Nation's oldest fruit tree developer looks to future

LOUISIANA, Mo. -- The prepubescent Abe Lincoln hadn't grown his first whisker when a Kentucky pioneer in 1816 planted the first fruit trees of what would become Stark Brothers Nursery.

Statehood for the Missouri territory was still five years in the future. Thomas Jefferson was enjoying retirement in Monticello.

Over what is now approaching two centuries, Stark Brothers has become an enduring institution in northeast Missouri, and a trusted brand name in national and international markets.

It began when James Hart Stark, a pioneer and entrepreneur, made camp in the wilds here along the Mississippi River with a saddle bag of apple-tree shoots cut for grafting from his father's farm.

Today, the nursery harvests and ships a million fruit trees each year that resulted from the planting, grafting and budding of root stocks. The annual ritual produces such varieties as apple and apricot, pawpaw and persimmon, English walnut and Arapaho blackberry.

Despite a couple of world wars -- and a Civil War too -- a fire, and more recently Stark Brothers' closing when its owner went bankrupt, the business with the friendly black bear logo remains the oldest fruit tree supplier and developer in the United States.

Now, new owners are clearing a path to Stark Brothers' future.

Illinois businessman Cameron Brown said he and his partner, Tim Abair, are "shepherds of the Stark name." Stark Brothers Nursery made a name for itself when it developed the Red Delicious apple in 1893 and the Golden Delicious apple in 1914.

"We have an obligation to keep going and doing well, seeing it grow," Brown said.

2001 bankruptcy

But Stark Brothers Nursery didn't earn its place of honor without a hiccup.

The company shut down in June 2001 when its owner of seven years, Foster & Gallagher, filed for bankruptcy and let go hundreds of employees who worked in its mail-order gardening businesses.

Along with Stark Brothers, Foster & Gallagher -- once the national leader in direct marketing -- was the parent company of such catalog names as Michigan Bulb Co. and Spring Hill.

That summer, about 300 Stark Brothers workers abruptly lost their jobs. Some of them, such as 67-year-old Vera Murr, had graduated from high school to her life's work at Stark Brothers, which has employed generations of Pike County families and engendered intense loyalty.

As it turned out, Murr never left her job at Stark Brothers although the business closed down around her. A switchboard operator, Murr answered a deluge of phone calls from confused and concerned customers.

Stark Brothers Nursery remained family owned until Stark descendants Walter and Clay Logan sold the business to Foster & Gallagher in 1994.

Brown, one of the new owners, grew up in a neighboring Illinois county, the son of a plant pathologist who propagated plants for his own nursery. For 20 years, Stark Brothers leased part of his family's farm, just over the Mississippi River bridge from Louisiana, to grow Stark trees. His family got a check for the lease every year.

Brown said he learned Stark Brothers was in financial trouble when he received a bankruptcy judge's notice to creditors of likely nonpayment of debt. He and his partner bought the nursery's assets in September 2001.

New venture

A little more than a year later, two-thirds of the lost jobs have been filled, and workers are revving up for spring shipments of 2,000 trees a day.

Brown said Stark Brothers is launching a new venture to grow landscape roses in its greenhouse for Jackson & Perkins, the world's largest grower of premium roses.

The partners also want Stark Brothers to compete for the growing garden center market.

Perhaps Stark Brothers' greatest asset is the loyalty of workers such as 51-year-old production director Elmer Kidd, who started working at age 13 carrying water to employees in the field.

The summer the nursery closed and before its assets were sold, a crop of 800,000 fruit trees in the field needed tending. Trees usually are budded from June to September, and by early August, the work hadn't been done, pending direction from the bankruptcy court.

Kidd and a crew of 10 others worked 10-hour days and Saturdays to bud the trees so they wouldn't be lost. They were not paid for their labor.

"Everyone had a winning spirit, working shoulder to shoulder," he said. "Anybody who could bud, budded. In 30-some years of employment here, I remember it like no other."

There was talk years ago of getting rid of the company's black bear logo, which says simply: "Stark Trees Bear Fruit." The nursery decided to keep it.

They're code words for the product quality and great customer service that have kept Stark going nearly 200 years, Brown said.

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On the Net:

Stark Brothers Nursery: www.starkbros.com