https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/23/george-washington-cherries-found
'Centuries-old cherries found hidden in bottles under floor at George Washington’s home
Scientists speculate that the cherries were probably gathered at Mount Vernon in the 1770s, potentially before the revolutionary war, and stashed away for later use."
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"Daniel Bloodgood was a fruit grower,
specializing in cherry trees "
(Lawson 1952:163-165).
"Although rumored that Benjamin Franklin visited and swapped seeds with the Bloodgood Nurseries, no proof of this visit was found.
President George Washington recorded in his diary a visit to the Prince Nurseries on October 10, 1789. He was not impressed, but did purchase fruit from the trees."
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https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46327/46327-h/46327-h.htm#Chapt_II
"The cherry was one of the fruits much grown by the Dutch. It would be wearisome and would serve little purpose even to attempt a cursory review of the literature of colonial days in New York showing the spread and the extent of fruit culture by the Dutch.
Travel up the Hudson and its branches was easy and within a century after the settlement of New York by the Dutch, cherries were not only cultivated by the whites, according to the records of travelers, naturalists and missionaries, but were rudely tilled by the Indians."
"For a long time after its introduction in New York, the cherry, in common with other fruits, was grown as a species—varieties and budded or grafted trees were probably not known.
Fruit-growing as an industry began in New York and in America, with the establishment of a nursery 60at Flushing, Long Island, in 1730, by Robert Prince, founder of the nursery which afterwards became the famous Linnæan Botanic Garden.
At what date this nursery began to offer named cherries for sale cannot be said but advertisements appearing in 1767, 1774 and 1794 show that budded or grafted named cherries were being offered for sale by the Princes.
In 1804, William Prince, third proprietor of the famous Flushing nursery, prepared a list of the named cherries then under cultivation in America for Willich's Domestic Encyclopaedia, an English work which was being edited and made "applicable to the present situation of the United States" by Dr. James Mease. The following is Prince's list:"
**"
"Flushing was the site of the first commercial tree nurseries in North America, the most prominent being the Prince, Bloodgood, and Parsons nurseries."
Thomas Bloodgood (died 1843) was a president of City National Bank.
Bloodgood was born in Flushing, New York, and was a member of the Bloodgood family dating back to Dutch ownership of New York.
He was also a wine merchant at the Fulton Market and owned a nursery in Flushing.
'After Mr. Bloodgood’s death in 1843, the wine cellar was auctioned off by his executors on December 21, 1843, at the City Hotel in New York City.
Two days after the auction the sales results were published.
This was a significant cellar of which the Madeira alone spanned the vintages of 1754 to 1836.
Many of the producers and ships appear throughout the history of Madeira advertisements.
The Madeira imported by Mr. Bloodgood appears in advertisements over the years as generic” Bloodgood” in 1845[3] to more specific “Bloodgood, imported in 1835” at the sale of Chester Jennings’ wines in 1848[4].
“Old Bloodgood” was even served at the September 17, 1850, supper given by the Cincinnati Independent Fire Co.[5] In this post I have reproduced the list of Madeira as it appeared in newspaper. I have left out the unidentified lots of Madeira.
