Woolverton, Linus

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Pleasance Crawford, “WOOLVERTON, LINUS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/woolverton_linus_14E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Fruit grower, horticulturist, editor, author, and office holder; b. 12 Dec. 1846 in Grimsby Township, Upper Canada, son of Charles Edward Woolverton and Delight Bennet; m. first 18 Oct. 1870 Sarah Frances Lorimer in Toronto, and they had two sons and one daughter; m. secondly 2 May 1903 Lizzie Frances Oakley in Grimsby, Ont.; d. near there 7 May 1914.
    • Linus Woolverton spent most of his life on land purchased in 1802 by his great-grandfather Jonathan Woolverton upon his arrival in Grimsby Township from New Jersey. Two hundred acres – reaching from the Niagara Escarpment to Lake Ontario – came down to Linus through his grandfather Dennis Woolverton and his father. Although Jonathan and Dennis grew apples and some peaches, this farm – like others in the Niagara peninsula – was one of mixed crops. Its conversion to the Maplehurst Fruit Farm, which Linus would make widely known, began in 1856 when his father and Andrew Murray Smith formed a partnership to produce nursery stock and fruit there. In 1859 they were among the constituent members of the Fruit Growers’ Association of Upper Canada.
    • On his return to Grimsby, Woolverton became involved in his father’s nursery business. A Baptist like his father, he also became an examiner in classics and English at the Canadian Literary Institute, a church-affiliated school in Woodstock, Ont. In 1875, following the dissolution of Woolverton and Smith, he took over management of his father’s farm. Although it had many established fruit trees, the thousands more he planted took time to come into bearing. As he would reflect after 16 years, “I must confess to having been myself somewhat duped by reading glowing descriptions of the enormous profits of fruit-culture.” He was a good horticulturist and businessman, however, and Maplehurst prospered. By the turn of the century, markets in England, Scotland, France, and Australia were receiving its fancy apples.
    • In 1886 Woolverton gave up the Woodstock position and succeeded as secretary-treasurer of the Fruit Growers’ Association of Ontario and as editor of its monthly, the Canadian Horticulturist. Under his guidance and with his own frequent contributions, it soon came to reflect his experience as a fruit grower, his literary and scientific education, and his awareness of current horticultural literature.
    • Beginning in 1894, as secretary of the Fruit Growers’ Association of Ontario, he was also secretary and an ex officio member of the board of control of the Fruit Experiment Stations of Ontario. His duties included inspections, often with Professor Howard Laing Hutt of the Ontario Agricultural College, of more than a dozen stations – Maplehurst itself was one from 1896 – and responsibility for the fruit display at the annual industrial fair in Toronto. Woolverton’s most consuming duty, however, was the preparation of a publication to “contain all the information necessary” for the fruit growers of Ontario to select which cultivars to plant. His evaluations, with photographs, began appearing in 1898 in the board’s annual reports. The work took longer than anyone anticipated. To gain time for it he resigned as secretary-treasurer of the fruit growers’ association in 1902 and as editor of the Canadian Horticulturist two years later. The fruits of Ontario, 1906, which incorporated assessments of more than 400 cultivars, was finally published in 1907. Although it named no author, the introduction credited Woolverton for his ten years of work and his “excellent illustrations and full descriptions.” A revised edition would appear in 1914, unfortunately with no mention at all of his name. Both editions are valuable to present-day horticultural historians for their detailed records of fruits grown in Ontario prior to World War I.
    • Woolverton’s role as secretary of the board of control continued until its dissolution in 1908; his position as an official experimenter ended with the closing of the Maplehurst station in 1909. He then worked on his own book, The Canadian apple grower’s guide (Toronto, 1910), which became the authoritative Canadian pomological reference work of its time.
  • Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6237
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/160022348/linus-woolverton