Meet the American who first planted apples in the colonies: William Blaxton, eccentric settler
07.10.2022 - 09:37
/ foxnews.com
This fall, tip your basket to William Blaxton when you pluck a plump apple from a tree, bob for apples on Halloween or cherish your grandmother's amazing apple pie on Thanksgiving. Reverend Blaxton, among other claims to fame, planted the first seeds that would fuel a pioneering nation and give apples an image of all-American wholesomeness.
A bookish, eccentric loner, the early English settler nurtured what historians believe were the first apple orchards in what's now the U.S. in present-day Boston in the 1620s.
His name Blaxton is often modernized as Blackstone. A true pioneer, he settled Boston five years before the Puritans and Rhode Island a year before Roger Williams. "There may be historical characters who did more than he did for apples in America, but he was certainly the first — and at least the first known — to bring this exotic crop to our shores," said John Bunker, an American apple expert, grower and author. "That’s a pretty awesome legacy," added the New England apple enthusiast, who spoke to Fox News Digital this week while "tracking down ancient trees" in the woods of rural Maine. An engraving depicts fruit pickers collecting apples for cider, dated 19th century. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Our national heritage is flavored with references to the sweet, juicy fruit.
America's biggest city is called the Big Apple. Wholesome institutions are as "American as apple pie." Johnny Appleseed created an American legend spreading the gospel and the apple across the heartland. Yet the fruit is native to Central Asia, likely Kazakhstan. It had reached Europe at least by the time of Ancient Greece and Rome. Apples arrived in the Americas only after the
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