FRUIT GROWERS OWE SUCCESS TO WHITNEY

Date: 1983 to 1983
Location: Walla Walla, Washington, United States
Surname/tag: Whitney

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Sunday, January 9, 1983

FRUIT GROWERS OWE SUCCESS TO WHITNEY

Charles L. Whitney, who established a nursery here a century ago, has been given much credit for the extensive commercial fruit growing industry of the Walla Walla Valley. His abilities and foresight "pointed the way" to growing of apples and other fruit here and elsewhere in the Northwest.

Today. Whitney Road, between South Third Avenue and Plaza Way, and located near where his home once stood, is a memorial to the man and his energy. It was in this section of Walla Walla County that much of the county's pioneer history is located.

Here was the first wheat grown commercially in Washington, and here was located pioneer flour mills and basing points for shipments of supplies to the Idaho mines of the 1860s. Historical aspects of the Whitney property were recorded in a Walla Walla "Union" account of 1896. "It was here in 1858 that Captain Jerry Dent and John A. Simms erected the first flouring mill east of the Cascade Mountains, where they manufactured flour for the entire section of country extending from the Cascades east to the Rocky Mountains. On this same piece of land, in the year 1860, was erected a distillery by Overholtzer and Scott. John Picard, now deceased, constructed the building. This place was also used in early days by Overholtzer and Scott as an outfitting point for the miners in this section of the country. The first wheat ever shown in the state was put in the ground on this land, the seed at that time costing $5 per bushel, it having been brought to this valley from The Dalles on mules in 1859. This wheat was sown by that Pioneer, John A. Simms. The old mill and distillery have not been operated for many years, and they have recently been converted into a barn and packing house by Mr. Whitney."

An idea of the scope of the Whitney operations can be gained from the same 1896 article. "It consists of 100 acres of the finest and richest bottom land in the county which is nearly all planted in nursery stock of the finest quality. His nursery is stocked with all kinds of fruit and shade trees, small fruits and berries of all kinds, flowers, etc.

"On the place he has two large packing houses where his fruits and nursery stocks are prepared for shipment. He has built up an immense trade, and today is supplying the trade throughout the entire northwest, and besides, has made many shipments of large lots of nursery stock to Colorado, Utah and many eastern points. Mr. Whitney is today considered one of the most enterprising and prominent fruit and nursery men in the northwest."

Editorials of both the Walla Walla "Union" and the Walla Walla "Bulletin" at the time of Whitney's death lauded the nursery entrepreneur.

"The horticultural industry and prosperity of this entire section owes a great deal to Charles Whitney, for it was largely through his foresight & his initiative that the fruit crop of the valley became more than a matter of individual needs for home supply."

The "Union," in its lead story of the day, said "his success in the growing of fruit trees determined the possibilities of this region in the : production of fruit."

Newspaper accounts at the time of his death indicated Whitney relinquished his business to others about 1907, renting the land but continuing to reside in his fine home near the present entrance to the Walla Walla Country Club.

The Whitney home, for many years a landmark of fine homes here, was razed when it was sold in 1929. Claire Mitchell, in her book, "Walla Walla Remembers," includes a drawing of the mansion, while noting: "The Whitney home, no longer standing, topped a promontory on land now belonging to Dr. Thomas Campbell. In its lively years it was the center of hospitality and youthful merrymaking."