Santa Clara County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


          
LOUIS & PIERRE PELLIER
 
            Louis Pellier, a vine and fruit grower of France, had come to 
California in the winter of 1848-49.  After trying his fortune in the mines, he 
came to San Jose in 1850, and purchased the tract of land fronting on the west 
side of San Pedro Street, where the mills of the Independent Mill and Lumber 
Company now stand.  This tract was formerly known as Pellier�s Gardens; it is 
now the Pellier subdivision of the city of San Jose.  Here he planted a nursery 
and orchard, and cultivated flowers and plants.  His brother Pierre had come out 
a year behind, and was assisting him in his work.  When Pierre came, he brought 
with him cuttings of some of the fine varieties of grapes, among which were the 
Black Burgundy, Chasselas Fontainebleau, Madelaine, and others.  From that time 
to 1854, the experience of fruit-growing here had shown the great horticultural 
possibilities of the country, and all were reaching out for new varieties.  
Louis Pellier determined to transplant the best fruits from his native land to 
his adopted county.  In accordance with this determination he sent Pierre back 
to France in 1854, with instructions to go through Burgundy and other parts of 
the country, and secure cuttings and cions of the best varieties of fruit grown 
in each. This was done.  Pierre, with another brother, John, who had not yet 
come to America, spent nearly two years traveling through France, gathering 
their stock.  They returned to California, bringing with them a large variety of 
fruit cions.  Among them were the petit prune, the gros prune, with many 
varieties of cherries, and pears, and plums.  The petit prune was not at first 
very popular.  The people preferred the gros prune on account of its size and 
appearance.  As the fruit-growers at that time knew nothing of drying or 
canning, but depended on selling their products green, anything which had an 
appearance of inferiority was at a discount.  The cions were brought from France 
by the Pellier brothers, stuck in potatoes and packed in saw-dust.  Immediately 
on their arrival they were grafted upon stocks prepared from them, and many 
lived.  While, as we have said, the gros prune soon came into great demand, the 
little prune had no friends for many years.  It was finally brought to the 
attention of John Rock, who recognized its value and soon popularized it.  There 
has been great dispute as to whether the French prune grown in California is the 
true French prune of commerce.  There can be no doubt on this point as far as 
Santa Clara County is concerned.  It was brought from its home in France 
directly to San Jose, by people who had been familiar with it from childhood, 
and there can be no mistake as to its identity.  One of the parties who brought 
it is still living, and the box in which the cions were packed is still in 
existence, with all the marks yet legible.
 
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, 
Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 
1888.
Pg. 172
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler