DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Morrill Orchard Company, out here in Cherokee County. Now settle in, because this one starts with a dream, a rail line, and a whole lot of peaches. Roland Morrill was born in 1852, a Michigan man through and through — and then, in 1901, he came to Texas.
He didn't come alone. He and a fellow named W. W.
McFarland made the trip together, and they came with a plan: a large-scale peach farm. Not a little backyard operation. Large scale.
They found their acreage near a rail line, which was the kind of detail that separated the dreamers from the operators, and they got to work. The Morrill Orchard Company was born. And here's the thing about a big enough operation — it doesn't just grow peaches.
It grows a whole world around itself. A community called Morrill grew up right there alongside the orchard. A school.
A commissary. A post office. Worker housing.
Everything a small town needs, all of it orbiting those peach trees. Now, you might think at this point the story is just going to keep on blooming. You would be wrong.
The Panic of 1907 hit first. That's a gut-punch to any agricultural venture. They were still finding their footing when, in 1914, a blight came through and killed the peach orchards outright.
Killed them. But the Morrill Orchard Company did not fold. They shifted.
Other produce kept the operation going, kept that little community alive. They held on for another decade and a half — right up until 1929, when the economic collapse came for what the blight hadn't finished. That was its demise.
By the turn of the twenty-first century, only one thing was left standing from all of it — the superintendent's house. One building, holding the memory of a school, a commissary, a post office, a community, and an orchard full of peaches that came all the way from Michigan and very nearly lasted.
What the marker says
Morrill Orchard Company Peach farmer Roland Morrill (1852-1923) came to Texas from his native Michigan with W. W. McFarland in 1901 to start a large-scale peach farm. They purchased acreage in this area near a rail line and began the Morrill Orchard Company. A community known as Morrill grew up around the orchard operation and included a school, commissary, post office and worker housing. The panic of 1907, followed by a blight in 1914, killed the peach orchards, but the company continued in operation with other produce until the economic collapse of 1929 signaled its demise. At the turn of the 21st century, the superintendent's house stood as the only visible reminder of this part of the county's agricultural history. (2002)