An Orchard on the Prairie

4 days ago

8 min read

By Anna Squire

Fig 1: M. L. Dunlap at 19

Courtesy of the Champaign County Historical Archives

In 1855, the same year that West Urbana (now Champaign), Illinois, was founded, a man living in Cook County named M.L. Dunlap purchased the northern half of section 36 in Champaign Township. The land was entirely prairie, and the new Illinois Central railroad ran diagonally through his new land. Over the coming years, M.L. would turn this land into one of Illinois’ most successful orchards and prove that the prairie of Central Illinois could sustain orchards that could rival those of the East. Although the Dunlap Orchard closed in the 1930s, the orchard would survive nearly 80 years and was integral to the early history of Champaign-Urbana and Savoy.

Matthias Lane Dunlap was born September 14, 1814, in Cherry Valley, New York, to William and Margaret Dunlap, who were farmers. Around 1835, M.L. followed his parents westward to Cook County, Illinois. There, he first worked as a school teacher in Troy Grove, with some of his younger siblings being his students. After this, M.L. worked various jobs, including as a sales clerk, an office clerk, and a bookkeeper for a firm of contractors on the Illinois and Michigan Canal. In 1839, he married Emeline Pierce in Chicago. Emeline was also from New York, being born in Sandy Creek in Upstate New York. After this, M.L. purchased government land in Leyden, Illinois, which would become known as “Dunlap’s Prairie”. With this, he turned his attention to farming as well as surveying. In 1845, a cart of a travelling salesman broke down in front of M.L. Dunlap’s gate. The salesman persuaded M.L. to buy everything in his cart, which was full of apple tree seedlings. He then decided to turn 10 acres of his land into an orchard with them, and he sold the rest of the seedlings to his friends and family. This marked the beginning of his journey in orchard growing. During these years outside of his farm, M.L. became active in local governance. He was the Leyden Township Supervisor, putting him on the Cook County Board of Supervisors. He was the postmaster and justice of the peace for many years and was elected to the State Legislature in 1854.

The following year, M.L. made a decision which would impact his and his family’s future significantly. He decided to move away from Cook County and down to Central Illinois. He purchased the northern half of Section 36, which was around 3 miles south of the emerging city of West Urbana. The new Illinois Central railroad ran right through his land, giving him quick and easy access to transport his goods. The move south was gradual, and it wasn’t until two years later, in 1857, that M.L. fully moved his family to their new home, and they began planting trees that spring. Many felt that the prairie of Central Illinois was not suited for the growing of orchards, but rather for other crops such as corn; because of this, most people had not yet explored the idea of growing an orchard there. This meant that the early years of cultivating his orchard in Champaign County were quite experimental, as he had to try out different varieties and methods to see what worked best to be able to grow his nursery on the prairie. A newspaper article written around the 1850s or 60s claimed that he was “doing more for the advancement of agriculture and horticulture than any other individual in the state”. Much of his valuable stock was also transported from his Cook County orchard down to his new orchard in Champaign County. Although the date that the Cook County orchard closed down is uncertain, it did remain open for multiple years after the Dunlaps started their new orchard. During the early years, Dunlap’s Nursery was often advertised as honest as well as affordable. Articles discussing the Orchard often compared his prices with those of peddlers, noting that his product would sell for nearly half what his competitors could offer without sacrificing quality. An advertisement from March 12, 1859, highlighted that mail orders would receive his personal attention, and that “the cost of packing [would be] charged, but nothing for delivery at the station”.

Fig 2: Catalogue of Dunlap's Nursery from Autumn 1859 - Spring 1860.

Courtesy of the Champaign County Historical Archives

The Nursery continued to flourish. In 1860, the State Agricultural Society awarded Dunlap’s orchard $20, which was the highest offered, as the best cultivated nursery of fruit and ornamental trees for the year. It was also awarded $10 for having the best lot of three-year-old apple trees. While being known for their apples, the nursery was continuously expanding its catalogue by adding more types of fruits and vegetables. Contemporary newspaper articles also recommended that women and children should visit the orchards recreationally, as the beauty of the grounds should be appreciated outside of business.

Alongside developing his well-respected nursery, M.L. Dunlap himself became incredibly important within the surrounding community. For years, even before his move to Champaign County, M.L. had been a writer for different newspapers. His most significant work was writing under the pseudonym of “Rural” as the agricultural correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, which he did for 22 years until his death. He was constantly being sent letters from across the country from readers who wanted to know his views on different subjects relating to farming and agriculture. He was a member of the State Board of Agriculture and President of the State Horticultural Society. Importantly to Champaign-Urbana’s history, M.L. Dunlap was integral in the new Illinois Industrial University (now the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) securing its location. Along with this, he was also on the first Board of Trustees of the University.

He was also quite politically active. He was originally a Democrat until 1952, when he became an ardent member of the Free Soil Party in ardent opposition to slavery. He wrote for the Democratic Press, a leading Republican and Free Soil newspaper, as their chief agricultural writer. In 1854, he became a lifelong member of the Republican Party. M.L. was decidedly against slavery, and his home was even used in the Underground Railroad “where the fleeing slave always found the latch string out”.