1754 Madeira, sent by Mr. Oliviera as a present, 2 cases
1754 Madeira, sent to Mr. Bloodgood as a present from Madeira, one bottle, at $5
1779 Mary Elizabeth, 12 demijohns, $4.50-$5 per gallon
1790 Madeira, sent to Mr. Bloodgood as a present from Madeira, one bottle at $5
1791 Blackburn, from the private stock of the late Thomas Tom, 38 bottles at $2.75 each
Blackburn, bottled 18[?]6, drawn out for rebottling 1836, 30 demijohns, $4 per gallon
Pre-1800 Madeira, from Mr. Bloodgood’s private stock, who received it on the division of Mr. Tom’s wine, 18 bottles, $4.50 per bottle
1794 Madeira, sent to Mr. Bloodgood as a present from Madeira, two bottles, $5 each
1798 Monteiro Madeira, bottled in 1808, rebottled in 1830, 17 bottles at $3 each
1800 Madeira, sent to Mr. Bloodgood as a present from Madeira, two bottles, $5 each
1800 Madeira, 5 years in Calcutta, imported into Baltimore 1808, six dozen, $14 per dozen
1800 Madeira, 5 years in Calcutta, imported into Baltimore 1808, 30 demijohns, $4-$4.50 per gallon
1803 Crawford, bottled 1808, rebottled 1836, 160 bottles at $2-$2.12 each
1803 Newton Gordon Murdock, 3 pipes
1803 Madeira of late Robt. Lennox, Esq., 200 half-gallon bottles, at $1.75 each
1805 Craford Madeira, in demijohns and bottles
Calcutta Madeira, three years in Calcutta, imported in 1806, two pipes, $13.50 per dozen
1808 Buchanan Teneriffe, in demijohns, 40 bottles at $3.50 each
1808 St. Anna Madeira, in demijohns and bottles
1808 Choice Malmsy Leacoch
1808 Blackburn, 40 dozen in half gallons and quarts
1809 “Olevelra “
1812 Leacock Madeira, bottled 18[?]8, rebottled 1837,32 dozen, $24 to $27 per dozen
1812 Leacock Madeira, supposedly, recently rebottled, 153 half-gallon magnums, $1.81 each
Pre-1820, very old, 11 bottles at $2.75 each
Pre-1820, red seal, very old, 47 bottles at $3-$3.50 each
Pre-1820, very old and dry, 18 bottles at $2 each
1820 Oliveria, 48 magnums, $1.50-$1.63 each
1820 Oliveria, six dozen bottles, $9.25 per dozen
1820 Oliveria, 30 demijohns, at $3.25 per gallon
1822 Pomona, bottled 1843, 12 dozen, at $13.5 per dozen
1822 Pomona, bottled 1843, six demijohns, at $4.50 per gallon
Pomona, imported in 1824, two pipes, $2.56 per gallon
Juno, two and a half pipes
Juno, imported 1822, bottled in 1843, 12 dozen, $1.50-$1.75 each bottle
Juno, imported 1822, bottled in 1843, 11 demijohns, $4.50-$5 per gallon
1823 Howard March Madeira, two butts
1825, imported by the Cazenove in 1838, three quarter-casks, at $3.[illegible] per gallon
1825 P. J. Monterio & Co., imported 1835 by the Madrid, cased, 3 quart-casks, at $3.25 per gallon
Howard, imported 1825 from J. Howard, March & Co, 9 pipes and 1 butt, at $3.25 per gallon
18[?]9 Mary Elizabeth, 24 demijohns
1828 Ivanough, bottled 1834, 23 bottles, at $0.85 each
1831 Indian Queen, one pipe and two half pipes
Ivanough, imported 1831, one quarter-cask, at $3 per gallon
[illegible] Anna, a fine old wine, imported by Messrs F. Stevens & sons, purchased in 1833, $19 per dozen
Madeira, imported by the San Francisco in 1832, two half-pipes, at $2 per gallon
Ivanough, imported 1834, two quarter-casks, at $3 per gallon
1834 Goiconda, one quarter-cask
Howard Madeira, very choice wine of the highest cost, imported in 1835 from J&H March & Co., 36 demijohns, $4.[illegible] – $5 per gallon
Monteiro, imported 1835 by the India, two quarter-casks, $2.25-$3 per gallon
Olivera & Co., imported 1836 by Oucco, one pipe, $3.25 per gallon
1836 Oneco Madeira, one pipe
Newton, Gordon, Murdock & Co., 34 pipes
Monteiro, per ship India, four pipes, 10 and one-third pipes, and four quarter-casks
Very choice Oliviera, three pipes
Arthur T. Taylor Madeira, a very delicate Light Wine, 24 demijohns
[0] Barrett, Walter. The Old Merchants of New York City, Volume 5. 1885. URL: http://books.google.com/books?id=thIwAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
[1] Date: Saturday, December 2, 1843 Paper: Commercial Advertiser (New York, NY) Volume: XLVI Page: 3
[2] Date: Saturday, December 23, 1843 Paper: Spectator (New York, NY) Page: 2
[3] Date: Friday, April 18, 1845 Paper: Commercial Advertiser (New York, NY) Volume: XLVIII Page: 1
[4] Date: Friday, December 29, 1848 Paper: Daily National Intelligencer (Washington (DC), DC) Volume: XXXVI Issue: 11183 Page: 4
[5] Date: Wednesday, July 21, 1909 Paper: Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH) Page: 4
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Citibank is the 4th largest bank in the United States in terms of assets..
