The Rome Beauty apple is thought to be an offshoot of the Westfield Seek-No-Further. It was first recorded in 1848.  Joel Gillette in Proctorville, Ohio had purchased  a number of grafted trees from Putnam Nursery in 1816. One had sprouted below the graft and Gillett gave this tree to his son. It produced  attractive apples he named Rome for their township  of Lawrence County. The original tree was washed away in a  flood in 1860.

Medium to large in size and  uniformly round in shape, they are fairly smooth and well-colored, the greenish yellow skin is mottled and flushed with bright red which

deepens to a solid red on the sun exposed side. Originally it was green with a red stripe on one side. The creamy yellow flesh is coarse and juicy and the skin is tough. The stalk is long and thick and usually projects at an angle. The tree growth is narrow and upright and the bark is a reddish olive in color. Leaves are small, shiny light green, oval and sharply serrated. Its limbs are unusually supple and are therefore less often damaged by high winds. Rome Beauty is self-pollinating and blooms late, escaping late frosts. It is considered an all purpose apple. It is thought to be one of the best varieties for baking too.  It stores well and ripens in early October.

There is no marker to denote the

approximate location of the first

Rome Beauty tree in Proctorville.

In the time it grew it was located

on the banks of the Ohio river as

most farms had landings for the

steam boats of that day.  There

were no highways or railroads

so the river boats serviced the

farms.  The river was not as wide

then so its site would be under

water today. 

Above is a photo of what was the old McCowan farm,

taken from Rt 2 on the West Virginia side of the Ohio

River.  The large white box is the area in which the

first Rome Beauty apple tree was planted.  The small

arrow is the approximate area of the first tree.  It was

planted much further up on the bank of the river so it

would be safe from the recurrent seasonal floods.  The second half of the 1800's had three devistating

floods. 

The photo to the left is taken in front  of the old McCown farm house on Rt 7..  The small cottage was a tenants house, and if you walked by it to the river

you would be close to the original location. 

Don Gillette says he is the Great, Great, Great Grandson of Joel Gillette.

His roadside market is a couple miles

to the left of the cottage in the photo

above in front of the Fairland East

Elementry School.  Speaking with Don I learned that his grandad had

been elected to the Ohio Senate and

had then registered the apple as a

pure breed strain.  The area east of

Proctorville to Miller, or Millersport as

some older folks still refer to it, was

heavily producing orchard lands. The

Rome Township of Lawrence County produced more fruit than any other area of Ohio at one time.