Fruitland traces its origins to about 1795 when a village began to cluster around an intersection known as Disharoon's Cross Roads. About 1820, the village became known as Forktown, because it was located at the fork of two roads which were used by stage coaches traveling north and south. The stage coaches would stop at Forktown, change horses and continue on their way. The place must of been very exciting in those times.
In 1873, the name of the town was changed to Fruitland because of the large number of fruits growing and being harvested in the area.
The holly tree is native to the moist woods surrounding Fruitland. Fruitland held the first and largest holly auction every year for three days in December, from the late 1890s until December 1968 when the demand for homemade wreaths decreased as artificial wreaths were manufactured.
Besides holly, mistletoe was also sold by the bushel basket at the auctions. Wreaths were sold and shipped to brokers in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, but sometimes were shipped as far west as Chicago.
Source
6 comments:
Rynveld's made New Albany (the town where Karen lives) the "wreath capital of the world" according to the signs posted as you enter the town limits on Route 220. It was in business for a lot of years, making wreaths and holiday decorations. I wonder if they used the holly and mistletoe from Fruitland?
Wreath on eBay I found this on eBay.
holly hurts when you walk into it! We had that growing wild in our "back 20" when I was growing up...
Very interesting! I love how towns and areas were given very obvious names, like Forktown because of a fork in the road.
I hope you're stopping in Salisbury, because I've been there, for a previous job that has a mfg plant there.
I've always loved the holly bush and have tried growing them several times, but apparently the climate isn't quite right for it here in Missouri. I've given up! I never choose artificial when real is available.
lol karla wish I could grow holly and find out how it hurts to walk into it!
My grandmother's neighbor used to have two huge (3 floors tall) Holly trees and my brothers and I learned that hitting a baseball into them meant a slow torturous process to retrieve it.
The good thing was it was a whiffle ball and it was about a home run to hit it as far as those trees anyway - so the batter would end up helping get the ball back.
:)
*makes note to big on eBay wreath after finding out whether or not Alice Kay is bidding on it*
Cool find Alice Kay!
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