Pine Tree Apple Orchards Inc

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The Snyder Family of Canton MN who were Tree Orchard Growers and Sellers, wanted to grow their family business to the valley's of Preston, MN to the north. They found a large Valley just on north end of the town of Preston, called upon their son, Charles Snyder a businessman in Owatonna , MN at the time to come find a way to purchase the valley land wanted from the famers there and start an Apple Orchard. It took Grt. Grandpa Charlie 3 years of dickering with the fellow farmers to strike a deal on the land. He finally came upon the 80 achar deal by planting 7,000 trees of variety Trees by giving out a share of profits for the first 4 years he got trees in 1904. after 4 years the farmers got no more percentage thus he could pay for the land over this time. Charlie was one of MN best darn businessmen over the year many of the top company businessmen from the twin cities would come down to preston and visit Charlie and the orchard to get more ideas how to better run their businesses, they loved Charlie and his large stove top hat and fine dress suites. In the years dwn the road, he passed the ownership down to his son Clair Snyder as the family kept on and the hiring was always don't within their own towns people. My Grandfather Clair worked hard also and made the Apple Orchard the #1 orchard in MN for its hey day years in the 1940' s to the best of my recilection, then they would get a local semi driver in the fall time to load up apples to take up to the Twin cities to a grocery chain that purchased from grandpa and even in a pinch got up to 2 rail cars for about 3 years in the highlight of the season. Always durin the start of the season to the end, they had trucks and a car they would load up each Friday fresh picked apples and load them by the Bushel, Half bushel and Pecks to take up to the Saturday Farmers markets, often leaving Preston by 3 Am to get up to set up by 6 AM or by sunlight to have the best spot on a corner and be ready for the people with up to 30 Variety's they took with them in the 2 trucks and the car was they family to work and sell the apples, lots of time was the family and or grand children o Clair's and by noon they were sold out and on their way back home. I cant recall the name of the grocery chain that Snyder's apples sold to at present, will have to do some back digging to find that out, might be in the history center at Filmore County, MN records yet also. At the highest point their were about 9,000 tress at the Snyder's apple orchard in Preston, tell Grandpa Sold the Orchard to White Bear lake around 1971 to best of my memory. Gramps was about 74 years old and could not walk and keep up the older orchard by then. The orchard was famous also for the state flower the lady slippers grew by the hundreds in 2 spots down there. Also the family had the Snyder Motels running for years after the great depression and when Hwy 52 was being paved they kept the workers up in their 6 cabins at that time and Grandma Sold dozens of top named apples in her small apple shed right next to the Hwy, where they also had a few more trees planted after 1930 and had some land about 1 achar just west of the cabins, where granpa Clair would graft his ideas for new kinds of Apple Varieties which he did. He also had up to 6 different varieties of apples growing on 1 string as he put it apple tree. The Snyder Preston apple orchard at one time had over 60 variatie's of Apples growing. I'm stil trying to look up much more information on my Grt. Grandfather Charlie, but did find some article on he being one of the early Boards for the Horticartural Society of MN very early 1900's. Excuse my spelling this time of the night. I hope this gives white bear and the generations present a hint of the hard family work and background of th...