import Mediterranean culture to Virginia, and included olives, almonds, pomegranates, & figs. However, the mature plantings after 1810, included mostly species & varieties that either thrived through the hot, humid summers & cold, rainy winters of central Virginia, such as seedling late-season peaches or Virginia cider apples."

In 1782, Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecœur (1735–1813) described drying apple slices on wooden platforms erected on poles. The fruit was spread out on wooden boards, where it was soon covered with "all the bees and wasps and sucking insects of the neighborhood," which he felt accelerated the drying process. The dried apples were used in preparing a variety of dishes throughout the year. Peaches & plums were also dried but were considered more of a delicacy & were saved for special occasions. Many families stored their dried apples in bags hung high in building rafters to keep them dry & away from mice.

J. F. D. Smyth described Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1784, "Plantations are generally from one to four or five miles distant from each other, having a dwelling house in the middle... at some little distance there are always large peach and apple orchards."


In 1796, New Englander Amelia Simmons published the first truly American cookbook, American Cookery. Her view of the raising of apples had more to do with morality than with functionality.

"Apples are still more various, yet rigidly retain their own species, and are highly useful in families, and ought to be more universally cultivated, excepting in the compactest cities. There is not a single family but might set a tree in some otherwise useless spot, which might serve the two fold use of shade and fruit; on which 12 or 14 kinds of fruit trees might easily be engrafted, and essentially preserve the orchard from the intrusions of boys, &c. which is too common in America.

If the boy who thus planted a tree, and guarded and protected it in a useless corner, and carefully engrafted different fruits, was to be indulged free access into orchards, whilst the neglectful boy was prohibited--how many millions of fruit trees would spring into growth--and what a saving to the union. The net saving would in time extinguish the public debt, and enrich our cookery."

English agriculturalist Richard Parkinson noted in 1798, Baltimore, Maryland, "My orchard contained about six acres, three of which were planted with apples, the other three with peaches of various sorts."

In the 1790s, Captain John ODonnell (1749-1805) settled in Baltimore, Maryland, naming his country seat after his favorite port of call, Canton. And account of Canton given by a visitor noted that O"Donnell had planted orchards of red peaches on his 2500 acre estate in hopes of manufacturing brandy for trade but had met with limited financial success.

"For although Mr. O'Donnell's orchard had come to bear in great perfection and he had stills and the other necessary apparatus, the profit proved so small that he suffered the whole to go to waste and his pigs to consume the product."



A house-for-sale advertisement in the 1800 Federal Gazette in Baltimore, Maryland, described, "That beautiful, healthy and highly improved seat, within one mile of the city of Baltimore, called Willow Brook, containing about 26 acres of land, the whole of which is under a good post and rail fence, divided and laid off into grass lots, orchards, garden...The garden and orchard abounds with the greatest variety of the choicest fruit trees, shrubs, flowers...collected from the best nurseries in America and from Europe, all in perfection and full bearing."

Rosalie Stier Calvert devoted a great deal of attention to establishing an orchard at her home Riversdale in Prince George County, Maryland. In 1804, she “planted a large number of all the varieties of young fruit trees I could find, and I am going to fill the orchard with young apple trees everywhere there is room.”

She worried that “it is impossible to buy any good pear trees from the nurseries. They sell bad pears under good names.” She first asked her father to send her peaches & pears from Europe, but soon realized it would not be practical. Instead, her father suggested that she buy pear trees in Alexandria, Virginia, for her garden “which had real soil for pears,” and water them with buckets of cow urine. She had already transplanted “a Seigneur pear tree,” which her father had grafted in Annapolis.

By 1805, she wrote, “We are getting much better at the art of gardening, especially with fruit trees which we planted a large collection of this year. You would scarcely recognize the orchard. The manure which was applied there in 1803 improved it greatly, and young trees have been planted where needed.” In addition to fruit trees, she planted currants & raspberries in her orchard.

Keeping apples overwinter in America during the 18th & 19th centuries was important and theories abounded about the proper method.

