301208 - The Marriage Tree

Recording status:  recorded; not located.

I’ve commented in previous posts about the radio script competition conducted by the Great Northern Railway. The contest was launched in the summer of 1930 and ran for about four months. This night’s story, “The Marriage Tree,” was based on a story submitted by a woman from Vancouver, Washington, by the name of Marie Ryan. She won the first place prize in the contest offered through radio station KGW in Portland, Oregon. The story of the marriage tree was a dramatization focused on the real-life story of one of the oldest apple trees in the Northwest – a tree believed to have been planted as early as 1826, and that is still living to this day. More on that later.

Writers of stories for Empire Builders consisted primarily of professional authors employed by either NBC or the McJunkin Advertising Agency. The most prolific of all the Empire Builders authors was Edward Hale Bierstadt, who was an NBC employee. Other professional writers who wrote for this radio series included Wyllis O. Cooper, Dan Markell, and George Redman. Empire Builders actress Virginia Gardiner submitted a couple of stories after the production moved to Chicago. The GN’s own Harold Sims contributed at least two or three stories, too.

In an effort to tap into the pool of writing talent assumed to exist beyond the narrow confines of this select group, Sims solicited scripts from other professional sources. Stories used on Empire Builders included submissions from Walter Dickson, Ruby Bailey Harlow, Ben Hur Lampman, and Alice Elinor. But for Harold Sims, this was not enough. He wanted to test the waters, to see what other inventive stories were circulating out there, and to generate additional buzz and attention to the radio series. He understood that newspapers would print more copy about the railroad and its advertising campaign if he fed them something of substance. A script-writing contest fit the bill, and might generate some useful stories to boot. One source I have suggests the GN reached out to St. Paul radio station KSTP for ideas for story material, and it may have been the input of KSTP that generated the idea of a script contest.

Cover of radio contest brochure. This one was issued to Great Northern Railway employees.
Author's collection

The contest was structured to enlist the aid of staff at various radio stations in Great Northern territory that carried the Empire Builders radio broadcasts. This included NBC affiliates in St. Paul (KSTP), Spokane (KHQ), Seattle (KOMO), Portland (KGW), and San Francisco (KGO). Each station handled their role in the contest a little differently, but they typically put together a small selection committee comprised of the local GN agent, radio station staff, and/or one or two local authors or English professors. The selection committees made their choices and forwarded the results to Harold Sims in St. Paul. The railroad also opened the competition to its own employees. These contests – a total of six in all – resulted in the awarding of three prizes for each. There was a first place prize of $250, $150 for second place, and $100 for third. In total, then, there was $3,000 in prize money awarded to the top entrants in the contest.

A press release from Harold Sims was distributed in late July to announce the contest. Sims stated that submissions did not have to adhere to continuity format, and that the contest was open to all comers, professional or amateur. Authors did not need to be previously published. Sims explained that submissions should “direct the attention of radio listeners to the Northwest’s advantages as a vacationland, and should suggest its industrial and agricultural opportunities.” He said the content could entail drama, melodrama, romance, adventure, comedy, or any combination thereof. The contest was slated to close on various dates through October and November. The Portland contest closed on November 1^st. Interested parties were encouraged to contact their respective radio station to obtain a brochure put out by the GN with  helpful suggestions about how to write for radio.

On September 25^th, 1930, the Sunday Oregonian newspaper ran a piece about the Empire Builders radio series, and how it was to start up again from its usual summer hiatus on the 29^th. A small inset contained a reminder about the Empire Builders script writing contest. The newspaper claimed “a large number” of manuscripts had already been submitted, and warned their readers the contest would close in just a few days. Harold Sims wrote to GN president Ralph Budd on October 3rd and reported the KGW contest in Portland had garnered 116 manuscripts by that date, adding he had only read about 25 of them, but among this selection found one "that is exceptionally good."

On November 10th, the Morning Oregonian announced the winners of the Portland segment of the GN's radio script contest. Interestingly, the selection committee felt compelled to announce two winners of the $100 Third Place prize.

