1858 - Seedsman James J. H. Gregory Tells the Story of the Hubbard Squash

From the horse's mouth...

LOC -VT barn

From 1858 - The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries ...

...We have received a letter, more in detail, from Mr. Gregory, and append it to this report:—

Marblehead, Mass., Dec. 23d, 1857. Daniel T. Curtis, Chairman of Vegetable Com. of Mass. Hort. Soc.

Dear Sir,
Of the origin of the Hubbard squash we have no certain knowledge. The facts relative to its cultivation, in Marblehead, are simply these. Upwards of twenty years ago, a single specimen was brought into town, the seed from which was planted in the garden of a lady, now deceased; a specimen from this yield was given to Capt. Knott Martin, of this town, who raised it for family use a few years, when it was brought to our notice in the year 1842 or '43. We were first informed of its good qualities by Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard, a very worthy lady, through whom we obtained seed from Capt. Martin. As the squash up to this time had no specific name to designate it from other varieties, my father termed it the "Hubbard Squash."

Up to the year 1855 the raising of this squash was confined to ourselves and a few neighbors, who raised little if any more than was sufficient to supply their respective families. I should, however, make the exception, that from the year 1847, I had occasionally, when traveling, taken a few seeds with me, and had distributed them among the farmers with whom I chanced to come in contact .

In the year 1855 a correspondent of the New England Farmer desired, through its columns, to have recommended to him a good winter squash. It occurred to me that here was an excellent opportunity to give a squash, which had given us such great satisfaction, a wider sphere of usefulness. I accordingly replied to the gentleman, enclosing seed of the Hubbard squash, and requested him, as a stranger to me and therefore presumptively an unbiassed judge of its merits, to make public the result of his experiment. In April of the following year he published the result of his planting in the columns of the New England Farmer, so highly eulogizing its quality and keeping properties that it was at once brought into notice. Many applications now reached me for seed, and as it became necessary to give some name, I determined to make Hubbard, (which up to this date had been used as merely a convenient term) its permanent name.

LOC - Connecticut

These are all the facts which are known relative to the history of the Hubbard squash, though it is possible that from a person not now accessible, I may be enabled to trace its history a step further.

In shape the Hubbard resembles the Marrow (or Boston squash, as it is called in some localities,) but it has rather more of a neck than the Marrow, and terminates more abruptly in a point, usually curved. In weight, it ranges from four to twenty-four pounds; but averages about the same as the Marrow, viz., from five to eight pounds. Its color is a dark green, with a dash of a dusty hue on the upper surface of the ripest specimens. There is also a hard shelled blue variety, which in quality, size, &c., is about on a par with the Hubbard, and we have considered it as equally desirable. The Hubbard has generally, when fully ripe, a thick shell, somewhat thicker than a cent, though some specimens, which have otherwise all the characteristics, are destitute of a shell.

The Hubbard squash, with the same care as the Marrow, keeps about three months later, being in its prime from November until March or April, and keeping into May. During the period we have cultivated it, the Hubbard has fully maintained its character, and is equally as good in quality now as in the years 1842 or '43. So strong is its individuality, that when so mixed and crossed with other squashes, that not a trace of it can be seen in the form or color of the cross, yet its quality will be so impressed on them that these squashes will almost uniformly be as fine grained, sweet and dry as the pure Hubbard, though they will not keep and maintain their quality so late.

In all our experience we have never lost a crop or had it seriously affected from want of hardiness; though it is possible that the Hubbard is slightly more tender than the Marrow. To determine this will require a close comparison; but we have always considered it equally hardy as the Marrow.

Under high cultivation the Hubbard has yielded the past season, in one instance, 700 pounds of ripe squashes from 16 hills; and planted on a larger scale, nearly 5500 pounds of good market squashes on half an acre of land, equal to five and a half tons to the acre. Compared with the Marrow, the Hubbard will be found to be thicker meated, better flavored, (good specimens tasting much like a boiled chestnut,) finer grained, dryer and sweeter, besides being a better keeper; and from its thick shell less liable to be injured in handling. 

Yours,                         
 James J. H. Gregory

LOC image

This image is near South Windsor, CT around 1941.  

Personally, I like the Blue Hubbard...and they should be huge.  None of this little squash stuff.  They should make a few pies and a couple meals!

1870 - Testimonials from Happy Gardeners and Farmers on James Gregory Seeds

"Old Pete says you are the best seedsman in this world's paradise..."

