Minnetrista Orchards, a Muncie Tradition

The change from summer sun to fall foliage means its apple season at Minnetrista! This time of year, visitors descend on Minnetrista’s Orchard Shop in search of freshly pressed cider or a favorite variety of apple. What our guests may not know however is that, with their purchase, they are taking part in a nearly 100-year-old tradition on our site, one nurtured by a well-known Minnetrista family (but perhaps not the big name family that first comes to mind!).

In 1894, when Frank, George, and Edmund Ball purchased a strip of land along the White River that became their family’s home base, there were already fruit trees on the property. Private photographs show that the family took pleasure in their foliage, sometimes posing some of the children under the apple trees near the F.C. Ball property (today the site of Minnetrista’s main building). Additionally, when Frank purchased a track of land just behind the Minnetrista property in 1907, he also absorbed additional fruit trees once maintained on that site by the old Muncie Children’s Home.

Fig. 1: Lucy, Margaret, and Arthur Ball, the three oldest children of Frank C. and Elisabeth Ball, under one of the Minnetrista apple trees in 1899. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 92.182 album 4.

Fig. 2: Rowland Webb (center) in 1939 with apples and other members of the Eastern Indiana Horticultural Society. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 9216.

These trees may very well have remained a beautiful but dormant part of Minnetrista’s landscape. However, their fate changed forever when the Ball family hired Rowland Webb, a skilled and ambitious gardener and orchardist who devoted his life to the care of the Minnetrista orchard, turning it at its height to one of the largest commercial orchards in Delaware County.

Rowland Webb was born in Cornwall, England in 1887 and immigrated to the United States as a young man in 1910. City records show that Rowland had settled in Muncie by 1911, establishing himself first at the Muncie Floral Company as a florist and decorator. Three years later he married a Muncie native, Flossie A. Koch, and they quickly began a family and established themselves as active members of Muncie’s local community. It is not clear exactly when Frank Ball and Rowland Webb met, but by 1918 Webb had taken up his post as one of Minnetrista’s gardeners and the young Webb family had moved to their house at 300 W. Highland Avenue, just behind Frank and Bessie Ball’s Minnetrista. From this homestead the family business blossomed, bringing Minnetrista Orchards to life.

According to an article in the Muncie Morning Star, by 1930, the Minnetrista orchard was fully matured and professionalized, made up of over 200 trees growing 28 distinct varieties of apple, both local favorites and also at least two species that Rowland introduced from England. During his tenure as orchardist, Rowland also grew other fruit trees, including peach, cherry, pear, and plum, but the apple trees were always the heart of the orchard.

Fig. 3: The Webb residence under snow in 1973. Although this house no longer stands, it was located near the apple trees still present off St. Joseph’s Street. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 9237.

Fig. 4: This undated map shows a rough, handwritten plan for planting several varieties of peach trees to the “back of barn.” Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 88.306.

Fig. 5: A view of Minnetrista’s orchard trees from 1973, taken by a member of the Webb family. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 9220.

Fig. 6: Advertisement in the Star Press from October 11, 1935.

The regular sale of Minnetrista apples and pressed cider in the fall season took off in the 1930s, with advertisements crowding Muncie’s local papers annually. Rowland Webb became a leading voice in Indiana’s regional agricultural community. Frank C. Ball and by extension, Ball Brothers Company, were so impressed with Webb’s success at Minnetrista that they published “Helpful Hints for the Fruit & Vegetable Gardener,” a booklet filled with the same scientific advice that Webb was known to follow in his own work. Minnetrista orchard apples went on to win awards year after year in Indiana’s state fairs and Webb served as president of the Eastern Indiana Horticultural Society for many years, sharing his knowledge and passion for horticultural work with others.

What’s more, just like their close neighbors, the Balls, the Webbs also grew the Minnetrista orchard enterprise into a family business. Rowland’s wife Flossie and their children Dorothy and James were known to lend a hand on apple pressing days. In fact, James himself caught the orchardist bug and in the 1950s began overseeing his own orchard while still lending his dad a hand at Minnetrista.

Fig. 7: Ball Brothers Company published “Helpful hints for the Fruit & Vegetable Gardener” beginning in 1929. Although the company’s Education Department wrote the text, Muncie’s local press connected those “hints” with Rowland’s success at Minnetrista Orchards. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 88.306.

Fig. 8: Rowland Webb in the 1970s with his daughter-in-law Esther Eileene and son James in the Minnetrista orchard barn. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 9315.

While today, the Minnetrista name brings the Ball family and their legacy to mind immediately, for more than six decades, Muncie’s apple cider loving crowd also associated Minnetrista with the name Webb. Rowland Webb passed away in late 1979 after 62 years as Minnetrista’s orchardist and the legacy of his amazing work lives on. In the late 1980s, Minnetrista replaced the old orchard buildings with the updated Orchard Shop and modern apple barn visitors see today. Staff continue to care for Webb’s orchard and process, press, and package homemade cider (available today in convenient plastic containers rather than Ball glass packer jars!).

Fig. 9: A jar of “Pure Sweet Cider” from Minnetrista Orchards from the mid-1970s. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 99.18.56.

So, the next time you stop by to take home Minnetrista apples or cider, take a moment to remember Rowland Webb, our own “Johnny Appleseed of Muncie.” Here’s to another hundred years of this tangy and delicious Muncie tradition!

Fig. 10: Rowland Webb in the mid-1970s. Minnetrista Heritage Collection, 9257.