Author’s Note: This is a slightly revised version of an essay that first appeared in The Hatchet: The Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies. Although most people are probably at least vaguely familiar with the mystery of the Borden case, a brief review of the facts may be in order for those of my readers who are not Borden buffs. On August 4, 1892 Andrew and Abby Borden of Fall River, Massachusetts were brutally murdered in their home. Two people other people were known to be at or about the residence at the time they were struck down: Lizzie Borden, daughter of Andrew and stepdaughter of Abby, and the family’s maid Bridget Sullivan. Uncle John Morse had been visiting the family but is believed to have been away from the residence when the murders were committed. Lizzie Borden was charged with the murders but acquitted. However, much of popular culture thinks of her as guilty and that view has been enshrined by the famous children’s rhyme: Lizzie Borden took an axe/Gave her mother forty whacks/When she saw when she had done/She gave her father forty-one.

The Borden murder case is inextricably associated with pears. The publishing company responsible for The Hatchet: The Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies is called Pear Tree Press. The now defunct Lizzie Borden Quarterly always carried an illustration of a pear on its table of contents. One of the most prolific writers on the case, Edmund Pearson, has that fruit in his very name. So did the City Marshal who would investigate the case, Rufus Bartlett Hilliard.

In the preliminary hearing, Borden family maid Bridget Sullivan repeatedly testified to matters connected with pears. She said that Andrew threw old pears under the barn and tossed his slops beside the pear tree. She also said that when she had been sick on that fateful morning, she had vomited close to the pear tree. Finally, she stated she rarely ate pears because she did not care for them.

During the trial, Dr. Edward S. Wood testified that pear skin was found in Abby Borden’s stomach. A piece of that pear skin was displayed in an exhibit at the trial and is now under glass at the Fall River Historical Society.

Perhaps most significantly, Lizzie Borden claimed that she had missed her father’s murder because she was in the barn loft slowly eating a pear or two, thus establishing the case’s connection to this fruit. Additionally, the visiting Uncle John Vinnicum Morse told authorities that he went to the backyard and munched on a pear when he got to the house after the slayings and saw the crowd milling about. As this writer noted in a Lizzie Borden Quarterly article, “If this family could be taken as a guideline, it must have been the pear, not the apple, which tempted Eve!”

The juicy pear is indeed a delicious fruit, distinctive largely because of the instantly recognizable bell-like shape that most pears possess (although there are varieties that are almost round). Its taste is equally distinctive, being delightfully sweet but having a special sandy texture due to its tiny grit cells that can give this fruit an inimitable zing.

Perhaps the desire to savor that distinctive taste accounts for the mystery of time passed that led to the exchange between Hosea Knowlton and Lizzie at the inquest that is so familiar to Borden buffs. After Lizzie testified that she had been in the barn about “fifteen or twenty minutes” looking for a sinkers for a fishing line, Knowlton asked, “Did you do anything besides look for sinkers in the twenty minutes?”

“Yes, sir,” Lizzie replied. “I ate some pears.”

“Would it take you all that time to eat a few pears?” Knowlton pressed.

“I do not do things in a hurry,” Lizzie responded.

According to the American Online Encyclopedia “The pear tree belongs to the rose family, Rosaceae.” The same article notes that “About half of all pears grown are eaten fresh” although most people today probably buy them from a store rather than getting them from the tree like Lizzie and Uncle John. Those that are not eaten in a natural state are either canned or dried or, at least in Europe, may be made into a pear cider.

The same article notes that this fruit is rich in nutritional value. “Fresh pears contain about 14 percent carbohydrates and a small amount of protein and fats. They also contain calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin A, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and ascorbic acid.” People counting calories should know that pears have more calories than peaches, less than plums and cherries, and about the same as apples.

As befits a fruit that is tied to America’s greatest classic murder mystery, pears have an ancient and distinguished history. On the website of USA Pears, put together by the Pear Bureau Northwest, the article “General Pear History” states that “pears are one of the world’s oldest cultivated and beloved fruits. In 5,000 B.C., Feng Li, a Chinese diplomat, abandoned his responsibilities when he became consumed by grafting peaches, almonds, persimmons, pears and apples as a commercial venture. In The Odyssey, the Greek poet laureate Homer lauds pears as a ‘gift of the gods.’” The article notes that ancient “Roman farmers documented extensive pear growing and grafting techniques.” Pears are not native to the American continent but early colonists brought the tree to these shores. It was a good idea and one for which both Lizzie and Uncle John would assuredly have been happy to thank their forbears. Perhaps appropriately again from our Bordenite perspective, John Endicott, one of the 17th century founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, is said to have planted the Endicott pear which became famous in horticultural history.

Pears have long been prominent in the most beautiful still life paintings. Perhaps the Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas with its famous line, “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me/A partridge in a pear tree,” has done more than any other popular culture depiction to immortalize the pear

USA Pears reports that there are more than 3,000 pear varieties. The best known and most popular are probably Bartlett, Anjou and Comice. Other popular types include Bosc, Hardy Seckel, and Winter Nelis, The AOL Encyclopedia remarks that, “Because of the gritty nature of the fruit of some older varieties, which is objectionable to many people, oriental pears were crossed with the common pear. From this crossbreeding came the varieties Kieffer, LeConte, and Garber.”

An unusual attribute of the pear is that it ripens best off the tree. As the USA Pears article relates, it is good to buy pears when they have not quite ripened. The piece advises people to “Place hard pears in a paper bag or a covered fruit bowl, leave at room temperature.” It also says to “’Check the Neck for Ripeness.’ To do this, apply gentle pressure to the stem end of the pear with your thumb. When it yields to the pressure, it’s ready to eat.”

Like other fruits, the pear is vulnerable to insects and diseases. The codling moth is a particular threat to the pear and causes the fruit to become wormy. Other major pests are pear psylla, pear-leaf blister mite and pear thrips. Of all the diseases that can afflict the pear, fire blight, also known as pear blight, is probably the worst. The result of bacteria, it can attack blossoms and branches of the pear tree, causing them to turn black as if charred by fire.

The AOL Encyclopedia states that healthy pear trees may live “to be quite old, more than 75 years.” However, those that fed Lizzie and Uncle John, as well as presumably other members of the Borden household, are no longer standing. Lee-Ann Wilber, house manager of the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast which is housed in the home where the murders were committed, says, “the pear trees were all cut down sometime in the 1930s or 1940s (that’s what I was told).” But visitors to the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast will see a pear tree standing in all its glory in front of the house. It was planted in 1996 and there are plans to plant more in the yard.

The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast prides itself on authenticity and its re-creation of many (safe!) aspects of Borden life. A pear tree is something we Borden aficionados know genuinely belongs there.

Bibliography

American Online Encyclopedia.

USA Pears, http://www.usapears.com/pears/history.asp.

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