Herbert A. Albyn
Herbert A. Albyn was born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1882. He attended Ohio State University, whose Horticulture Department recommended him to Edward H. Everett to manage the Cherry Hill Fruit Farm in Toboso, Ohio. This farm featured 25,000 trees on 400 acres, plus grapes, berries, tomatoes and vegetables. Albyn and Everett became very close friends and business partners. Albyn even named his first son Everett Albyn in 1910.
Albyn accompanied Everett on his move to Washington, D.C. where he managed an apple orchard for him in Virginia. In 1915, he managed Everett’s apple orchard in Bennington, Vermont, which became the largest in the United States, covering 3,600 acres along ten miles. Albyn once said that each apple was handled “as carefully as if it were an egg,” and he became known as “The Apple Wizard.”
Albyn’s relationship with Everett became strained after Everett’s marriage to his second wife. She and her brother influenced Everett to let Albyn go, so he returned to Newark and established Albyn’s Landscape & Nursery, Inc. on Marne Road in 1926. He was the first president of the Licking County Garden Club, which was the first garden club in the county.
At this point in his life, Albyn was considered by many to be eccentric. He kept a pet alligator in the greenhouse and two chimpanzees in the basement of the house next door.
Herbert A. Albyn died on August 15, 1958 and was buried at Hanover Cemetery. His son, Everett took over the business.[1][2]
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