CHARLESTON, W.Va.— Around 1790, in a small clearing on a ridge above Wellsburg, West Virginia, a pioneer settler named Edward Cranford planted a nursery of apple trees from seed, hoping one day to turn them into a productive orchard.
Apple trees grown from seed rarely produce apples with marketable, commercial qualities, but even gnarled and bitter seedling apple trees had many uses for a frontier dweller. They could be pressed into a serviceable apple cider, or “converted” to pork by allowing hogs to fatten themselves on the ungathered apples on the orchard floor.
And every once in a while, a chance seedling tree might produce a surprisingly tasty dessert apple that could be propagated through grafting.
The Grimes Golden Apple: A Star Is Born
In 1802, Cranford sold his land and improvements to Thomas P. Grimes, who discovered among the seedling apple trees one that produced a tree with apples of a beautiful golden color, with firm yet juicy flesh and a sweet-tart flavor, suitable for fresh eating off the tree, as well as for making apple sauce.
It also produced a fine cider with a kick, fermenting to a 9% alcohol content, high enough to make the cider more shelf-stable and less vulnerable to bacterial growth than lower-alcohol ciders.
Thomas Grimes, with the help of neighbor James Lawhead, began taking cuttings from this remarkable tree, grafting them to the rootstock of other apple trees, and then set out a large orchard of a variety he came to call “Grimes Goldens.”
With his farm close to the Ohio River, Grimes was soon able to ship large numbers of the Grimes Golden down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, where they found eager buyers all the way down to New Orleans.
Soon Grimes was also in the business of selling grafted rootstock to other farmers across the Ohio Valley and the South. By the middle of the 19th century, the Grimes Golden variety could be found for sale in every Southern nursery catalog, and many in the Midwest as well.
Today you must do some searching to find the Grimes Golden, but if you haunt weekly farmers markets across West Virginia and the Ohio Valley during apple season, you might have some luck.
Golden Delicious: A New Apple Rises in Clay County
If, on the other hand, you are looking for apples at your local grocery store, you can find the Grimes Golden’s most famous descendant—the West Virginia-born Golden Delicious.
The story of the Golden Delicious began on a farm in Clay County in central West Virginia, where Anderson H. Mullins purchased some Golden Reinette apple trees from a traveling fruit tree peddler around 1880.
The Golden Reinette was an old English apple that was imported to the Carolinas before the Civil War. This sweet yellow variety was said to have a taste reminiscent of the pineapple.
Mullins added these trees to an orchard that already contained some Grimes Goldens he had acquired earlier. One day, he noticed a wild apple tree producing attractive fruit on a hillside near his orchard. When he tasted it, he concluded it had great potential. It had a very sweet and juicy yellow flesh.
While we cannot be certain how this new apple came to be, most pomologists today believe this little tree was the result of cross-pollination between a Grimes Golden and a Golden Reinette.
Mullins eventually shipped a small box of these apples to Missouri-based Stark Brothers Nurseries, which, by the twentieth century, was emerging as a national leader in the mail-order nursery business.
He attached a note declaring “we like them so well that we think them all most as good a [Red] Delicious,” and also noting that “the apples are so rich that they will make apple butter without shugar.”
After Paul Stark tasted one, he traveled to West Virginia to get a look at Mullins’s tree. He purchased the tree and the exclusive rights to take grafts from it for $5,000. He built a cage around the tree and paid Mullins $100 a year to keep the tree alive. The tree survived until 1958.
The Stark Brothers had already made a fortune from an Iowa chance seedling that they branded as the Red Delicious, and this new find they dubbed the Golden Delicious. Together, Stark Brothers’ Red and Golden Delicious apples would dominate the American apple market for most of the twentieth century.
Following World War II, the U.S. government established the Marshall Plan to aid in the reconstruction of war-torn Europe. Government agents delivered thousands of Golden Delicious apple trees to the farmers of Europe to replace the trees that had been destroyed by war. The French became especially fond of this West Virginia fruit, and to this day, the Golden Delicious is the most commonly grown apple in France.
Once a year, the people of Clay County, West Virginia, host the Golden Delicious Festival to honor the tree that put them on the global map. This year’s festival will take place in Clay, West Virginia, from September 18 to 21.
A historical marker near Wellsburg, West Virginia, marks the spot of the Grimes Golden seedling that started it all. Likewise, a historical marker near Bomont, West Virginia, marks the birthplace of the Golden Delicious.
Map showing locations of Grimes Golden and Golden Delicious historic markers
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My grandfather's hog lot had 6 to 8 Grimes Golden trees in it. The pigs fattened up on the apples that fell each autumn. We had some fat and delicious meat every year. Thanks for writing this article!
Little do we know the origins of apples. Enjoyed reading your delightful and interesting article! Thank you.
The eastern panhandle of WV was known for apples (Romney apples, etc).
J
The eastern panhandle of WV was known for apples (Romney apples, etc).
I have a Grimes Gold tree in my backyard in Pittsburgh. Planted by previous owner. Probably in the 1950’s or 60’s. There is another one in the neighborhood. Enjoy them fresh off the tree.