English: Nationally and internationally recognized horticulturist Henry Martyn Stringfellow (1839–1922 (sic, 1912)) started an experimental garden and orchard at this location in 1883. In 1890 he published a treatise containing innovative organic gardening methods that were adopted by Japanese, German and many American fruit and vegetable growers. Silver medals garnered at two world fairs and world-wide acclaim for additional publications solidified his stature as a premier experimental horticulturist of his time. Vestiges of his handiwork were evident here over 100 years later.

Stringfellow was an interesting character. He was born into a prominent family of Virginia clergymen, and was well along that career path when the war came. He was made Lieutenant and assigned to the staff of John Bankhead Magruder’s new command in Texas. It changed the entire course of his life. He saw action in the Battle of Galveston on New Year’s Day 1863. After his service Stringfellow married a Texas girl. Henry and Alice made their home in Texas, where Henry soon found himself wrapped up in horticulture.

Stringfellow proved to be both a successful and unconventional grower, attracting much acclaim. Stringfellow was almost as unconventional with people as he was with plants; he reportedly earned the enmity of other growers in the area by paying his African American orchard workers a dollar a day, when the local custom was to pay fifty cents.