New Yorker John Nicholson wrote in The Farmer's Assistant in 1820, "In gathering apples, for Winter-use, they should be picked from the tree, and laid carefully in a heap, under cover, without being bruised. After they have sweated, let them be exposed to the air and well dried, by wiping them with dry cloths; then lay them away in a dry place where they will hot freeze. The time requisite for sweating will be six, ten, or fifteen days, according to the warmth of the weather.  

The fruit should not be gathered till fully ripe, which is known by the stem parting easily from the twig. It should also be gathered in dry weather and when the dew is off...

"It is confidently asserted by many, that apples may be safely kept in casks through Winter, in a cold chamber, or garret, by being merely covered with Linen cloths."
John Beale Bordley had written An Epitome of Mr. Forsyth's Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees in 1804, noting that William Forsyth wrote "the most complete method of saving them, so as to preserve them the greatest length of time, is to wrap them in paper and pack them away in stone jars between layers of bran; having the mouths of the jars covered so close as to preclude the admission of air, and then keep them in a dry place where they will not be frozen."

In the 1790s, Samuel Deane wrote in his New England Farmer of his method of preserving Winter apples, "I gather them about noon on the day of the full of the moon which happens in the latter part of September, or beginning of October. Then spread them in a chamber, or garret, where they lie till about the last of November. Then, at a time when the weather is dry, remove them into casks, or boxes, in the cellar, out of the way of the frosts; but I prefer a cool part of the cellar. With this management, I find I can keep them till the last of May, so well that not one in fifty will rot...

"In the Autumn of 1793, I packed apples in the shavings of pine, so that they scarcely touched one another. They kept well till some time in May following; though they were a sort which are mellow for eating in December. Dry sawdust might perhaps answer the end as well. Some barrel them up, and keep them through the Winter in upper rooms, covering them with blankets or mats, to prevent freezing. Dry places are best for them."




New Yorker John Nicholson suggested some amazing cures--including chalk, bloody meat, raw eggs, & milk--for American cider in The Farmer's Assistant in 1820, "Cider may be kept for years in casks, without fermenting, by burying them deeply under ground, or immersing them in spring water; and when taken up the cider will be very fine.

"A drink, called cider-royal, is made of the best runing of the cheese, well clarified, with six or eight gallons of French brandy, or good cider brandy, added to a barrel: Let the vessel be filled full, bunged tight, and set in a cool cellar, and in the course of a twelvemonth it will be a fine drink. If good rectified whiskey be used, instead of brandy, it will answer very well.

"A quart of honey, or molasses, and a quart of brandy, or other spirits, added to a barrel of cider, will improve the liquor very much, and will restore that which has become too flat and insipid. To prevent its becoming pricked, or to cure it when it is so, put a little pearl-ashes, or other mild alkali, into the cask. A lump of chalk broken in pieces, and thrown in, is also good. Salt of tartar, when the cider is about to be used, is also recommended.

"To refine cider, and give it a fine amber-color, the following method is much approved of. Take the whites of 6 eggs, with a handful of fine beach sand, washed clean; stir them well together; then boil a quart of molasses down to a candy, and cool it by pouring in cider, and put this, together with the eggs and sand, into a barrel of cider, and mix the whole well together. When thus managed, it will keep for many years. Molasses alone will also refine cider, and give it a higher color; but, to prevent the molasses making it prick, let an equal quantity of brandy be added to it. Skim-milk, with some lime slacked in it, and mixed with it, or with the white of eggs with the shells broken in, is also good for clarifying all liquors, when well mixed with them. A piece of fresh bloody meat, put into the cask, will also refine the liquor and serve tor it to feed on.

"To prevent the fermentation of cider, let the cask be first strongly fumigated with burnt sulphur; then put in some of the cider, burn more sulphur in the cask, stop it tight and shake the whole up together; fill the cask, bung it tight, and put it away in a cool cellar.

