Yolo County CA Archives Biographies.....Martin, John D. 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com January 13, 2006, 11:07 pm

Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

JOHN D. MARTIN

    The power of concentration has been exemplified in the successful activities
of Mr. Martin. From early youth he has devoted his energies wholly to the
nursery business. While others have drifted from one occupation to another in a
desire to find something both congenial and profitable, it was his good fortune
at an early age to become identified with an industry for which, he was well
adapted by natural endowments. As a result of his long association with the
occupation there is now no detail with which he is unfamiliar; whether in
selection of stock, in judicious choice of suitable varieties, in grafting of
trees, or in marketing of crops, in all he displays the sagacity and keen
discrimination that have produced his present high standing as a fruit-raiser.

    In recognition of his noteworthy success with one of his specialties, the
title of "Strawberry" Martin has been bestowed upon him by his hosts of friends
and still clings to him, notwithstanding the fact that of late years he has
concentrated his attention on seedless raisin grapes as a specialty, giving up
to a large extent the production of the rare and delicious varieties of
strawberries that once gave him local fame. The nursery business first engaged
his attention at the age of thirteen years in his native county of Niagara in
York state, where he had received a grammar-school education. The need of
earning his own livelihood forced him to leave school at the completion of the
grammar course and he then took up the nursery business with a company that gave
him charge of two hundred men when he was only sixteen. Being a lad of rugged
health as well as tireless energy, he was never absent from his place of work on
any days except the 4th of July and Christmas day for a period of ten years.
Year after year he continued without the loss of a day's time and he was so
energetic in his work that in one year he and his men grafted the enormous
number of five million trees. For about three years he was superintendent of
Niagara county poor farm, resigning in 1882 for the purpose of coming to the west.

   An experience of one year in a nursery in Yolo county was followed by the
return of Mr. Martin to his previous occupation in New York, but in 1884 he
again came to Yolo county, this time as a permanent resident. Renting twenty
acres on Cache creek, he began to plant strawberries, blackberries and
loganberries and finally he had the entire tract under cultivation to the
choicest varieties. The output was enormous, but Sacramento furnished a
convenient and profitable market for even the largest crops, and an immense
trade was established in that city, as well as in Yolo county itself. The first
large crop was taken off in 1886, and from that year until 1900, he carried on
the place profitably. The arrival of his berries was looked forward to with
eagerness by buyers catering to the tastes of critical customers. The products
invariably brought the highest market prices, this being due not only to care in
cultivation, but to the original discrimination in the selection of stock.

    Meanwhile having purchased twenty-seven acres of unimproved land and having
planted the same to seedless raisin grapes, in 1900 Mr. Martin removed to his
new location and here he has built up a very productive and remunerative
vineyard. A capable overseer is employed to reside upon the farm and manage the
vines, while the owner himself now spends much of his time traveling both in the
east and the west. Various improvements have been made from time to time. A good
barn and a packing house were erected and the grapes are cured and packed on the
premises. For the year 1910 the entire expense of raising, picking, curing and
packing the raisins totaled $750, while the crop of forty-five tons of choice
raisins brought $4,200 on the market, and the crop of 1911 was equally valuable,
this representing a gratifying revenue for twenty-seven acres of land in Yolo
county. The owner's success has encouraged others to enter the same occupation,
for he has proved what may be accomplished with this soil by careful management
and practical business forethought.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]


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