Jessamine County KyArchives History - Books .....The First Vineyard 1898
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Book Title: A History Of Jessamine County, Kentucky

The First Vineyard.

   John Frances DeFoure was a native of Vevay, Switzerland, and planted the
first vineyard west of the Alleghanies, in Jessamine county in 1796. The land
was patented by William Hazelrigg in 1785. The place is ten miles southeast of
Nicholasville, and is the land on which Col. Percival Butler lived when Gen. Wm.
O. Butler was born in 1791. Col. Percival Butler had moved to this section
because the Indians were less dangerous than in the northwest territory. The
DeFoures, purchased the land from Colonel Hazelrigg, who lived and died in
Bourbon county. They afterwards settled in Vevay, Indiana, and named the county
Switzerland. They were very successful in Indiana, and became very wealthy. The
deed and agreement between the DeFoures and Hazelrigg is recorded in Deed Book
1, page 34, in the Jessamine county clerk's office.

   The land chosen did not suit the varieties of the grape introduced.
Hybridizing and crossing had not yet developed the excellent varieties of grapes
which can now be grown in all parts of the United States. The European grapes
were not adapted to the soil of Kentucky. All other fruits in the early
settlement of the state, were produced in perfection. The cherries from Virginia
and Pennsylvania, the apples and peaches from Virginia and North Carolina, and
the pears from Virginia grew with marvelous rapidity, and were free from all
diseases, and in twenty years after the settlement of Kentucky magnificent
orchards were abundant in all parts of the Commonwealth. The Janet or Jeniton,
the Limber Twig, the Horse apple, the Spice apple, the Pryor Red, Morton's
Pearmain, the summer apple, propagated by slips brought over the mountains or
produced from seed; found in the virgin soil of Kentucky, a vigor and an
abundance of crops -which satisfied the fullest wants of the new communities;
but the grapes found -wild in the forests of either Virginia or Kentucky were
not utilized, or domesticated, and for a long while but few grapes were grown.

   The Kentucky Vineyard Association was organized in Lexington in 1799, and
seven hundred and fifty acres of land "lying in the big bend of the Kentucky
river near the mouth of Hickman creek," were secured as the site for planting
the vineyard. Great expectations were created. There was supposed to be no limit
to the products and production of the state and if Europe could grow grapes, it
was confidently assumed Kentucky could do likewise and better. The announcement
of the association declared that, "in less than four years, wine may be drunk on
the banks of the Kentucky, produced from the European stock."

   The experiment was a dismal failure. Down in the swamps of North Carolina on
the banks of the Catawba river was then growing the splendid Catawba grape and
on the islands in James river in the midst of the forests and dense thickets the
Norton's Va. (Virginia seedling) was yeariy producing prolific crops, either of
which, if transplanted to Kentucky, would have produced a vintage which would
have done all the promoters of the Kentucky Vineyard Association desired and
prophesied, but these early grape growers went to Europe rather than unto the 
forests of America for their plants, and misfortunes were the result.

   Another vineyard was started by some Swiss settlers on the banks of Jessamine
creek near the Crozier Mill, but these, after some years of cultivation of the
European varieties, abandoned their vines and homes and sought success in more
congenial climes.

   James DeFoure, who was at the head of the vineyard at mouth of Hickman creek,
after his failure there, had the sagacity to discover that the European
varieties were not adapted to this portion of the country. Alexander, a gardener
for Governor Penn, had propagated before the war of the Revolution, a grape now
called by his name, which was thought to be the celebrated grape of the
Constantia colony from the Cape of Good Hope, but which in reality was a native
variety. It was called also the Cape grape. DeFoure planted this vine at Vevay,
Ind., and made the first successful attempt to establish a vineyard in America.
His experiments in Jessamine county at least showed him the true path to success
and wealth at Vevay.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF JESSAMINE COUNTY, KENTUCKY,
FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO 1898.
By BENNETT H. YOUNG,
PRESIDENT POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY; MEMBER FILSON CLUB; MEMBER CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION, 1890; AUTHOR HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF KENTUCKY, OF "BATTLE OF
BLUE LICKS, ETC, ETC.

S. M. DUNCAN, ASSOCIATE AUTHOR.

Every brave and good life out of the past is a treasure which cannot  be
measured in money, and should be preserved with faithfullest care.

LOUISVILLE, KY.: COURIER-JOURNAL JOB PRINTING CO., 1898.


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