This early James J. H. Gregory catalog is humble compared to the colorful catalogs in the next  two decades. (Not that Gregory ever got into the luxurious color lithos like most other dealers.)

I don't know about you but I love to read testimonials, even when I don't care about what the folks are commenting on!  This back page from Gregory's 1870 annual seed catalog was too much for me to ignore, so I'm sharing it.   The 19th century advertisers used testimonials quite often in their catalogs.  

Online testimonials such as Amazon.com posts on each product has brought them back into use more, not that they ever disappeared.  They differ now in that negative comments are there as well.  It doesn't seem to matter to buyers, then and now, that you can't trust testimonials - they are just nice to read!

Goodness! Who knew? Tchotchke for 19th c. Seedsman James Gregory

I have nothing to do with this company, but I thought it was sort of cool if you like that sort of thing, that seedsman James Gregory's storehouse was made into a collectable!

I suppose it doesn't hurt the Eugene O'Neil put on plays there :-)

Go Hestia Creations for more info and a video on how they make them.

Link: for a current street view.

1860 - More Nice News About Seedsman James J. H. Gregory

Hubbard Squash

James Gregory went out of his way to do good.  

Many sources describing a man who helped his neighbors, thought of future generations, and did his duty in various community organizations in spite of being a busy man convinced me Gregory was a good guy.

The worst I can think of him is that he was occasionally rather presumptive in distributing books on how to live your life.  

People writing about how to live your life is a common, self-centered human drive which usually is usually harmless, even if annoying.  

This post just gathers some more information about his life.

The following is from Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Vol. 4, 1908.

James John Howard Gregory, son of James and Ruth (Roundy) Gregory, was born at Marblehead, November 7, 1827. 

James J.H.  Gregory as a college student in the late 1840s.

Courtesy of Shari Worrell

He was educated in the public schools of his native town, pursued a two years' course at the Middlebury Academy, after which he matriculated at Amherst College, graduating therefrom in 1850. 

His advent into the seed business was almost by accident. He once said of his beginning in the seed business:

 "A man wrote to the New England Farmer for a nice winter squash; I heard of it and we happened to have one; my father called it "Marm Hubbard's Squash" because we got the seeds from an old lady by the name of Hubbard. I sent him some of the seeds: he tried them and so well did he like them that he wrote an article, which was published in a number of papers, describing the good points of the squash. Before I fully realized it I was getting orders for this squash seed from all parts of the United States, and also for many other kinds of seeds and soon found I was doing a thriving seed business."  (Elizabeth Hubbard I later read...)

At first he transacted this in his home, but about the year 1883 built a store, which he enlarged from time to time, his business becoming one of the largest of the country. He sent goods to all parts of the United States and to Canada and the provinces. During the famine in India he was especially active and benevolent. He sent from his store houses large quantities of seed corn, aiding materially in the securing of a new crop for the relief of the starving people. 

"I had a college mate, he said, who was a missionary there and I sent him seeds of the best varieties of American vegetables. He planted and also distributed them among the people. It had such a good effect that the governor of that section of India where he was, sent for, thanked, and rewarded him, and offered him three hundred dollars a month to take charge of the agriculture of the government, but being a missionary he would not accept the offer."

His extensive seed farms located in Middleton comprise over four hundred acres, and he makes a specialty of growing particular varieties for market garden purposes. During the time he was in the business he made a specialty of introducing new varieties of vegetables before unknown to the public. He has written, published and sold many thousands of copies of works on agriculture, and has lectured extensively on this subject before the colleges and seminaries throughout the northern states. Many of Mr. Gregory's clerks have been in his employ for a quarter of a century.

"The Old Squash House"  Moved from Gerry's Island, the 1720 Squash House was originally owned by John Felton and used as a fish shanty. It became famous for the storage of J. J.H. Gregory & Sons squash seeds. Interesting sidelights: Tallulah Bankhead played here with Eugene O'Neil.

(Take a tour of Marblehead using Google street view.  It is a wonderful town!)

Mr. Gregory retired in July, 1907, from the great business he constructed during his long and active business life, and since then has devoted himself to his private concerns and charities. He has always lived modestly, notwithstanding the wealth at his command, and has taken much pleasure and satisfaction in giving away funds for southern colleges and churches and in similar good works. 

He has aided a number of young men to pursue a college education. He presents to every male member of the graduating classes of the colored colleges of the south a character forming book, and has awarded a fund to continue this gift for all future time. He has given books of advantage to the public, at times as many as three thousand volumes per annum, for a number of years, sending them to jails, prisons, etc. 

