Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Washington Atlee BURPEE
Washington Atlee Burpee was born in 1858 in New Bruswick, Canada. By fourteen his hobby was breeding chickens, geese and turkeys.
In 1876, with a partner and $1,000 loaned to him by his mother, Burpee started a mail-order chicken business from the family home. Poultry farmers throughout the Northeast knew of the company. After opening a retail store in Philadelphia, they began selling corn seed for feed to compliment the animal business. His customers soon began to request vegetable seeds.
In 1878, after dropping his partner, he founded W. Atlee Burpee & Company. Although the emphasis was garden seeds, poultry remained in the annual catalog into the 1940s.
Fordhook Farms, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, was established by 1888 and served as the family home, a farm to evaluate varieties of vegetables and flowers, and to produce seeds.
Prior to the outbreak of World War I, Burpee spent several summers traveling throughout the United States and Europe seeking new and interesting plant varieties. Many of the vegetables and flowers he found were sent back to Fordhook Farms for evaluation. The Fordhook Farm facility specialized in evaluating onions, beets, carrots, peas and cabbage.
Burpee added the Lompoc, California facility named Floradale Farms in in 1909 to test sweet peas, and Sunnybrook Farms near Swedesboro, New Jersey for tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and squashes.
Burpee released many varieties that are now classics. Some of these are the 'Fordhook Lima' bean, Iceberg lettuce was introduced in 1894 and named for its crispness, and 'Golden Bantam' sweet corn in 1902.
Burpee was a pioneer in the mail order marketing of seeds. In his first year of business, his catalog was 48 pages. Distribution was one million catalogs. Although Burpee set up an advertising department, he personally wrote most of the copy in the catalogs.
By November 26, 1915, the time of his death, the company was the largest seed company in the world, distributing over 1 million catalogs a year, receiving 10,000 orders a day during peak times. and employing about 300 people. Management passed to son David Burpee.
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