"To bring on a fermentation, take 3 pints of yeast for a hogshead, add as much jalup as will lie on a sixpence, mix them with some of the cider, beat the mass up till it is frothy, then pour it into the cask, and stir it up well. Keep the vessel full, and the bung open, for the froth and foul stuff to work out. In about 15 days, the froth will be clean and white; then, to stop the fermentation, rack the cider off into a clean vessel, add two gallons ot brandy, or well-rectified whiskey, to it, and bung it up. Let the cask be full, and keep the venthole open for a day or two. By this process, cider that is poor, and ill-tasted, may be wonderfully improved...

"To cure oily cider, take one ounce of salt of tartar, and two and a half of sweet spirit of nitre, in a gallon of milk, for a hogshead. To cure ropy cider, take six pounds of powdered allum, and stir it into a hogshead; then rack it off and clarify it.

"To color cider, take a quarter of a pound of sugar, burnt black, and dissolved in half a pint of hot water, for a hogshead; add a quarter of an ounce of allum, to set the color.

"Cider-brandy mixed with an equal quantity of honey, or clarified sugar, is much recommended by some lor improving common cider; so that, when refined, it may be made as strong, and as pleasant, as the most of wines."

Portraits of Americans with Fruit Grown on Trees

Throughout the 18th century, artists painted portraits of British colonials & early Americans holding fruits that the viewer might reasonably suppose came from the trees in their orchards. Some scholars look to period emblem books and attribute complicated symbolism to each type & quantity of fruit depicted in these portraits. Some do not. Here are a few of my favorite portraits containing tree fruit as props.

1679 painting to Thomas Smith (1650-1691 Mrs. Richard Patteshall (Martha Woody) and Child
 
                        1732 Detail. John Smibert (1688-1751). Jane Clark (Mrs. Ezekiel Lewis)

                        1750 Detail. Charles Bridges (1670-1747). Mrs Augustine Moore.

             1750 Detail. Joseph Badger. Portrait of Elizabeth Greenleaf of Charlestown.

1755 Detail. Joseph Blackburn (flu in the colonies 1753-1763). Isaac Winslow and His Family.

                   1757 Detail. John Wollaston (1710-1775). Probably Elizabeth Dandridge.

     1767 Detail. James Claypoole (1743-1814). Ann Galloway (Mrs Joseph Pemberton).

      1769 Detail. John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) Martha Swett (Mrs Jeremiah Lee).

1769 Detail. John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Elizabeth Murray (Mrs. James Smith).

                      1771-73 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). The Peale Family.

1771   John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Elizabeth Lewis (Mrs. Ezekiel Goldthwait).

1772 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). General John Cadwalader, his First Wife, Elizabeth.

1773 Detail. John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Hannah Fayerweather (Mrs. John Winthrop).

             1774 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Isabella and John Stewart.

1774 painting attributed to Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Elizabeth Perscott (Mrs. Henry Daggett)

1785 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Ann Marsh (Mrs David Forman) & Child.

1787 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Deborah McClenahan (Mrs. Walter Stewart).

       1788 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) Benjamin & Eleanor Ridgley Laming.

            1788 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). William Smith & Grandson.

                               1795 Detail. James Peale (1749-1831). Artist & His Family.

                            1720 Detail. Nehemiah Partridge. Wyntje Lavinia Van Vechten.

                                         1729 Detail. John Smibert. The Bermuda Group.

    1747-1749 Detail. Robert Feke (1707-1751). Mary Channing (Mrs. John Channing).

                          1760-65 Detail. Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Sarah Badger Noyes.

   1769 Detail. John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Elizabeth Storer (Mrs. Isaac Smith).

            1772 Detail. Winthrop Chandler (1747-1785). Eunice Huntington Devotion

                       1775 Detail. Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Archibald Bullock Family.

                            1785 Detail. Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Callahan Children.

1785-90 Beardsley Limner Sarah Bushnell Perkins Elizabeth Davis (Mrs. Hezekiah Beardsley).

                                    1798 Detail. Ralph Earl. Mrs. Noah Smith and Her Children.

                                         1800 Detail. Anonymous Artist. Emma Van Name.