Boom
and bust – basic social studies vocabulary words, right?
Think
about how you learned these words. I
would imagine you were taught about boom and bust during an exploration of the
Gold Rush, right?
Most
everyone is….and that’s my point.
Are
there other situations where the terms boom and bust could be used?
Of
course there are, and recently I stumbled across one that I found really
interesting via a friend.
Let’s examine
Fruithurst, Alabama – a rural little hamlet near the Georgia border in Cleburne
County. As far as population goes most
elementary schools have a larger student body than Fruithurst’s total
population. The 2000 census indicates
the population tops out at a whopping 200 people.
If we
transported ourselves back to 1890 and the area where Fruithurst is located we
might be lucky if we found 200 people. In fact, the area wasn’t even known as
Fruithurst in 1890. The area was first
known as Summit Cut and later Zidonia (pronounced “Zildonee”) by Scotch-Irish
farm families.
Things
began to change, however, in 1894 when a company known as the Fruithurst
Company bought up large holdings of land and many of Scotch-Irish moved on to
other areas. The company was formed by a group of Northern
entrepreneurs who envisioned transforming a portion of Alabama’s piney woods
into a winemaking region.
Yes! A winemaking region.
Per
Wayne Ruple who wrote the book Cleburne
County the Northern businessmen had several goals, but the main one had to
do with creating the second best vineyards in the world
.
.
Most of
the investors were from the Chautauqua grape belt in New York state like Garrett
Ryckman of Brocton Wine Cellars. E.B.
Hammitt & Co. promoted the land.
Per Thomas Pinney in A History of Wine in America: From the Beginnings
to Prohibition, the New Yorkers
wanted to promote immigration to the area and to develop fruit growing through
a cooperative scheme.
The
town name – Fruithurst – came about through a contest the organizers held. One woman was the lucky winner of $25 for
coming up with the name.
Part of
the scheme involved encouraging immigrants from Germany, Sweden and even
Hungary. Every man who bought ten acres
of vineyard land was given a lot in the town, its location determined by the
type of house he planned to build.
The developers
laid out an ambitious “model city” with intricate diagonal streets instead of
the usual checkerboard pattern. Promoters planned everything….even where the
flagpole would go…..and right behind the flagpole was the Fruithurst Inn, a
large hotel built for $40,000. The
building had 3-stories, 80 rooms, a billiard room, bowling alley, and barber
shop as well as central steam heat.
Virginia
Voss Pope advises in Fruithurst, Alabama’s
Vineyard Village…..Promoters and
investors began to arrive so fast during this time that homes could not be
constructed rapidly enough to meet the demand and many of these new arrivals
had to be put up as borders.
It only
took four years for Fruithurst to become a real boomtown with 800 residents
from around the nation….many from Minnesota… and Europe per Ruple.
Over
3,000 acres were planted with over 100 varieties of grapes. Various fruit trees
were also planted including plum trees. Several packinghouses were built and dozens
of pickers were hired making thirty cents a day.
Ruple
advises the yields were staggering. One vineyard produced 8,324 pounds of grapes
in a single year…..23,000 gallons of wine were produced in 1898.
It
really looked like the Northern entrepreneurs had achieved their goal….making
Fruithurst the location for the second best vineyards in the world ……..especially
when a French winemaker called the Fruithurst product “the best wine [I have]
seen in the South.”
However,
the boom was not to last.
The vine market slumped, native
vine diseases attacked the more familiar northern varieties, and a severe
winter and national Prohibition helped close the wineries in 1919 per Ruple.
The
colonists found out they were selling their grapes to Northern markets at a
loss, a lumber mill showed no profit, an excelsior mill and two wineries burned
and most importantly state prohibition spelled the doom of the wine-making
industry.
Discouraged
by these failures and unable to adapt themselves to changed economic conditions
a general exodus began and eventually the property was liquidated at a sheriff’s
sale.
This
link takes you to page 41 of Wayne Ruple’s book….Cleburne County……where
there are several pictures of the town during its heyday including homes,
vineyards, and the Fruithurst Inn. The pictures are very interesting to look at.
Over the last few years the vineyards are beginning to return to the South including the land around Fruithurst.......
