Narrative
Bangor - A variety of Maine origin, first propagated from plants growing on the farm of Henry W. Brown, in Newbury (sic). -- Fred W. Card. 1908. Bush Fruits - a handbook of raspberries, blackberries...Bangor - (Me. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 125. 1888) - Originated prior to 1888 on the farm of Henry W. Brown, Newburg, Maine. Plants hardy, very productive of small insipid fruits which fail to ripen properly. -- U.P. Hedrick. 1925. The Small Fruits of New York.'I grew up at what is now 1139 Ohio Street in Bangor, a small homestead farm owned by my father, Donald L. Chase for many years. The third house north of us on the same side of Ohio Street was owned and occupied by Axel Henry Gren, always referred to as Harry. Harry's mother, Jennie, daughter of William E. Brown, had grown up on that homestead. In the early 1950's, Harry gave me some blackberry plants. I don't remember if they were crowns or root cuttings but I planted them in a short row and they grew. Though they have not been tended for many years, a few still come up every year. I moved to my current homestead in Levant in 1960. In the mid or late 1960's I brought some root cuttings from my old Ohio Street home and set out a new row of them. They have been running wild in the sod for the last several years but still produce a few large juicy berries each year. In the spring of 2004 I reset a new bed of a dozen plants with root cuttings from the old plants. Each grew and survived the winter. When Harry gave me the plants in the early 50's he told me that they were called 'Bangor Blackberries' and had been planted by his grandfather Brown in 1880. He said that his grandfather had obtained the plants from a horticulturist in Newburgh, Maine who had developed a strain that was winter hardy in this area.Sometime in the mid to late 1970's, I found a 1925 edition of Fred W. Card's book 'Bush Fruits - a handbook of raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, currants, blueberries, and other small fruits' originally Copyright 1908 by the author and again in in 1917 and 1925 by The Macmillan Company. Included in the book, beginning on page 214, is a long list of the names of blackberries and dewberries known to have been introduced into cultivation in the United States. On page 216 of the list is the following: (quoted above). The reference to 'Newbury' is obviously a typographical corruption of the correct spelling 'Newburgh'. The US Census of the Inhabitants of Newburgh, Penobscot County, Maine enumerated on the Second day of June, 1880 lists Henry W Brown, age 40, farmer. His father George P. Brown is listed in the same household. The above referenced farm of Henry W. Brown was located on the north side of the current Route 9. At that time, the first farm in Newburgh just easterly of the Newburgh/Dixmont town line was owned by James F. Emery, the next farm easterly by Gideon P. Leavitt and the next farm easterly by George P. Brown. The 1880 US Census shows George P. Brown living in the household of Henry K. Brown. An August 30, 1892 deed recorded in the Penobscot County Registry of Deeds in Book 624 Page 177 transfers ownership of this 100 more or less acre farm from the heirs of George P. Brown, including Henry W. Brown, to Daniel and Rubus Brown of Boston. There is no record of Henry W. Brown owning real estate in Newburgh other than through this heirship record.' -- Writeup about Bangor Blackberry dated May 4, 2005 by Peter D. Chase of Levant, Maine - provided with the plants donated to NCGR by Heron Breen of Saint Albans, Maine.
Named for the city of Bangor, Maine