How the oldest fruit tree in North America is connected to Dubois County
What does the oldest fruit tree in North America have to do with Dubois County?
Not much to many of Dubois County’s settlers who arrived in the United States in the 1800s, but Linda Messmer’s ancestors arrived in America when the first colonies were just being formed —about three years before this pear tree was planted.
In her and her husband Jerry’s home on the west side of Jasper, Linda keeps a list of her ancestors among many folders and photo albums. A single page chronicles twelve generations leading back to John Endecott.
Endecott is remembered for a couple of reasons.
He was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay settlement established in Salem, Massachusetts. He arrived here in 1628 and was a zealous puritan who went so far as to ship two brothers by the last name of Browne back to England for being followers of the Church of England. He even broke English law when he established a mint to meet the needs of the colonists.
He is credited with introducing the native-European plant, the oxeye daisy, to the new colonies. Considered an invasive species, it is hard to drive the roads of the United States and not see its common white petals and yellow center everywhere these days.
Endicott also established a 300-acre farm, which he named Orchard Farms, about three miles upstream from Salem. And that is where the connection to Dubois County and Linda Messmer began around 1632-33 when he planted a pear tree in the first cultivated orchard of the New World.
That one tree has survived earthquakes, hurricanes, grazing cows, and even being cut down by vandals in 1964 to become the oldest fruit tree in North America at 380 years old.
Of course, it was famous at 200 years old when it was listed on a map in 1832, labeled as a “Pear tree, 200 years old.”
Henry Wordsworth Longfellow even refers to the Endicott Pear Tree in a quaint letter in the New York Times on May 17, 1879.
Linda, whose maiden name is Westfall, visited the tree and a replica of the original Salem colony several years ago. Her ancestry was common knowledge in her family. “This girl was giving us a tour of Endecott’s home,” she explains about the trip. “I told her I was related to John Endecott, but she didn’t believe me.”
Linda is from Poseyville where a group of Endicott’s relatives settled — there is even an Endicott Street in the small town. She moved to Dubois County after marrying Jerry in 1960.
A project called the Endicott Pear Tree Scion Project was started in 1997 to graft scions —twigs, buds, or shoots— from the original tree and grow clones. This is an ancient farming technique. The new trees would be provided to John Endecott’s descendants when they were viable.
The first round was sent out in 2007, a second group of trees all died in 2010, and a third group was just sent out this past spring.
Jerry and she disagree on when they signed up to receive a tree grafted from the Endecott Pear Tree, maybe five or maybe seven years ago. Regardless, they received their tree about a month ago in a large nondescript box through the U.S. Postal Service. The tree was kept in the Messmer’s garage until they were sure they could comply with the instruction to only plant when there was no chance of a frost occurring.
Jerry chose a spot that an apple tree used to fill along their property line and planted it on Thursday. “Don’t hit it with the mower,” Jerry jokingly told his grandson Kyle who was there helping.
Linda said it is special to have this tree planted in her yard and the connection it has with the historic tree and her own ancestors. “If you don’t know where you’ve been, how do you know where you’re going.”
Linda is the Regent for the regional chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, she is also a member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames, National Society New England Women, the president of the Jasper Philharmonic Club, and she plays piano for the Singing Seniors.
The Messmers have five children; Mark Messmer (the state representative), Roger Messmer, Ed Messmer, Pam Freyberger and Carla Schuch. They also have 15 grandchildren.
You may notice the different spelling of Endicott/Endecott in this article, according to Linda the spelling changed about five generations after John Endecott arrived in Salem. It is used interchangeably in the article due to the different spellings found while researching the article.