He has recently given a number of fine engravings to the schools of Marblehead and the Young Men's Christian Association, and twenty oil paintings to the different churches and chapels. He has for many years been a collector of Indian relics of which he has over two thousand, and also of shells of which he has a large collection and a thorough knowledge. 

Mr. Gregory has taken an active interest in public and municipal affairs. He has been one of the generous supporters of all movements of moral or material benefit to his native town. He gave the bell and clock for Abbot Hall in Marblehead. He is a Republican, and in 1876-77 was state senator, elected by the joint vote of the Prohibition and Republican parties.

Mr. Gregory married (first) Eliza C. Bubier; (second) Harriet R. Knight; (third) Sarah Lydia Caswell.    Mr. Gregory has adopted four children: 
1. Edgar, mentioned below. 
2. James H., born Boston, 1873, educated in public schools of Marblehead, spent one year at the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, then went to South America to live with his uncle, James Gregory Carleton, a mining engineer. He enlisted in the Columbian army, being promoted through the various ranks, taking part in a number of battles, and finally being made brigadier-general. He married a Spanish girl and they are the parents of six children. 
3. Annie, married Stephen Burroughs, of Long Hill, Connecticut, and has six children. 
4. Laura, married Simeon Coffin, of Marblehead, and has three children. 

Edgar Gregory, adopted son of James John Howard Gregory, was born at Chelsea,

Massachusetts, December 12, 1869. He received his education in the public schools of Marblehead and the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, graduating from the latter in the class of 1890.

 He became associated with his foster-father in the seed business, and in 1901 was admitted to partnership under the firm name of J. J. H. Gregory & Son and continued thus until the senior partner and founder retired July 1, 1907. 

Since then Edgar Gregory has been sole proprietor though the name is unchanged. He resided at Middleton, where the seed farms were located, until 1908, when he removed to Marblehead and where the place of business is. Mr. Gregory is interested in botany, in which study he took a first prize in college. He is a Republican, and was a member of the school committee in Middleton in 1905. He is a prominent member of the Congregational church of Middleton, is a member of its standing committee and was for three years superintendent of the Sunday-school. He is a member of Philanthropic Lodge of Free Masons, of the New England Order of Protection, Elbridge Gerry Lodge, No. 303, all of Marblehead.
...

From 2014 at WickedLocal Marblehead a brief mention to announce a talk by a Gregory descendent, Shari Kelley Worrel, who, like James Gregory, is very involved in local organizations.

Gregory went on to build a great fortune from his agricultural talents and was quite charitable. Choosing to live on only $300 a year, he used the rest of the money for philanthropic purposes such as sending seed to regions in famine -- India, Nebraska -- and books to colleges serving African-Americans in the South. He also built schools and churches with the money, and was known for leaving free vegetables on the street for the poor.Shari Kelley Worrell, a descendent of Gregory, covers all of this and much more in her 580-page book, “Remembering James J.H. Gregory: The Seed King, Philanthropist, Man.” 

1883, Transactions,   Massachusetts Horticultural Society

Mr. Gregory said that he had been trying to get some one to join with him to collect facts in regard to large and interesting trees in New England, and secure photographs of them. He alluded to the many fine elms in New England, and said that not one is to be found in California. The finest one he had seen is at Weathersfield, Conn.

On motion of Mr. Wetherell, Mr. Gregory was added to the Committee on Old and Interesting Trees.

From Agriculture of Maine. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1913:

GREGORY ORCHARDS - THEIR SOURCE AND AIM.
By A. K. Gardner, Augusta.

As a result of the New England Fruit Show held in Boston in October, 1909, Mr. James J. H. Gregory of Marblehead, Mass., gave to the State of Maine a $1000 first mortgage bond, with the provision that at intervals of five years $200 of the interest should be paid to the orchardist who could show to a committee of three the most excellent orchard of one acre or more grown on his own land, of trees of his own selection (the Ben Davis excepted) five years from setting; the first planting to be in the spring of 1910 and judged in 1915. This most generous offer of Mr. Gregory's induced others to offer like premiums as follows:—

Premium by a friend $15

Bowker Company 100

B. G. Pratt Company 100

Douglas Pump Company 100

Deming Pump Co., Salem, Ohio 50

Charles J. Jager Co., Boston, Mass 50

Portland Farmers' Club 50


This great movement received the hearty support of many of our leading orchard men throughout the State, with the result that a large number entered for the contest, and names were being booked for the acre or more of standard apple trees. Information regarding this contest was published and distributed as follows:—... (link above if you are interested)

1910 - James Gregory, Marblehead Seedsman - A Good Man's Odd Bequest

Ah,  if only a bit was added to the principal each year...