Since the bank's founding in 1812, it has been led by a President, with Samuel Osgood being elected as the first President. In 1909, James Stillman became the first chairman of the company.
List of Chairmen
$$$
Samuel Osgood (1812–1813)
William Few (1813–1817)
Peter Staff (1817–1825)
Thomas Smith (1825–1827)
Isaac Wright (1827–1832)
Thomas Bloodgood (1832–1844)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citibank
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'1867 Cutter booked passage for a five-month trip aboard the Quaker City.
Mark Twain turned out to be one of the other passengers, and Cutter found himself immortalized in Twain's book Innocents Abroad as the character the "Poet Lariat."
This is how Mark Twain described Cutter in his notes for the book:
"He is fifty years old, and small of his age. He dresses in homespun, and is a simple-minded, honest, old-fashioned farmer, with a strange proclivity for writing rhymes.
He writes them on all possible subjects, and gets them printed on slips of paper, with his portrait at the head.
These he will give to any man that comes along, whether he has anything against him or not..."[10]
In 1886 Cutter self-published a collection of his poems titled The Long Island Farmer's Poems, which included an autographed picture of Mark Twain as well as a mention of being Twain's Poet Lariat on the title page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodgood_Cutter
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Francis Bloodgood died on March 5, 1840, aged 71. He was also buried in the Presbyterian burial ground.[2] At the time of his death he was married to Anna Shoemaker (born March 27, 1777), from a Philadelphia Quaker family, the widow of Robert Morris Jr.
His wife lived on until March 5, 1865, when she died in Philadelphia. His son was Major William Bloodgood [1801-1874], father of Captain Edward Bloodgood (38th US Infantry), who reportedly died at Fort Larned, Kansas on July 31, 1867..
In fact this report was in error-Edward Bloodgood was a Brevet Lt Col/Captain 38th US Infantry Regiment In command of Fort Seldon, New Mexico in 1868 and died in 1914.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bloodgood
'Union Lt. Col. Edward Bloodgood held Brentwood, a station on the Nashville & Decatur Railroad, with 400 men on the morning of March 25, 1863, m
when Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, with a powerful column, approached the town.
The day before, Forrest had ordered Col. James W. Starnes, commanding the 2nd Brigade, to go to Brentwood, cut the telegraph, tear up railroad track, attack the stockade, and cut off any retreat.
Forrest and the other cavalry brigade made contact with Bloodgood about 7:00 am on March 25.
A messenger from the stockade informed Bloodgood that Forrest's men were about to attack and had destroyed the railroad tracks. Bloodgood sought to notify his superiors and discovered that the telegraph lines were cut.
Forrest sent in a demand for a surrender under a flag of truce but Bloodgood refused. Within a half-hour, Forrest had artillery in place to shell Bloodgood's position and had surrounded the Federals with a large force.
Bloodgood surrendered."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Brentwood
,'The cherry tree myth is one of the oldest and best-known legends about George Washington. In the original story, when Washington was six years old, he received a hatchet as a gift and damaged his father’s cherry tree with it. When his father discovered what George had done, he became angry. Young George bravely said, “I cannot tell a lie…I did cut it with my hatchet.” Washington’s father embraced him and declared that his son’s honesty was worth more than a thousand trees.
"This iconic story about the value of honesty
was invented
by one of Washington’s first biographers,"