Originally from Missouri, housewife Marie Eleanor Allen married Edgar Wallace Ryan. The couple and their four children made their home across the Columbia River from Portland at Vancouver, Washington. One of the proudest and most prominent features of the small city of Vancouver was the old Hudson’s Bay Company compound located there, and known as historic Fort Vancouver (or at times, “Vancouver Barracks,” when the U.S. Army occupied the site). Situated on the banks of the Columbia River, the fort was established in 1825 as a headquarters for managing the burgeoning Pacific Northwest fur trade.

The fort was set up to be self-sufficient in many regards. It could take six to eight months to communicate with the “outside world” and get re-supplied. When an overland expedition or round-the-cape sailing ship did arrive, it was time to drop everything, put on the Sunday go-to-meeting finery, and launch a spirited celebration.

The Fort Vancouver compound eventually included large gardens and an orchard. But there was not a lot of indigenous fruit to be found at Fort Vancouver in the early days. Settlers from Europe and the eastern U.S. found themselves pining for such simple pleasures as fresh apples. And so it was that one employee of HBC, on his return from a weeks-long sojourn to his mother England, brought back some apple seeds and planted them at Fort Vancouver. Early records of the Fort and its inhabitants are sparse. We may have lost to history the exact identity of Fort Vancouver’s “Johnny Appleseed.” Some sources say the man was Captain Æmilius Simpson, head of the HBC’s pacific coastal trade. Others name Arthur Drake. Regardless of who deserves credit for importing apples to the Pacific Northwest, there are at least a couple variations on the story of how that came to be. Whoever the man was, it was said that he attended a dinner (held perhaps in his honor) in London, just prior to setting sail to return to Fort Vancouver. He either ate an apple at the dinner and saved the seeds (or was handed some apple seeds), and brought the seeds with him on the journey. It was variously either an accident, or his intention to bring the seeds to be planted at his destination.

One of the best sources of information about the “Old Apple Tree” at Fort Vancouver is an article prepared in 2010 by Robert J. Cromwell, Ph.D., of the National Park Service. In his 22-page scholarly report, he pulled together vital details from a wide range of sources, including some histories of the area published 80 years ago or more. Back in 1930, when Marie Ryan wrote “The Marriage Tree” script, she no doubt consulted at least one or two of the same sources cited by Dr. Cromwell.

One of the many sources cited by Dr. Cromwell was an early newspaper article about the apple tree. In 1911, the Morning Oregonian newspaper published what is believed to be the first public acknowledgement of the historic importance of the old apple tree:

Vancouver Barracks, Wash., Jan. 21.—The discovery this week of the oldest apple tree in the Northwest, which has borne fruit for more than eighty years, has aroused much interest, and hundreds have visited the post just to see the tree with a remarkable record. Colonel George K. McGunnegle, commander of the post, as soon as he was convinced by A.A. Quarnberg, district fruit inspector, that this tree was planted eighty-five years ago, gave orders to have it preserved. A suitable fence around the base of the tree will be built, and a stone monument, with a short history of its remarkable record, will be placed in the enclosure. Relic hunters who desire a piece of the tree will be severely punished if caught marring the oldest inhabitant of any apple orchard in the Northwest.

The fact that this tree, after eighty years of bearing, should bear fruit each year, is regarded as of the utmost importance to the apple-raising industry in the Northwest.

The tree is located in the southwest corner of the reservation, in front of the chief commissary’s office. So little was thought of the scrubby-looking relic of bygone days that it was used to anchor a guy wire to. This has been removed.

The tree is sixteen inches in diameter and about twenty feet high.

Vintage photographic postcard showing the old apple tree
and a plaque erected to acknowledge its historic importance. The plaque reads:

THE OLDEST APPLE TREE

IN THE NORTHWEST.

Grown from seed brought from
London England planted in 1826
By the Hudson Bay Company.

