Jul 7, 2011

Pear farmer David Elliot Jr. passes

David J. Elliot Jr., a Courtland farmer and patriarch of a family business that has raised Bartlett pears in the Sacramento River Delta for six generations, died Sunday of complications related to pneumonia and kidney failure, his family said. He was 79.
Mr. Elliot was a descendant of David Osborn of Stillwater, Nova Scotia, who arrived in California during the Gold Rush. Instead of seeking his fortune in the gold mines, the Canadian immigrant settled on the banks of the Sacramento River and planted pear trees imported from France in the fertile Delta soil in 1860. The Sacramento Bee

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