Interesting findings regarding our family heritage. Maternal great grandparents of co-owner, Patty, developed an orchard about three miles southeast of our current location in 1888. Receipts were found among family papers that documented the sale and shipment of trees from Sibenthaler Brothers Nursery of Dayton, Ohio. Also included in these papers were shipping receipts and planting instructions from Brown Brothers of Chicago, Illinois dated the same time frame. Interestingly enough, the planting instructions could be copied and used today as the methods are basically the same. One main difference is the holes are now dug by machine while then all the holes for the tree plantings were made by hand digging.
Also, another great grandfather worked as a salesman for Kelley and Riley Nursery in Alert, IN. This great grandfather, John Tekulve, also grafted independently and sold this root stock from his own business location on his farm just east of Batesville, IN. An advertisement from the local newspaper indicates that his nursery business, eleven thousand trees, was selling stock to local residents in 1890. Older residents do recall his orchard which has now been developed into housing and business.
Interestingly and coincidentally, a grandson of the Doll family orchard married a great granddaughter of the Tekulve and Kleine family orchards and nursery and as a result another family is involved in this “growing” business. Not just a business, but a continuation of a family heritage.