Riverside Students Plant Apple Trees,
Help Restore Piece of Oneonta History

ONEONTA

On Friday, April 28, the City of Oneonta planted an apple orchard on the Swart-Wilcox House Museum property with the help of Riverside Elementary School students. The planting was made possible thanks to funds obtained by City Community Development Director Judy Pangman through a special “Tree Planting in Disadvantaged Communities after Ash Tree Loss” grant.

The new apple orchard at the Swart-Wilcox House consists of several heritage varieties of apples, just like the Wilcox family would have had in the 1880s. As part of his farming activities, Henry Wilcox had an active business in both apples and cider.

This is according to his daily diaries, which have been transcribed and are now available on the web for all to research at New York Heritage, a portal for learning more about the people, places and events that contributed to the making of New York State, at nyheritage.org/collections/diaries-henry-wilcox

A diary excerpt from August 24, 1880 reads: “I went out on the flat this morning and gathered two bushels of apples from under the big sweet tree.”

Other entries recount activities all year long: May 5, 1879, “worked at trimming apple trees”; March 11, 1879, “cleaned the rotten apples from the cellar”; and, on January 9, 1882, “loaded up five casks of cider and got it ready to go…This afternoon I took the load of cider to the village and got an order for three casks more.”

The Swart-Wilcox House Museum is located on Wilcox Avenue across from the Riverside Elementary School. At left, Riverside students Ilsa Mann, Meadow Luettger, Jackson Plymell, Mason Brown and Zoe Grabas work together to plant a tree.