Northeast
Meet the American who first planted apples in the colonies: William Blaxton, eccentric settler
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 and 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.
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“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 while “tracking down ancient trees” in the woods of rural Maine.
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.
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It had reached Europe at least by the time of Ancient Greece and Rome.
Apples arrived in the Americas only after the explorations of Christopher Columbus sparked the greatest period of food fusion and cultural integration in world history.
“I looked to have dwelt with my orchards and my books in undisturbed solitude.”
The people of the New World, in addition to apples, soon savored Old World foods such as rice, onions and coffee. Europeans, Asians and Africans discovered Western Hemisphere flavors such as corn, potatoes and tomatoes.
Julius Caesar never tasted tomato sauce, as one observer noted of the Roman diet before the Genoa-born Columbus landed in America.
The restless Blaxton moved often and typically lived alone, though he married at age 64. By age 65, he had a son, John.
He apparently preferred the acquaintance of his apple trees and his books to the company of people.
“I looked to have dwelt with my orchards and my books in undisturbed solitude,” reads a memorial to him today in Cumberland, Rhode Island, near the Blackstone River.
Abandoned in the New World
William Blaxton is believed to have been born on March 5, 1595, in Lincolnshire, England to John and Agnes (Hawley) Blaxton.
His mother died when he was boy.
He was ordained by the Church of England in 1621, then lost his father the following year.
Left on his own as a young man, and with news of English settlements in Jamestown and Plymouth trickling back to Britain, Blaxton set off for the New World as chaplain aboard the ship “Katherine.”
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“William brought with him to the New World a large collection of books, approximately 186 in various languages,” wrote Nathaniel Brewster Blackstone in a biography of the settler and his descendants.
Blaxton arrived in Wessagusset, in what is now Weymouth, Massachusetts, just south of Boston in 1623. It was an ill-fated settlement.
Captain Richard Gorges, who led the expedition, hastily returned to England.
Blaxton stayed behind and ventured a few miles north to the Shawmut Peninsula, the site of present-day downtown Boston, in 1625.
The Puritans, led by John Winthrop, arrived five years later.
“For several years before Winthrop came in 1630, William Blaxton constituted the entire population of this peninsula … to which attached the name of Boston,” the Bostonian Society claimed in an 1860 presentation.
“He was kind of an eccentric,” Russell Steven Powell, executive director of the New England Apple Association, told Fox News Digital. Powell has written two books about the fruit, “America’s Apple” and “Apples of New England.”
There are several accounts, he said, of Blaxton “riding a bull through the streets, throwing flowers and apples to his friends.”
The staid Puritan reformers and the oddball Anglican minister did not hit it off.
So, for the third time in 12 years, Blaxton (or Blackstone) started a new life on his own.
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“Because of theological and territorial disagreements with his new neighbors, Blackstone moved west in 1635 to enjoy the solitude and tranquility of a place he called ‘Study Hill’ in the Lonsdale section of Cumberland, on the east bank of the river that now bears his name,” writes the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
For several years before Winthrop came in 1630, William Blaxton constituted the entire population of Boston.
“This move gave him the unique distinction of being present-day Rhode Island’s first permanent English settler.”
Perfect food for pioneers
Blaxton spent his days in Boston planting roots before uprooting his own.
“When Governor Winthrop found William in 1630, he had had ample time to have built his home, plant his orchard, and was living quite comfortably,” reported Brewster Blackstone in his biography.
“As for the apple seeds he used to develop his orchards, it is probable that he was foresighted enough to retrieve and save every apple core (which naturally contains seeds) he could find, or otherwise come by,” said the same source.
“Certainly most ships were stocked with apples along with other foodstuffs, therefore, it is doubtful that he brought them with him in 1623 because this kind of living was most likely not his original intention. He would have probably only brought with him his ministerial necessities.”
Apple experts say the earliest known American varieties likely descended from Blackstone’s Boston fruit trees.
Blaxton’s first orchard was planted at the corner of what’s now Beacon and Spruce streets, in the heart of Boston, between Beacon Hill and Boston Common.
That’s according to Amy Traverso, Yankee Magazine food editor and author of “The Apple Lover’s Cookbook,” who shared that with Fox News Digital.
“I love to imagine Beacon Hill covered with all those apple trees,” she said.
Blackstone planted his apple orchards from seed, according to all reports, while controlled varietals are grown by grafting.
So the types of apples he grew is unknown. But apple experts say the earliest known American varieties likely descended from Blackstone’s Boston fruit trees.
The Roxbury russet, named for a Boston neighborhood, is the earliest known American apple variety, and is traced to 1635, the year Blaxton left for Rhode Island.
Heirloom apples — Rhode Island greening and yellow sweeting — also likely came from his first orchards.
“Apples teach us what it means to be alive and joyful on earth.” — Apple expert and author John Bunker
The Roxbury russet is an “excellent old cider apple, a fine keeper and good for eating fresh out of hand,” writes Trees of Antiquity.
