OCR Text |
Show OCTOBER 5, 198 :'v Davis5 Benjamin By DONETA Franklin GATHERUM When Dr. Sumner Gleason was 83 years old a reported from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin interviewed the former Kaysville, Utah resident in order to write a feature story about a western frontier physician. No mere story could cover the width and breadth of Dr. Summer Gleasons life. He was a man with interests and talents and accomplishments that rank him as the Benjamin Franklin of Davis County. THE STORY could have been centered around the experiences of Dr. Gleason in the saloons and mines of New Mexico. The author could have concentrated on the numerous horse and buggy expeditions Dr. Gleason made across the dirt roads on North Davis County. The reporter could have credited Dr. Gleason with practicing dentistry, working as a type setter, being a slight of hand artist and a hypnotist, dabbling in art, establishing a school health program in Davis County or organizing a band. The kind deeds performed by the doctor who practiced medicine in the Kaysville area for years were so numerous a feature story could easily have been developed around this humanitarian character trait. The news reporter considered all of these accomplishments secondary in importance to the one major achievement that Dr. Gleason made to society, the chance discovery and the development of a special peach tree. 44-pl- THE NEWS article, printed in Philadelphia on Aug. 20, 1943, quoted Dr. Gleason, been a long life and a good one. And best of all, there was that danged peach tree! It was the Early Elberta peach that gave Dr. Gleason a place in history. This particular variety ripened about a week earlier than the established variety. It was good size. The flavor was Its The unsurpassed. It was almost fuzz-freElberta was hardy enough to be grown in home orchards and equally suitable for a commercial fruit grower. e. TODAY HORTICULTURISTS throughout the U.S. call this wonderful peach the Lemon Elberta or the Early Elberta. Fruit growers in Kaysville, Fruit Heights and other parts of Davis County know it is the Gleason Elberta. It would be unfair to the memory of Dr. Sumner Gleason to tell the story of the development of his peach without also giving a biography of his life. "He was an individual. His life didnt follow any pattern, Mabel Gleason, a daughter in law, says of Sumner Gleason, a tall slender built man. He wasnt a money chaser. He went to the extreme in wanting to help people. He gave service and enriched many lives. He wasnt a practical man. He was very intellectual. ' SUMNER GLEASON ws bom in Malden, Mass, on May 11, 1860. He left school at the age of 14 and worked as a newspaper type setter, a stenographer and other occupations before he decided to return to school and study medicine. Eventually he graduated from the Vermont medical school. Years later the Dr. recalled, I was sick for months before my graduation, had attended few lectures and couldnt even answer the question, What is the scientific name for nose bleed? in my final exams. But I was graduated. There was a need for doctors in the West. SumnerGleason traveled to San Antonio, Tex. and then to White Oakes, New Mexico. There was a town of Carthage nearby that needed medical services. Dr. Gleason made arrangements to handle the cases of 100 miners for the sum of one dollar per patient per month. THERE WERE no medical facilities whatsoever in Carthage and so Dr. Gleason was the doctor, the dentist and the druggist. On April 11, 1888 SumnerGleason married Miss Edith Crawford. The new Mrs. Gleason was only five days younger than her husband. She was born in Scotland of a wealthy family. Mrs. Gleason was a lady, Alice Williams Barton recalls. In Scotland, she had an upstairs maid and her own personal maid. She dressed beautifully and conducted herself like a lady in every way. She didnt do housework. Each week Doctor would travel into Salt Lake to buy a special chocolate for Mrs. Gleason. This was her breakfast drink. She would have tea each day at 4 p.m. IN 1890 the Gleasons moved to Denver, Colo, and then to Utah. They settled in Spanish Fork and Salt Lake City before taking up residency in Kaysville. The dental health of children was a major concern for Dr. Gleason. He bought a dental book and studied it. Eventually he started fixI ing teeth. Dr. Gleason later wrote, First filled teeth. Then I started making false teeth. Finally I was straightening the worst cases of crooked teeth you can imagine, all from the book. Technically, I was under danger of arrest all the time for I had no license to practice dentistry. Yet there was no one else to care for these people and their dental problems. IT WAS common for Dr. Gleason to take young patients into Salt Lake City to be treated by orthodontist specialists. Many times the Doctor paid for the services. Dr. Gleason recorded 4,000 extractions and 15,000 fillings in baby teeth alone. HE CARED for his dental patients on Sundays, his only day off. From 1916 to 1939, Dr. Gleason worked as the Davis County school doctor. He gave immunizing serums to thousands of students. MRS. BARTON remembers one girl in took her Kaysville had cross eyes. Dr. Gleason corrective fitted for had and her Lake Salt into lenses. In about three years her eyes were fine. He was abrupt in his speech. He didnt join clubs or socialize. He was too busy practicing The Gleason home still stands. medicine and doing the many other things he