 

Marie Ryan, author of this night’s radio story, was clearly familiar with the old apple tree of Fort Vancouver, and had either learned of or had access to published accounts of the origin of the tree. She wove into her tale a suggestion that Native Americans of the region had a tradition that involved the planting of a tree when a man wished to marry. According to Ryan’s story, an Indian man would plant a tree alongside his teepee or other lodging, and if it flourished, his marriage would be blessed by the great spirits. I have no idea if this is indeed an established tradition in Native American culture or a complete fabrication by Ryan (or someone else). If you have any definitive information about this (and can quote a published source), I’d be grateful to hear from you about it.

The continuity for this broadcast of Empire Builders indicated that the program opened with the playing of a tune called “Marlbrough s'en va-t-en guerre” which I understand translates as “Marlborough Has Left for the War.” The tune is apparently the same one we are all familiar with as “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” or “The Bear Went Over the Mountain.” What followed this tune was Ted Pearson opening the show by announcing Marie Ryan as the author of the story and first-place winner of the Portland section of the radio script contest.

ANNOUNCER:          During the past summer, the Great Northern Railway has been conducting a series of contests for radio playlets for Empire Builders, sponsored by a number of well-known radio stations throughout the country. Tonight’s playlet is the first prize winner in the contest conducted by Station KGW, in Portland, Oregon. It was written by Mrs. E. W. Ryan, of Vancouver, Washington, and was selected from some three hundred playlets submitted to that station. This is a story of the early west, in the days when the flag of the Hudson’s Bay Company floated over what is today Oregon.

The Empire Builder is ready to leave, and we invite you to come along with us to hear the story of the “Marriage Tree” . . . . . .

With the appropriate sounds of a train pulling out from a station, and the conductor’s call of “All-l-l-l Abo-o-o-ard!”, the ethereal Empire Builder train departed Portland and carried the radio listeners eastward for the trip past old Fort Vancouver. The Old Timer befriended a little girl and her mother, offering both of them a tasty apple and a tale of the old apple tree on the bank of the Columbia River. The little girl saved the seeds from her apple so she could take them home and plant them, but her mother said apple trees are grown from seedlings. The Old Timer explained that in the old days, they had to start the apple trees from seed.

OLD TIMER:  Yes, the oldest apple tree in the Northwest was grown from a tiny apple seed that was brought all the way over here from London.

MARY JANE: Was it just like these seeds, Old Timer?

OLD TIMER:  Just like them. How would you like to see that tree, Mary Jane? We’re going to go right past it pretty soon.

MOTHER:      Oh, is that so? Where is it?

OLD TIMER:  Let’s see. We’ll be going past Vancouver Barracks in a minute or two, and it sets right out there on the parade ground. Quite a romance connected with it, too. Folks called it the “Marriage Tree.”

To this day, the Portland section of Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train still rolls right past the old apple tree at Fort Vancouver (aka “Vancouver Barracks”). A few years ago, BNSF (which operates the railroad tracks through that area) established the name “Apple Tree” to a crew changeover point at milepost 10.9 on the Fallbridge Sub. The tree is only a few dozen yards away. I’m not aware of anyone ever referring to the old apple tree at Fort Vancouver as the “marriage tree.” That may have been an invention for the sake of the story.

When little Mary Jane (most likely portrayed by Betty White – 26-year-old Betty Reynolds White) asked the Old Timer if the Marriage Tree got married, he responded:

OLD TIMER:  (CHUCKLE)  Well, not exactly, but it helped some people get married. You see, this was back in 1826 – more than a hundred years ago, and Vancouver Barracks was Fort Vancouver, a post of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Hudson’s Bay Company, you know, had the exclusive rights to fur trading in the British possessions in America, and they established posts, or factories, they called them, all over this Northwest. This post here was named after Admiral George Vancouver, a famous British sailor who explored this country in 1792. The Hudson’s Bay Company had been chartered two hundred years before by King Charles II, and they were nearly as powerful as their mother country. They had their own military organization…

The impromptu history dissertation was abruptly halted when it was revealed that the train was just passing the old apple tree. Mary Jane asked the Old Timer if that gnarled old tree started out as a little seed.

