242
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY
for cash. A few families marketed commercial quantities of dried fruit locally or in Ogden or Salt Lake City In the Bountiful area, Newton Tuttle and Israel Barlow pioneered the commercial production of dried plums and peaches. Fruit and molasses (that is, peaches preserved in molasses) could be traded for coal in Summit County. Residents in Park City purchased these products as well as vegetables, dairy products, and eggs from south Davis County farmers. In the 1880s merchants throughout the county aggressively advertised their services as shipping agents for local farm products. 70 The sale of fresh fruit also began early. For example, Joseph Robinson of Farmington expanded an existing orchard in 1859 by planting fifty-two apple trees and the same number of peach trees. One of his best markets in the mid-1880s was Summit County. One of Davis County's most productive fruit areas was along a half-milewide strip of land below Bluff Road in Syracuse and South Hooper (West Point). Three major fruit growers in this area were serving national markets in the 1890s with their high-quality canned fruits, jellies, and preserves. Gilbert Parker, who was raised on a farm in Wellsville, grew apples, peaches, plums, and cherries on a twenty-fiveacre orchard in West Point. William H. Miller, a sheepman and farmer, specialized in Missouri Pippin apples and Bartlett pears, and he also raised Jonathan and Winesap apples. He shipped his first harvest of more than a thousand bushels of Pippins in 1898 to eastern markets. Daniel C. Adams and his silent financial partner Fred Keisel of Ogden owned a bathing resort and a salt plant before planting fruit and vegetables on the 200-acre lakeside property. Adams planted pear and French prune trees in 1893, and within a few years he was shipping his produce to out-of-state markets. Adams sold fresh fruit, canned prunes, canned grape butter, bottled pears and peaches, and various jellies and preserves. He later expanded by adding apples, asparagus, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, cherries, and grapes.71 Orchards were also found along the benchlands of Davis C o u n t y Commercial operations thrived along Mountain Road in east Layton and Fruit Heights and on the rocky benches of Farmington, Centerville, and Bountiful. Some growers specialized, but many raised a variety of fruits to hedge against the weather and disease and to serve a broader market. Typical of the diversified
