Filex Gillet (1835-1908) and his barren hill nursery in Nevada City, CA

Authors: Preece, John

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2020
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Filex Gilet was born in Rocheford, France, March 25, 1835 and in the late 1850s, traveled to Boston, MA to pay his respect to Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the lyrics to “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Either while in Boston, or before, he heard of the gold being discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, and thus traveled from Boston to Nevada City, CA; the heart of gold country. Being trained as a barber, he set up a barbershop in Nevada City and worked hard, saved money, and bought some barren land just outside of town for a nursery. He also placed an order for $3000.00 of nursery stock from a nursery back home in France. Davis Fairchild wrote that Mr. Gillet had no money at first for irrigation and had to water all of his nursery by hand from a well. Filex Gillet named his nursery “Barren Hill Nursery” after the condition of the land when he bought it. Although the nursery began in 1871, his first catalog wasn’t published until 1876-1877 season, accompanied by advertisements in 1877 in “The Daily Transcript” newspaper of Nevada City selling fruit trees, flower plants, bulbs and seeds. In the advertisement, he called the nursery “Filex Gillet’s Nursery.” Although he sold plants from America, he also introduced many European cultivars that he imported. He sold seedlings of many of his fruit trees, although some were grafted. Grafted walnuts were $1.50-$2.00/tree, whereas second generation seedlings ranged from $20.00-$60.00/hundred trees. In the season of 1888-1889, it was possible to save 25¢ off the $1.50 price buying a dozen grafted ‘Chaberte,’ ‘Franquette,’ ‘Mayette,’ or ‘Proeparturiens,’ walnuts but grafted ‘Parisienne,’ ‘Vourney,’ and Meylan walnuts were only available at the individual price of $1.50/tree. Filex Gillet was also a prolific writer, authoring papers and booklets about how to grow many of the plants that he sold, such as his book on strawberry culture: “Fragariculture.” On January 3, 1908, at the age of 72, Mr. Gillet fell and broke a rib, adding to his of other ailments, including asthma, a weak heart, and dropsy; however, he was feeling well enough on January 7, 1908 to write a letter selling nursery stock. Alas, his health took a turn for the worse and he passed away on January 27. His nursery was continued under the name “Filex Gillet’s Nursery,” and currently the Felix Gillet Institute is selling fruit nursery stock.