OLD TIMER:  Bless my soul, yes. You see it all began this way. Young Arthur Drake was a captain in the British Army, on detached service with the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, back in 1825. Old Doctor McLoughlin, the factor at the fort, had given Arthur several months leave to go back to England. The night before he started back to America, they had a big banquet for him; and his sweetheart, Alice Douglas sat at his side at the great table. After the dinner, they wandered out to the big old fireplace to sit and dream of Oregon and their future . . . .

As you see from this tidbit of the Old Timer’s dialog, it was Arthur Drake and not Æmilius Simpson to whom credit was ascribed for illegally importing and planting an invasive plant species. Oh, wait – layers of governmental oversight and ponderous tomes full of agricultural regulations came much later. But I for one am very fond of apples, so whoever brought the seeds over from England, bully for you old chap.

The radio continuity indicates a musical transition at this point, with sound effects for a crackling fire and “dance music of the period” in the background. A newspaper clipping from 1930 states this broadcast featured Don Ameche and Bernardine Flynn, but does not specify their roles. It’s my belief that Ameche played Drake, and Flynn likely played his romantic interest, Alice Douglas.

The ensuing dialog let the listeners understand that Arthur and Alice were in England, and Arthur was preparing to return to America. Alice lamented that she would be disconsolate in his absence, but Arthur tried to reassure her by reminding her that she was scheduled to follow him soon after. Arthur had to convince Alice that she would not be up to accompanying him on the arduous overland journey that he was about to embark upon. Alice grumped that the sailing voyage she would be taking around Cape Horn would be interminable since they would be apart, but Arthur assured her it would be vastly less taxing on her.

It sounds like the route that Arthur took was called the York Factory Express. This route was used to ferry supplies from England to Fort Vancouver, and furs back to the markets of England. The westbound overland embarkation point was a fort in Manitoba, on the banks of Hudson Bay, called York Factory.

As Alice came to grips with her disappointment about parting ways with her fella, she got to thinking about something Arthur had once told her about. She asked him to tell her again about the legend of the marriage tree.

ARTHUR:       Well … it isn’t exactly a legend, darling. It’s a custom amongst the Indians that live out there along the Columbia River. When a young brave finds the girl he wishes to marry, he plants a little tree alongside his tepee … if the tree grows and flourishes, it means the gods approve his choice … and –

ALICE:           Arthur, dear … … couldn’t we have a marriage tree of our own, out there in Oregon?

ARTHUR:       A splendid idea, my dear. It would grow and grow … and live for a hundred years!  (PAUSE)  But how shall we do it?

ALICE:           I know. Give me one of those apples. Now, I’ll cut it in half … we’ll each eat half, and … there! Here’s your half. We’ll save the seeds … you take them with you out to Oregon, and plant –

ARTHUR:       Our marriage tree! God bless you, darling. Ah, I know our marriage tree will grow and flourish … and long after Fort Vancouver is dust, our tree – our marriage tree – will live on and on and on ….

Goodness! Sounds like the makings of a highly sentimental story well-suited to telling in a radio broadcast. Lucky for us, that’s just what they did back in 1930.

OLD TIMER:  And so Arthur came on back to Oregon and Fort Vancouver, carrying with him the apple seeds that Alice had given him. It was a long, long journey out here in those days – railroads out here hadn’t even been thought of, and they had to paddle canoes nearly all the way –

MARY JANE: Over the land, too, Old Timer?

OLD TIMER:  Well, not exactly, Mary Jane … but they had to carry their canoes on their backs from stream to stream. Portagin’, they called it … and it was just one of the hardships those early fur traders had to go through. Well, Arthur got to Fort Vancouver in the spring o’ the year, when the fur brigades was settin’ out for their yearly trips among the Indians. Doctor McLoughlin, who was a pretty strict leader sent Arthur right out, the day after he arrived, at the head o’ one of the brigades, and Arthur just barely had time to give the seeds to old Gordon Bruce, Doctor McLoughlin’s Scottish gardener …

It turns out that Dr. John McLoughlin (1784-1857) really was the Chief Factor (or manager) and Superintendent of HBC’s Fort Vancouver 1824 to 1845. In this respect, the script once again was true to the historic record. It departed from that record, however, in naming the Scottish gardener. The references that I’ve discovered give the name of the gardener as William Bruce, not Gordon Bruce. I cannot account for that discrepancy, other than to speculate that “Gordon” may have sounded a tad more Scottish to the continuity editors.

