Recollections about Boyce and P. H. Mayo

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APPLE ORCHARDS IN SHENANDOAH VALLEY
Several Near Winchester Bring to Owners Big Returns
350 ACRES SELL FOR $40,000
Colonel Ross Tells of Virginia's Great Resources
Lexington, Va., Oct. 28, 1911

Editor Lexington Gazette: I made a trip last week up the Valley of Virginia as far as Winchester, and was so pleased with many things I saw, I am thinking that if I can paint a fair verbal picture of scenes and events as they presented themselves to me, it might perchance serve to awaken a momentary interest in some of your many readers.

Of course in going north from Lexington nearly every one has first to go to Buena Vista, and spend a large part or the day waiting for a train, which is usually twenty minutes late, but when it does come is very comfortable and runs smoothly over well surfaced and well ballasted rails. I was impressed with the general air of improvement in the agriculture along the line, since my last run over it, many farms giving evidence of clean and careful culture, with a corresponding excellence of crops. The young wheat along the whole route was as promising as I ever saw at this time of year, and the shocks of corn upon the ground showed an excellent crop of fodder at least.

Just at the station in beautiful Stuart's Draft, is a field of corn that looks good for 100 bushels to the acre, and is, I think, the finest looking field I ever saw. I understood however upon inquiring that the appearances were somewhat deceptive (not in this particular field, but generally) and that owing to the very dry summer many stalks did not develop an ear. Nevertheless, it was a great comfort to see such evidences that the live stock would have something to eat this winter, notwithstanding the failure of the hay crop.

When I reached Boyce in Clarke county, the end of my railroad ride, I was met by friends in an auto car and whirled in a few minutes to Powhatan Seat the country home of Mr. Peter H. Mayo of Richmond, Va. This was the haven I was seeking; for the purpose of my journey was to take part in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of his marriage. Now when one comes to think of it, it seems a difficult and unusual achievement for a man and his wife to go hand and hand thro' all the joys and pleasures, the labors and responsibilities, the sickness and sorrow of fifty years of married life, and many strive to turn the trick, but fail. Those who succeed are true heroes.

Mr. Mayo's residence is the perfection of a country home. It housed in the most comfortable manner about thirty people during the several days that the celebration continued. It is heated with hot water, lighted by gas and has every modern comfort and convenience. There are 100 miles of fine macadam roads in all directions, and the country around is the most beautiful in the famed Valley of Virginia. The company gathered under his roof-tree were all near of kin to him and to each other, and while we were all together there, joy was unconfined. Bishop Robert Gibson was there and the Rev. Robert A. Mayo and wife, and a representative niece or nephew from the family of each of the groom's brothers and sisters.

The party assembled on Saturday. Monday, October 23rd, was the wedding day, and the festivities continued until Tuesday evening, when there began to be a break up. The weather on Monday was perfect and about 4 p.m. a stream of neighbors began to pour in and continued until that great house was full. The rooms were gorgeously decked with flowers, suggestive of the golden occasion, the tables groaned under all the best things known to the caterer, and until the witching hour of midnight, there was one shout of joy over the occasion and one chorus of good wishes and congratulations for the bride and groom of 50 years. They were both in line health, the bride retaining in a wonderful degree the beauty for which she was so justly famed 50 years ago. And as for the groom, God bless him, none know him but to love him, none name him but to praise. He sang a fine song and told a fine story, just as he used to do before the war, and proved himself then, as upon
 every stage upon which he has appeared during his long and eventful life, a prince among men. 

The wedding proper having been thus duly celebrated on Tuesday, Mr. Mayo organized his male guests into two auto car loads of sightseers and going through Millwood and Berryville, after an eighteen mile run we reached Winchester. This is truly historic ground. In going to Boyce, I passed by the battlefield of Cross Keys, where the hand that pens these lines was shot to pieces; the battlefield of Port Republic, where Stonewall Jackson concluded in a blaze of glory his wonderful campaign in the Valley; and the field of Front Royal where I had a thrilling experience worth telling sometime. At Winchester, which was in possession of different masters 80 times during the war, changing owners three times in one day, I had the grandest experience of my soldier life, but I can't tell about it now; will only say I helped to drive Banks out of that glorious town upon one occasion and Milroy out upon another. These were Federal generals in command of armie larger
 than ours.

What I wanted to tell about are the wonderful apple orchards around Winchester. We went in our machines to three of them, each more wonderful than the other. One orchard of 300 acres, another of 350. One selling the crop this year for $30,000, the other for $40,000. These figures are astonishing. But when one went into the orchard and saw 45 men who had been gathering for weeks, and weeks more of gathering to do, and looked at the fruit large in size, beautiful in color, that in many cases almost hid "the foliage of the tree from view, one might believe any tale. I saw one medium sized tree from which the owner assured me he had last year gathered 28 barrels of apples, sold at $3.50 per barrel, and this year had gathered 20 barrels from the same tree at sold at $3 50 per barrel. I saw men down on their knees picking- apples with both hands from branches which were borne down by the weight of fruit. It was a revelation and an object lesson, showing the
 possibilities of land in old Virginia.

Mr. Shirley Carter of Winchester, a most charming gentleman, under whose able guidance we visited the orchards, told me he loaned the owner of one of the orchards we were then visiting, $5,000 to help buy the farm upon which the orchard was, just four years ago. The owner returned him the money after selling the crop of apples and since then has cleared $75,000 on the orchard. The total cost of the farm was $18,000.

The wonderful results have been brought about by scientific management. They spray the orchards five times a year, and thus destroy all the enemies of the apple, making the trees strong and vigorous, enabling them to bear a crop every year and removing from the fruit every imperfection. The result of these frequent sprayings has been magical.

If I were so fortunate as to be Mr. Frank Glasgow and the owner of his most promising orchard on Brushy Hills, near Lexington, I would quit law and go down to Winchester and hire myself to Stuart Bell to pick apples at $1.25 the day 'til the job was done. It would be more profitable to him than anything he could do, for he would learn practically how to care scientifically for an orchard.  J. D. H. Ross

Source: The Lexington Gazette, 8 November 1911, p. 1

[Editorial note: The N&W announced plans during 1912 to construct a new station at Boyce on the west side of the track, within the boundaries of the newly-incorporated town.  The station was planned to be a modest building similar to those in other villages of less than 1,000 residents, at a projected cost of $7,500.  It would have been of wood construction with stoves for heating, oil lamps, and outside facilities. Mr. Mayo negotiated with the N&W to build a “first class” station instead of a smaller structure.  Principal enhancements included masonry construction, clerestory windows for better air circulation during summer months, a fashionable stucco design, with electric lighting, 



central heating, and inside restrooms.  It was spacious, modern, and comfortable –rivaling the best contemporary railway stations in medium-sized cities and larger than the depot at Berryville that was completed three years earlier.  These improvements were added at substantial cost.  Mr. Mayo, along with Ms. Hattie Gilpin and Mr. R. Powell Page, contributed $17,500, bringing the station’s value to $25,000 –a sizeable sum in 1913. While few people today remember these individuals, they were influential in their era.  Mr. Mayo established cigarette manufacturing in Richmond shortly after the Civil War, expanded factories that strengthened Richmond's post-Civil War economy, then selling out several decades later to American Tobacco.  Possessing that financial and industrial clout, Mr. Mayo was given serious consideration by any Virginia railroad.]