A Provision For Twins 

Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Mills, of Marblehead, Massachusetts, are the first claimants under a bequest made in the will of Hon. James J. H. Gregory, which provides that the income of $1000 shall be divided each year among the parents of twins born in Marblehead. The Mills twins were born July 10, 1910, and are boys. 

The will, which was probated about a month after Mr. Gregory's death in February, 1910, reads as follows: 

"Having had my sympathies often aroused by reason of the extra burden and care entailed on loving mothers, poor in the things of earth, who have brought twins into the world, as an expression of that sympathy I leave in trust to my beloved town $1000, with the provision that the interest be divided on January first between all twins born in Marblehead during the previous year. In case no twins are born during a given year the interest shall be added to the principal."

1860 - James J. H. Gregory - Seedsman, Marblehead, Massachusetts

Marblehead, watercolor by Maurice Prendergast,

A New England seedsman, James Gregory introduced some great vegetables, first among them is my favorite, Hubbard Squash!  I didn't realize I hadn't posted much about him until I checked the Seedsman Index last night to add a link to a photo of his Marblehead seed farm workers.  

Another reason I like Gregory is that he took cabbage seriously.  I love engravings of cabbage, and I crave cabbage as a coleslaw. I don't cook it EVER as my husband hates it.

(Ah, well, he is worth the compromise.)

First, here is a brief biography from Liberty Hyde Bailey's The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, Vol. 3 -

Gregory, James J. H., farmer, seedsman, and author, was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts, November 7, 1827, and died February 20, 1910.  

He was educated in the public schools at Marblehead, two years at Middlebury College, and graduated from Amherst College in 1850. He taught in Marblehead, Hingham and Lunenberg.  

The starting of the seed business was almost an accident. He was reading the"New England Farmer" and saw the request for a good winter squash, and as his father had recently raised some splendid squashes from seed that "Old Marm Hubbard" had given him, he sent the inquirer some of this seed. 

The man was so well pleased that he wrote articles for several papers extolling these squashes, and soon the Gregory Seed Business was thriving, sending Hubbard squash seed to all parts of the United States.  

Naturally the business started in the home, the attic being used for the purpose; in a very short time it was necessary to move to larger quarters. He branched out with other seed, both vegetable and flower, and at the time of his death was carrying on one of the largest seed establishments in the country.  

During his career he introduced many new varieties of vegetables, several of which are the standards in the market today. His seed-farms comprised over 400 acres where he grew pedigreed stock; he always felt that by growing his own seeds he was less liable to mistakes and could, himself, select the most perfect types. His reputation for choice varieties was so renowned that the firm became the headquarters for stock seeds for other well-known concerns. 

He wrote and distributed many thousands of copies of treatises on various agricultural subjects, such as: 

"Onion Raising," 1865; "Squashes: How to Grow Them," 1867; "Cabbages and Cauliflower," 1870; "Carrots, Mangold Wurtzels and Sugar Beets," 1877; "Fertilizers," 1885. 

In his early life he lectured extensively on agricultural and horticultural subjects. 

Mr. Gregory was a philanthropist of renown. He gave large sums of money for the establishment of southern schools and colleges, the Gregory Institute of Wilmington, North Carolina, being founded by him. He served his native town in many responsible capacities and filled many public offices. 

- Edgar Gregory.

Late 1800s - J. H. Gregory Seed Farm Workers and a Good Book

I was looking up this interesting place, the Fern-croft Inn about 1890, when what did I find but this fantastic photo of J. H. Gregory and his seed farm workers!  

This book is fun to look through if you like historical images from New England.

On the cover: (a cropped version of the above photo)

 J. H. Gregory Seed Farm Workers.

J. H. Gregory (1827 -1920) was a Marblehead seed farmer and philanthropist.  He owned more than 400 acres of farmland in Middleton, Marblehead, and Danvers.  He developed special squash and cherry tomatoes. After the seeds were removed from the squash,  the squash were left in a box with a sign reading, "Help Yourself". The man with the dark beard in the back row was J. H. Gregory.  Gregory Street was named in his honor and the houses on the street were built for his workers.  His seed catalogs were mailed all over the world. (Courtesy of the Middleton Historical Society.)