SWEET VIOLETS by Barbara Thompson
In the late 1890's and the early years of this century, raising fragrant violets on a commercial basis became a fad of epidemic proportions in the Northern Dutchess towns, extending even into Milan. Like a purple thunderstorm it came, looming on the Southern horizon, sweeping in with a burst of fragrant glory fading away with a few reminiscent rumblings to leave little sign of its path or intensity. These violets were not the native wood violet but a separate family, Violata Odorata or Sweet Violet. There were doubles, semi-doubles and singles of purple, blue, lavender and white. Marie Louise was the one most people grew. It was a large double "blue" with blooms an inch or more across and stems that were eight or nine inches long. The most fragrant of them all and queen of the market place; a bunch of 100 would sell for $3.00, $4.00 if Easter was late. Contrary to local opinion, violet culture did not originate in Rhinebeck during the "elegant eighties", but were raised forty years earlier in England in sunken pits. They came to New York City in the 60's and 70's where they were grown in cold frames on the West Side and in the Bronx. With improvements in railroading after the Civil War, the lucrative venture spread rapidly up the Hudson Valley, reaching final refinements of being grown in greenhouses in Poughkeepsie (Violet Avenue) and in Rhinebeck and Red Hook. Many theories have been expounded as to why it was here and nowhere else that violets were grown on such a tremendous scale. Some are reasonable, some are just plain nonsense. Considering the nature of the flower itself it would seem that the success of a commercial violet business depended primarily on three things: rapid access to a large and stable market (New York City via the railroad) , an abundance of cheap hand labor and a continuing supply of rich soil which had to be replaced every year. Rhinebeck was hailed as "the violet capital of the world" and so it was with 115 growers. Red Hook had a share with 350,000 square feet under the glass of forty growers. Milan's men watched the new industry for only a few years before they joined the growing ranks in 1904. By 1912 Milan had 15 growers and 111,430 square feet under glass. Franklyn Shafer in Rock City had two greenhouses in 1904 as did Bartlett Demarest over on Enterprize Road near the Rhinebeck town line. Curtis Williams and William Lamoree came in the following year. 1906 saw Fred and Frank Battenfeld, Clarence Sherwood, Martin Fingar and William Yates putting up houses. In 1908 violet culture had spread to its easternmost limits: Alfred Link, William Warner (Link's Corners), Frank Jacoby and George and Alvah Shelley were in. The last two growers to join were Elmer Doyle in 1909 and Joseph Moore in 1910. The "Halycon era" lasted two more years and then the purple haze began to dissipate with the small backyard growers dropping out one by 58