With a suitable amount of bagpipe music (probably performed up on the roof of the Merchandise Mart), Drake and Bruce talked about how Bruce could tend Drake’s little tree (which had yet to even sprout) while Drake went about doing his duties gathering furs.

Not long after Drake’s departure with his small contingent of men, a sailing ship arrived on the Columbia River. Onboard was Drake’s fiancée, Alice Douglas. She settled in at the fort, and soon Gordon Bruce the gardener was showing her what was now but a tiny sprout of an apple tree. Alice next entered into a conversation with Dr. McLoughlin’s wife, but a drunken Indian appeared on the scene and caused a ruckus. It seems the Indian thought he could offer a pile of furs in payment for a “white squaw.” He took an instant liking to Alice Douglas. Dr. McLoughlin directed a couple of the fort’s men to drag the Indian outside the walls of the fort, give him thirty lashes, and chase him off. It was rather unseemly business, and is a particularly unsavory scene for an Empire Builders playlet. Even Alice expressed concern about the rough treatment of the Indian.

ALICE:           Oh, but they’re not going to whip him, are they? Oh, Doctor!

DOCTOR:       Certainly, they’re going to whip him. I chased him away once for the same thing, and warned him he’d get it if he ever came back. He’s back – ergo he gets flogged. We must teach these savages respect for white women.

ALICE:           It seems an awfully hard thing to do . . .

MRS. Mc:       After you’ve lived out here, my dear, you will know it is not so hard, nor so cruel as it appears. We are white – they are native, and there is a great gulf between.

ALICE:           Yes, I suppose it is right, after all. But it seems – well, rather barbaric.

DOCTOR:       Such villains are barbarous, my dear – and they respond only to barbarous treatment. But come in our house, and tell us about England. It’s been years since I was home . . .

So the story transitioned back aboard the Empire Builder train again, and the Old Timer explained to little Mary Jane and her mother that a month or so transpired, and Alice often bided her time walking along trails near the fort. One day, out walking alone, she unexpectedly came upon the once-more drunken Indian. He grabbed Alice and began trying to drag her off, but this commotion was interrupted by the distant sounds of Arthur Drake’s boat returning to the fort. The men were singing as they rowed, but one of them managed to pick up Alice’s screaming in the distance. Drake recognized her voice, and now the action took a decidedly faster pace.

Drake and one of his men leapt out of the little boat and swam ashore. Drake caught up to Alice and took her in his loving arms (*sigh*). His colleague chased after the drunken Indian, caught the scoundrel, and dragged him back to the fort. There was no further discussion of what was to become of the Indian, but Bruce the gardener approached Drake and Alice and announced he had good news: the marriage tree had sprouted!

With all manner of happy tidings, Drake asked Dr. McLoughlin if he was available to perform a wedding ceremony. Evidently, he was.

The story came to a close at that point, as did my copy of the continuity, so I don’t have Ted Pearson’s closing announcements. This is unfortunate if for no other reason than it might well have identified some of the performers and their roles in the broadcast.

 

In 1954, a story by Oregon author Ellis Lucia made the rounds with a tale of the old apple tree at Fort Vancouver. In that missive, Lucia named the apple-seed toting lovers as Arthur Drake and Priscilla Langdon. Regardless who the two people were (and regardless whether they were lovers or even more than casual acquaintances), it’s clear the “old apple tree” still living near Fort Vancouver is indeed very old, and at least representative of a pivotal event in the agricultural history of the Pacific Northwest.

 

Until next week, keep those dials tuned to Empire Builders!