Seth Lewelling Biography

Seth Lewelling

Lewelling arrived in Oregon Territory in 1850 with a wagon-full of fruit seeds and grafted trees. He went to work in the state's first commercial nursery, which his brother, Henderson, had started in the Willamette Valley town of Milwaukie. Lewelling later traveled through California gold rush country collecting fruit tree seeds, which he took back to Oregon. By 1854 the family nursery had four locations and contained over 100,000 fruit trees.

For the rest of his life, Lewelling worked on grafting fruit trees and developing new species. He is responsible for creating the Black Republican and Lambert cherry varieties, the Golden prune, Sweet Alice apple, and Lewelling grape. The Bing cherry was named for Lewelling's foreman, Ah Bing, who cared for the trees that first produced it. Lewelling was also active in Oregon politics, helping establish the state's referendum and initiative process.