The Endicott pear tree located in Danvers, Massachusetts is the oldest known fruit tree in North America and is at least an astonishing 385 years old. John Endecott, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, planted this tree between 1628-1639 from a sapling grown in England and shipped overseas. The tree survived 2 hurricanes and a catastrophic event in 1964 when thoughtless vandals cut every branch and left just a 6-foot stump. The tree regrew and has variously been protected since by wooden and chain-link fences. Suburban sprawl replaced the farm this tree originally grew upon, and now the tree is protected and maintained by Massachusetts General Hospital. This entity now owns the land, and a wrought iron fence has been erected to protect the amazingly old tree. I learned about this tree as a result of rereading Henry Thoreau’s Cape Cod. This famed naturalist mentioned another ancient pear tree that grew at Eastham on Cape Cod from about 1648-1848. Apparently, a storm blew down this tree 2 years before Thoreau visited the Cape. Thomas Prence planted this tree, and reportedly it still produced 15 bushels of pears on average annually until the storm unfortunately knocked it down. Jeremiah Diggs traveling on Cape Cod saw a descendent of this tree as recently as the 1930’s. The pears produced by Prence’s tree were small but sweet. I researched this tree online and learned about the even older surviving Endicott pear tree.
A pear tree that is nearly 400 years old grows on hospital property in Massachusetts. A wrought iron fence surrounds the tree to protect it from psychotic scumbags.
These ancient trees produce bushels of small but sweet fruit every year. I wonder what they taste like. My favorite variety of pear is the small Seckel pear. I think they have the best pear flavor. Royal Riviera pears sold by Harry and David are more luscious, but I like a perfectly ripe Seckel even better.
This is a drawing of a 200-year-old pear tree on Cape Cod that a storm knocked over before Thoreau visited the Cape.
The settlers who colonized Cape Cod had a limited selection of fruits that grew wild there including beach plum, service berry, and blueberry. They imported apple and pear tree saplings from England, and Thoreau noted apple orchards with short shrubby trees that grew on the sandy seaside soil, not unlike the oaks and pines that also grew on the cape. Thoreau and his companion stayed for a night with John Newcombe who grew an apple variety he named “Summer Sweeting.” It’s likely an extinct variety, and he may have been the only person who ever cultivated it. Newcombe was 88 years old when he met Thoreau in 1850. He was quite a character. Newcombe recalled seeing George Washington sitting on his horse during the American Revolution, and he described the first President as being large and fat. (From portraits I never noticed Washington being overweight.) Newcombe lived with his wife, a daughter, a 10-year-old boy, and a middle-aged man Thoreau simply referred to as a fool. The idiot made threatening comments, but the old man and his wife told him to shut up and go away. Who knows what kind of mental disorder he had? Newcombe was a retired oysterman (his sons took over his business), though he still cultivated a large garden of a half-acre. Thoreau reports how the old man sat by the fire chewing tobacco and chatting non-stop, while his wife prepared breakfast. He kept spitting the tobacco juice toward the fireplace where his wife was cooking the buttermilk pancakes, doughnuts, applesauce, green beans, and eels. His back was to the fire, and he alternately spit to his left and right. Thoreau ate the doughnuts and applesauce because he thought they received less tobacco juice, but his companion disagreed and ate the buttermilk pancakes and green beans instead.
Baldwin apples were once a well-liked variety but were replaced by Macintosh. Baldwin apples originated in Massachusetts about the time Thoreau visited Cape Cod.
There are still apple orchards on Cape Cod, and some of them grow antique varieties, though most originated after Thoreau visited the cape. Baldwin was a well-liked variety but was largely replaced by Macintosh. The former produces heavily every other year, while the latter produces heavily every year. Macintosh is also sweeter. Nevertheless, Baldwin is reportedly a good cider and fresh eating apple. Other antique varieties grown on Cape Cod include Macoun, Northern Spy, and Arkansas Black. I had an Arkansas Black tree in my yard, and the apples it produced were excellent, albeit with a bitter peel. I had to have it removed when I needed a new drain field for my septic tank 12 years ago.
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