1780- The Seige of Charlestown

Lt. Governor Christopher Gadsden wrote to Gen. Lincoln encouraging him that

“no time should be lost in renewing the negotiation with Sir Henry Clinton on the Subject of Articles of Capitulation.”

1838

Loquat tree, Charleston

The Loquat came to Charleston. First known as the Japanese Medlar, the loquat became a garden fixture in the 1850s and early 60s when pomologist A. Pudgion sold hundreds of trees from his nursery on King Street Road. It was viewed as the Asian equivalent of the American persimmon—a yellow-orange stone fruit that was “ripe when it was rotten.” It was described as “a fine table fruit, and very desirable for jellies and preserves” and was attractive because it set fruit over winter and ripened in March, thus making it the first fruit in the year harvest cycle.

The first tree for which a record exists was one planted by Miss M. Smith on Broad Street in 1838.