Enoch Bartlett facts for kids

Enoch Bartlett (1779–1860) was a farmer from Dorchester, Massachusetts. He is famous for giving his name to a very popular type of pear.

The Famous Bartlett Pear

Enoch Bartlett bought a farm in Roxbury. This farm already had many pear trees growing in its fields. Mr. Bartlett did not know the pears had a name. So, he decided to name them after himself. He called them "Bartlett pears."

A Pear by Two Names

In 1828, some new pear trees arrived in America from England. People soon realized something interesting. The pears Enoch Bartlett had named were actually the same as a pear already known in England. In England, this pear was called the Williams pear.

However, by this time, the name "Bartlett pear" had become very popular. It was already widely used across North America. Because of this, the name "Bartlett" stuck. Today, it is still the most common name for this type of pear in both Canada and the United States.

Images for kids

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  The Bartlett pear, from The Pears of New York (1921) by Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick