Arthur Solomon – Camellia Pioneer Katharine Reynolds
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Magnolia grandiflora The Laurel Tree of Carolina Publication of the Southern Garden Catesby’s NaturalM History, 1743 agnoliaHistory Society Vol. XXVI No. 3 Summer 2013 "THE COWS AIN'T ALL OF IT" Reynolda Dairy, a Model for Progressive Farmers, 1912-30 By Barbara Babcock Millhouse, New York, NY The title of this article is taken from the novel, Barren Ground (1925), by the Southern writer, Ellen Glasgow. When her main character, Dorinda Oakley, speaks of going into the dairy business, she is advised, “The cows ain’t all of it, you know.” Katharine Smith Reynolds (1880-1924) was fully aware of this when she dedicated a number of years to transforming the barren ground, which would later become Reynolda, into fertile land that could support not only a wide variety of vegetables for her table, but of American Art. Museum House Courtesy: Reynolda also crops for silage and Watercolor painting by Margaret Nowell Graham of the Reynolda barn complex, 1922. pastureland for cows. Glasgow’s novel provides a unique opportunity to explore the thoughts and aspirations of a fictional Inside this Issue character, whose lifetime and goals parallel those of Pg. 4 Arthur Solomon – Camellia Pioneer Katharine Reynolds. In addition, a comparison between Pg. 6 Members in the News these two successful women, one of whom was penniless Pg. 7 Book Review, "An Infinity of Graces" when she started out, draws attention to the struggle that most people had to undergo to acquire the equipment Pg. 8 Lucy Lawliss Named NMP Superintendent that Katharine could obtain without difficulty as the wife Pg. 9 Glenn Haltom – 1930-2013 of savvy businessman Richard Joshua (R. J.) Reynolds, Pg. 10 In Print, "Apples of North America" and whom she married in 1905. [Reynolds, founder of the R. "Gardening by the Book" J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, was thirty years her senior, Pg. 11 Marion Drummond – 1930-2013 and died in 1918 at the age of 68.] (continued on page 3) CALENDAR Please visit the SGHS Web site, www.southerngardenhistory. October 4-5, 2013. “The Botany of Empire in the org, for a complete and more detailed calendar with the Long Eighteenth Century,” symposium at Dumbarton latest updates and links to individual Web sites. Oaks Research Library and Collection. This two-day symposium features an international body of scholars September 26-28, 2013. “Feeding the American working on botanical investigations and publications South,” 19th Conference on Restoring Southern within the context of imperial expansion in the 18th Gardens and Landscapes, Winston-Salem, NC; century. The period saw widespread exploration, biennial conference, at Old Salem Museum & a tremendous increase in the traffic in botanical Gardens and Reynolda House Museum of American specimens, significant taxonomic innovations, and Art; co-sponsored by SGHS, explores historic horticultural experimentation. The symposium coincides methods and resources in cultivating, preserving, and preparing heritage foods and livestock in the American with the 50th anniversary of the Rare Book Room South. Visit: www.oldsalem.org or Sally Gant: sgant@ at Dumbarton Oaks, and will feature an exhibition oldsalem.org; (336) 721-7361. of botanical works from the collections. Visit: [email protected] September 28-29, 2013. Library of American Landscape History Conference, “Masters of Modern October 18-19, 2013. 25th Annual Southern Garden Landscape Design,” will be held at the Indianapolis Symposium & Workshops, St. Francisville, LA. Featured Museum of Art. Prominent scholars will introduce their speakers include Britain’s award winning garden designer recent work on modern landscape architects, including John Brookes and sought-after floral designer John Thomas Church, James Rose, Robert Royston, and A. Grady Burns. Friday’s highlights include workshops on E. Bye. The conference also will launch the eponymous floral design, wildflower gardening, plant propagation, new LALH book series. Each of the conference speakers gardening with ferns, and more. Saturday lectures feature is the author of a forthcoming monograph exploring John Brookes, Scott Ogden & Lauren Springer-Ogden, the career, major works, and legacy of a modern master. and Dr. Tomasz Anisko. Two private St. Francisville Visit: http://lalh.org homes, Spring Grove Plantation and Nydrie Plantation, September 28-29, 2013. “Becoming Public: Design, will open for the Speakers’ Gala and Saturday Tea History, Plants, & Preservation in East Bay Gardens," respectively. Visit: www.southerngardensymposium.org. 18th Annual Conference of the California Garden and February 28-March 2, 2014. “Preserving our Coastal Landscape History Society, Pleasonton, CA. This year we will explore the warm hills of the eastern San Francisco Garden History,” 32nd Annual Meeting of the Bay Area by visiting three now-public gardens well Southern Garden History Society in Savannah, GA. adapted to their terrain and climate. All were developed This late-winter gathering takes place in one of America’s by passionate garden-lovers between the 1880s and oldest coastal cities. The meeting features gardens and 1970s and are currently managed and maintained by homes within the Historic Savannah District and the Isle cities, non-profit organizations and volunteers. Lectures of Hope along the Intercoastal Waterway, which is listed and Tours feature: Dry Creek Garden, Shinn Historic in the National Register of Historic Places. Tours include Park and Arboretum, Ruth Bancroft Garden. Visit: Lebanon Plantation (1804), along the Little Ogeechee http://www.cglhs.org/ River; Wormsloe Plantation; the Cope/Jaakkola House, built in 1868; and Judge Solomon’s camellia gardens October 2, 2013. “Forever Green: A Landscape Architect’s Innovative Gardens Offer Environments and home, Wellesley Manor. Optional tours include to Love and Delight,” a lecture by Mario Nievera three rice plantations in Liberty County. For more followed by a book signing and reception, McElreath information, contact Lucy Hitch, 2014 Annual Meeting Hall, Cherokee Garden Library, Atlanta History chair, [email protected]. The hosting hotel is the Center, Atlanta, GA. Tickets and information: Hilton Savannah Desoto, (912) 232-9000; SAVDH- (404) 814-4046 or visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/ [email protected]. Meeting brochures will be mailed CherokeeGardenLibrary early December 2013. 2 Magnolia • Summer 2013 Vol. XXVI, No. 3 Reynolda Diary……(continued from page 1) When learning how to manage her first dairy, Thomas Guy Monroe, shares stories of his father’s travels Katharine looked forward to the process of planning and with R. J. Reynolds and provides humorous details on equipping a technologically up-to-date barn and milk Reynolds’ unexpected visits to the farm. Other employees rooms. She wrote letters to various organizations asking share their reactions to the unceasing supply of rich milk for advice and studied the literature on the major breeds, and butter, the champion bulls, and various other aspects weighing the pros and cons of each before deciding on of life in Reynolda village in the early twentieth century. Jerseys. She also made it her task to interview and select a Katharine agreed with agrarian leaders that Southern highly trained herdsman to care for them. poverty resulted from the backwardness of its farms In 1917 a local reporter was convinced that the farm and was determined to become a factor for change. Her was “destined to become one of the great factors in the own family experienced a tragedy when her five-year- development of the rural life, not only of Forsyth County old brother died of a milk-borne disease. As a result, she but of the entire Piedmont section of North Carolina.” was highly motivated to keep her family and that of her He also described Reynolda as the “experiment station” employees from suffering from a similar misfortune. to which students of dairying, as well as agriculture The Reynolda milk was not pasteurized. Providing and livestock raising looked for reliable and authentic safe, clean milk depended entirely on maintaining information. In order to test these assertions, articles on a healthy herd and absolute cleanliness. Although dairy farming from period magazines are brought to bear pasteurization had been available since the 1890s, it on the question: how advanced was the Reynolda dairy in was slow to take hold. Most people disliked the taste of relation to others at that time? pasteurized milk and believed it to be less nutritious. Oral histories stored in the Reynolda archives provide Even so, cities like Chicago instituted it in 1916 after an an excellent resource for introducing the human side of epidemic, and soon other cities followed. Widespread the Reynolda dairy business. The son of the first dairyman, pasteurization did not come to the South, however, until Courtesy R.H.M. of American Art. Courtesy R.H.M. of American Art. Jersey herd at pasture. Cows were selected for quality of milk rather The main barn, designed by Charles Barton Keen, 1912. than quantity. Courtesy Reynolda House Museum of American Art Museum House Courtesy Reynolda Courtesy Reynolda House Museum of American Art Museum House Courtesy Reynolda Reynolda's pedigreed Jersey herd, circa 1918, which won 142 state The barn complex, photo by Thomas Sears, L.A., circa 1921. fair ribbons in 1921. Vol. XXVI, No. 3 Magnolia • Summer 2013 3 Reynolda Diary……(continued from page 3) after World War II. Katharine Smith and R. J. Reynolds. This paper is from her Katharine was supplying wholesome, safe milk not keynote address for the Restoring Southern Gardens and just to the family and Reynolda employees, but to the Landscapes Conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, lunchrooms of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and September 26-28, 2013.] regular customers. She also expected the dairy to serve as a model for farmers who wanted to upgrade their outmoded and inefficient dairy practices. The story of the rise and decline of the Reynolda dairy takes place at a time when milk production was shifting from the family cow to large regulated commercial dairies.