Fig 3: Sketch of M. L. Dunlap

Courtesy of the Champaign County Historical Archives

On February 14, 1875, Matthias Lane Dunlap passed away at his home in Champaign County. He was described as being “universally respected and loved by those who knew him best”. M.L. had become an important figure in the Chicago Tribune during his 22 years writing for them and had become known and respected throughout the country through both his nursery and his writing. In a display of his importance to the University of Illinois, they cancelled classes the afternoon of February 17th to allow everyone to attend his funeral.

After his death, his orchards were taken care of by his family. His son Henry M. Dunlap was born on Nov. 14, 1853, while the family was still living on their farm in Leyden. He first attended the University of Illinois in 1868, when he was just 15 years old, and he graduated from there in 1875, the same year his father passed away. Henry did not immediately return to the farm, but rather went to Ford County to assist his brother Merton at the County Clerk’s office. Shortly after returning to Champaign County, Henry married Nora C. Burt, who was from Coshocton, Ohio, in 1877. The orchard seemed to belong to Henry after his father, though the exact details of how and when it was passed over are not entirely clear.

Fig 4: Henry M. Dunlap

From 1921-1922 Illinois Blue Book

Henry was also incredibly politically active, like his father was. He was a Republican, and in 1892, Henry was elected as a state senator representing the 24th senatorial district. Henry was re-elected until 1912, losing to Democrat Raymond Meeker by less than 300 votes. He was then re-elected again in 1916. Henry continued as a state senator until 1932. He was also active within agricultural and horticultural spaces. By 1900, Henry was the President of the Illinois State Horticultural Society.

Henry did not just continue his father’s nursery, but he expanded the business as well. By the 1880s at least, the orchard was the biggest in Central Illinois. By 1922, Henry had 1,500 acres in orchards in 4 different counties. He had become one of the most respected figures in orchard growing in Illinois; a contemporary article written about him refers to him as the “Illinois apple king”. Beyond just expanding the business, Henry also employed many emerging scientific methods and innovations. In 1915, he showed the Illinois Horticultural Association how the Dunlap Orchards used tractors and auto trucks for the handling of apples. The tractors were specifically made for apple orchards, and the big auto trucks transported the produce to the railroad station or the storage plant. Although initially skeptical of spraying orchards, he soon became one of its biggest advocates. The number of times a year that he sprayed his orchard is debated; in articles both from 1915, one claims he sprayed his orchard three times that year and another claims he sprayed his orchard seven times that year. Nonetheless, Henry was clear that spraying was a crucial step in taking care of his orchards. He claimed, “If I couldn’t spray and cultivate my orchards I would go out of the apple-growing business”. Just as his father had spent years experimenting with growing orchards on the prairie, Henry did the same as he explored new technology to further his already booming business. While M.L. grew wide different varieties of apples in an attempt to discover what worked best in Central Illinois, by the time that Henry took over the orchard, they sold fewer varieties as they had discovered what grew best on the prairie. His father’s experimentation paired with his own allowed the orchard to blossom into one of the most successful in the area at the time. In 1915 alone, around 26,000 barrels of marketable apples came out of Dunlap Orchard in Champaign County. Many apples were turned into “Dunlap sweet cider” which they sold and was quite popular. Henry built himself a new house at the orchard in 1915. This house is still standing and operating in Savoy as “Senator’s Inn”, the name being an homage to Henry Dunlap.

Fig 5: Image of Workers at Dunlap Orchards

Although the orchard thrived throughout the 1920s, in 1932 Henry’s wife Nora passed away, leaving him as a 79-year-old widower. After her death, he moved to 510 W Green St in Champaign. In 1933, leaving his orchard business behind, Henry had men from the Champaign Association of Unemployed cut down a portion of his orchard during the Great Depression. In January 1934, he sold a portion of his property to another local couple, George and Inez Livingston. On January 8th, 1938, Henry Dunlap passed away, leaving no living children. Over the coming decades, the orchard would continue to dwindle. By 1955, the orchard was gone, leaving only Henry Dunlap’s home standing. Senator’s Inn and Old Orchard Links and Lane serve as the only testament to the once-grand orchard in our community.

Fig 6: 1936 Aerial - Fig 7: 1948 Aerial - Fig 8: 1955 Aerial

Courtesy of the City of Champaign

Works Cited

Rauschenberg, Gretchen, Chicago's Mr. Rural: the life of Matthias Lane Dunlap, columnist in the Press and the Tribune, Gateway Press, Baltimore, MD, 2007, accessed at Champaign County Historical Archives.
Death of Hon. M.L. Dunlap, Prairie Farmer, February 20, 1875.
Mathews, Milton, and McLean, Lewis, Early History and Pioneers of Champaign County, Champaign County Herald, Urbana, IL, 1886, accessed at Champaign County History Museum.
Portrait and biographical album of Champaign County, Ill., Chapman Brothers, Chicago, IL, 1887, accessed at Champaign County History Museum.
Obituary: Matthias L. Dunlap (“Rural”), Chicago Daily Tribune, February 15, 1875.
Mathias Lane Dunlap Collection, Champaign County Historical Archives, Urbana, IL, 1839-1898.
Paul Stephens, A Failure That Didn’t Fail, Farmers Review, November 20, 1915.
Stewart, J.R., A Standard History of Champaign County Illinois, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, IL and New York, New York, 1918.
A Large Illinois Orchard, Farmers Voice, October 20, 1900.
Illinois Fruit Growers Enjoy Meeting at Champaign, The Prairie Farmer, August 14, 1915.