Farmers grew apples, communities

Berwick’s Apple Capital Museum inducting three industry leaders

Albert Kingsbury Clarke (A.K.) was born in 1843, one of 11 children born to North Mountain farmer John Hopson Clarke. Clarke Sr. moved to the foot of Burgess Mountain, and the apple tree seedling A.K. pulled just before the move was the first planted in the area. A.K. went on to have four sons himself, and the orchards later produced 10,000 barrels of apples a year. He was a strong believer in scientific training for young farmers, having had none himself. Submitted

Carl Matthews was born in 1897 in Massachusetts and moved to Berwick at an early age. After the death of his mother, he and a sister lived with John Chute, where Matthews grew up living and working in the apple business. He worked for the Berwick Fruit Company as bookkeeper and then manager, and went into the orchard business himself in 1935, owning and leasing a number of large orchards from Berwick to Bridgetown and two warehouse businesses. Submitted

“Lee Corner” at today’s intersection of Commercial Street, Berwick and Hwy. 1, was once the centre of Brenton Lee’s mixed farm, known particularly for its apples and raspberry crops. Lee passed away in 1931, a community leader and well-known farmer. He was also known for his intervention in Berwick’s application to annex portions of South berwick and become a town in 1923, a controversial issue in its day. Submitted

By Sara Keddy
editor@berwickregister.ca
NovaNewsNow.com

Making note of apple producers’ contributions to the Valley’s past - and present - is the strength of Berwick’s Apple Capital Museum Society’s fourth hall of fame induction May 5, 7 p.m. at the Berwick school.

“Any of them you can think of, they all had a hand in everything,” says museum director Paul Ward, listing curling, local politics, charitable campaigns and more.

“This honours our past, and the pioneers who built the apple industry - and the community.”

Being inducted this year are three growers and industry leaders from years past: A.K. Clarke, Brenton Lee and Carl Matthews. Museum volunteers and descendants of the three men have written biographies and gathered photos that will be added to the museum’s collection.

Ward says this winter was quite for the museum, which closes physically for the off-season. The Commercial Street, berwick centre will open again the first of June, with its live been display, scale model DAR train set, old photo collection, cooper’s equipment and more.

“This induction is really the kick-off to our new season,” he says.

Bigger projects on the go include renovations to the museum’s second floor and a drive to collect photos from 25 communities around Berwick. Ward says the museum has a good start on Weston, Morristown, Somerset, and Harbourville; but old pictures from before 1950 - and the people who know what is depicted - are becoming hard to find.

“We are looking for the old pool hall in Berwick - it’s pretty iffy to get some of these, so we’re looking everywhere.”

The museum will copy any pictures and collect them by community as an archive, but also as a resource for future displays.

The museum is lining up its summer series of guest speakers and will again host its July fundraising dinner and Friday noon BBQs on the sidewalk in front of the centre. Lobster raffle tickets are also on sale now: just 200 tickets, with 20 draws for either $100 of lobster or cash.

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