Added the website New England Apples, “Its crisp and spicy sweet-tart flesh is as good for fresh-eating as it is for making a fine cider … It keeps well in storage.”
Apples could be also be dried, baked, distilled into vinegar — or, most commonly in colonial times — fermented into cider.
They proved perfect food for the pioneers who were spreading across the continent.
They also gave the Europeans who arrived in America, and eventually the Americans who settled new homes across the continent, a much-needed reminder of home.
‘Alive and joyful on earth’
William Blackstone died on May 26, 1675, in Cumberland, the Rhode Island town he first settled in 1635.
The name Blackstone remains common throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The land he sold to the Puritans became Boston Common, founded in 1634, just before he left the Shawmut Peninsula.
It is the oldest public park in America today. It predates Central Park in New York City, for example, by 224 years.
Boston has a downtown Blackstone Street, a Blackstone Grill and a Blackstone Elementary School.
Apples quickly became a symbol of American bounty.
The Blackstone River, which meanders through both Massachusetts and Rhode Island, is named for him. It became a critical power provider in the early days of the Industrial Revolution.
The Blackstone River National Historical Park was created under President Obama in 2015.
Rhode Island features numerous memorials, including a William Blackstone Memorial Park in Cumberland.
The city of Pawtucket, an old mill town on the Blackstone River, introduced a monument to Blackstone in 2021. It features him reading a book upon a bull, reflecting one of the tales of his eccentricity.
Apples quickly became a symbol of American bounty.
When British troops invaded Brooklyn during the American Revolution in 1776, the British were stunned by the splendor of the orchards.
To read more stories in this unique “Meet the American Who…” series from Fox News Digital, click here
The redcoats “regaled themselves with the fine apples, which hung everywhere upon the trees in great abundance,” wrote author David McCullough in “1776,” an epic work of history.
Bunker, the Maine apple expert, said apples symbolize the breadth of the American experience, born overseas but rooting themselves deeply in the soil of the New World.
“Apples are just like us,” the apple romantic said. “They come in many colors, many sizes and many shapes. They are well rooted, just like we all want to be. They are collaborative, communicative — and they gift us with beautiful fruit.”
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Apples, he also said, “teach us what it means to be alive and joyful on earth.”
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Pittsburg, PA
Pittsburgh proposes a $500,000 payment to settle bridge collapse lawsuits
PITTSBURGH — The city of Pittsburgh is seeking approval of a half-million-dollar payment to settle lawsuits over the collapse of a bridge into a ravine more than 2 1/2 years ago.
Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak said Friday he had asked the Pittsburgh City Council to authorize a payment of $500,000, the full liability damage cap, to settle lawsuits filed on behalf those who were on the city-owned Forbes Avenue bridge when it fell Jan. 28, 2022, plunging a bus and four cars about 100 feet (30 meters) into the Fern Hollow Creek. Another vehicle drove off the east bridge abutment and landed on its roof. There were injuries but no one died.
The agreement needs approval from the council and a judge overseeing the case.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the action was a surprise but that they appreciated the city “accepting responsibility for allowing one of its bridges to collapse, and agreeing to pay its statutory limits to partially resolve this case,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Legal action against three engineering firms will continue, they said.
Federal investigators have said that the city didn’t adequately maintain or repair the bridge and failed to act on inspection reports, leading to the corrosion of the structure’s steel legs. City officials didn’t dispute the findings and cited creation of a new bridge maintenance division and a tripling of funding for maintenance and repairs.
A new bridge at the site 5 miles (8 kilometers) east of downtown Pittsburgh opened in December 2022.
Connecticut
Ocean State Job Lot in Groton to close
The Ocean State Job Lot store in Groton is closing.
The store, located at 941 Poquonnock Road, will close in mid-October.
A pre-closing sale started on Thursday and items are being offered at 30% off, according to a news release.
Employees will be offered an equivalent position at a nearby Ocean State Job Lot, according to a statement.
“We appreciate the community’s support over the last 21 years, and thank each of our valued associates who have helped to make the Groton store successful. As a thank you to our loyal customers before we close this location, we are pleased to offer the community a 30-percent sale storewide with a few exceptions,” John Conforti, chief financial officer of Ocean State Job Lot, said in a statement.
Ocean State Job Lot was founded in 1977 and there are 153 stores in New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Connecticut Ocean State Job Lot locations
- Berlin
- Bloomfield
- Bristol
- Canton
- Clinton
- Danbury
- Danielson
- East Haven
- Enfield
- Gales Ferry
- Griswold
- Litchfield
- Manchester
- Meriden
- Milford
- Naugatuck
- Old Saybrook
- Orange
- Seymour
- Southington
- Torrington
- Vernon
- Waterbury
- Waterford
- Wethersfield
- Willimantic
- Windsor Locks
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