The following is an excerpt from “A History of Leelanau Township” by the Leelanau Township Historical Writers Group.
In 1853 on Nov. 26, the Rev. Smith recorded in his diary that … “Mr. J.S. Barker came with fruit trees” and on Nov. 28 “… bought cherries.”
In 1866 Alexander Winchell’s “A Report on The Grand Traverse Region” mentions cherries on their homesteads and when they began to produce more fruit that could be consumed locally, a market for the surplus was found in nearby cities and across the lake in the Upper Peninsula and in northern Wisconsin. Charles K. Thomas tells about his uncle, an early fruit grower: “I recall that harvesting for market was done by clipping the stems to keep them from bleeding during shipment and catching them in an open umbrella hung upside down on a branch.”