enjoyed, Mrs. Barton, a long-tim- e neighbor says. It was a common sight to see Doctor taking bouquets of flowers from his garden to the hospital or to homes of sick patients. He would carry dishes of jello or ice cream to sick children. THE GLEASON family had just settled in Kaysville when Dr. Gleason became interested in horticulture. He wrote, I was told it was no use planting an orchard without sufficient water to irrigate the trees. It took me five days to prove irrigation for trees was not absolutely necessary. As a substitute for water I used a method of deep cultivation and in a few years I was raising grapes, berries, apples and peaches in dry ground. The introduction of the loganberry took six years of experimentation. Before Dr. Gleasons work, the Pacific coast states were the only places in America in which the berries were grown. The most difficult part of growing loganberries was to find some way to do away with the excessively large vines which kept the fruit from ripening. Dr. Gleason attached the tops of the vines to wires suspenced from strong stakes. This allowed the berries to ripen and it gave the pickers greater freedom in gathering the fruit. SOON DR. Gleason had a small nursery established behind his home and to the east of the house. He experimented with fruit and shade trees as well as vegetables, grapes, berries and flowers. When a person got a tree or a start from Dr. Gleason, the consumer was instructed about the planting and care of the purchase or the gift because Dr. Gleason rarely made money from his horticulture enterprises. Through experimentation, Dr. Gleason developed a strain of Golden Bantam sweet com. ANOTHER PROJECT Dr. Gleason became interested in was the canning industry. He established a small canning plant on 2nd South and 1st East streets in Kaysville. Gleason grape juice was processed in this plant. He also canned com and peaches. During World War I, he conceived the idea of canning buffalo meat. Buffalos from Antelope Island were obtained and business looked promising. People just didnt like the idea of eating canned buffalo and so the project soon died. The canning plant was razed in 1964 to clear Subdivision. the land for the Vera-Le- e THERE WERE two slightly different stories about the development of the Gleason Elberta Peach. g Davis Local fruit growers and that were residents County with Dr. Gleason claim the tree was started from a peach pit. You never know what you will get when you plant a pit, Sam Raymong of Fruit Heights says. It just happened that tree from this one Dr. Gleason got a first-rat- e is it the best believe I peach grown. It pit. doesnt ship as well as the Red Hale but it has better flavor. CARL BUTCHER says his father, Arthur G. Butcher, was driving along the road near the Gleason home one day. Dr. Gleason called for Arthur to come into his orchard and taste a peach he had developed from a pit. The flavor was good. Mr. Butcher got many bud starts from the original tree and established one of the first Gleaston Elberta orchards in Fruit Heights. Carl Butcher says, At first, we hauled our peaches into Salt Lake City to sell at the different stores. People soon discovered how good the peachers were and they came to our home to buy them. We couldnt fill all the orders. It was still the main peach crop in Fruit Heights. When you take a bud from a seedling, it stays true to the stock. Many of the trees producing are descendants of the original tree. WILLIAM BUTCHER, a grandfather of Alden Burton, was another early fruit farmer that set out a Gleason Elberta orchard. The Doctor started budding and selling trees. Grandfather got some of the original ones. It was prior to 1918. The tree has stayed true to the strain. Today it is grown everywhere, not just in Utah. Some call it the Stark Elberta, others say it is the Lemon Elberta. In Kaysville it is the Gleason Elberta. The Stark nursery bought the patent for the tree. It is still the best peach produced, Alden Burton stresses. In the story that appeared in the August 20, 1943 issue of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Dr. Gleason states, Stark Brothers, a large nursery located in Louisiana, Mo., just then was offering a $300 prize to anyone who could produce a peach which ripened earlier and had a better taste than the old Elbertas. THEY DISTRIBUTED small seedlings, asking those who raised them to keep a close watch for an early type. The tree produced fruit in two or three years and the flavor was better than I have ever tasted. They came early too. Dr. Gleason picked a few and shipped them to the company. He received a telegram back immediately asking for buds. He sent them and forgot about it for three years. THEN I WROTE them a letter asking if my peaches had been a success and if so what about the $300. They sent me a check and $100 worth of trees. I had raised an early Elberta! The company had distributed four million seedlings trying to find this variety. It had fallen to my lot to get it... Its been a long life and a good one. And best of all, there was that danged peach tree. life-lon- THIS ARTICLE was prepared with the help of many people. Mrs. Alice Williams Barton saved clippings from newspapers that were invaluable in telling Dr. Gleasons story. Her first-han- d memories were important. Mrs. Mable Gleason, Samual Raymond, Alden Burton and Carl Butcher all made important contributions. Alice Rampton contributed the SALE DATES:J111SB.I1I OCT. 1, fraWOtTJTiM ; |