Merci, Texas (Jul 22, 2024)
by Scott Sosebee
I have never hidden my ardor for the late Jimmy Buffett, and one of my favorites of his songs is “He Went to Paris.” As I listened to the song the other day, the lyric “. . . the warm summer breezes and French wine and cheeses . . .” reminded me that France owes a huge debt of gratitude to a Texas resident, Thomas Volney Munson, and Texas grapes for saving its wine industry. Yes, it was a “Texas connection” that still allows you to enjoy that nice glass of Bordeaux.
Born in 1843 in Astoria, Illinois, Thomas Munson expressed an interest in horticulture from an early age. Munson’s family operated a nursery, and the young Munson worked alongside his father in the business from almost the time he crawled out of the crib. After an early education in the Illinois public schools, Munson taught school and continued to help with the family business, but in 1867 he headed off to the University of Kentucky to study plant and crop science. After graduating in Lexington, he became a Professor of Science at the university and began his life’s work of studying the planting, cultivation, and harvest of grapes. He wrote in 1873 that the grape was “the most beautiful, most wholesome and nutritious, and most certain and profitable fruit that can be grown.” But, a professor’s life was not for him, so he left Kentucky after helping his father-in-law make his nursery business profitable and moved to Nebraska.
It would be in Nebraska that Munson would truly begin his career as a viticulturist. He opened a small nursery in Lincoln and began experimenting with hybrid grape rootstock. However, Nebraska’s winters are extreme, its growing season short, but also subject to extreme droughts and, in the 1870s, plagues of grasshoppers. Growing grapes in such extremes was difficult, and not one that would bring profit, but Munson did make a remarkable discovery: the grape varieties that were mostly grown commercially—north labrusca and vinifera—were often devastated by native diseases, but the native or wild grapes that grew in the region were little affected. Thus, Munson began to create hybrids that could prove resistant to disease.
Tired of the weather in Nebraska, Munson decided to move to a more temperate climate. His two brothers lived near Denison, Texas, and they had become successful in the insurance and realty business. So, Thomas Munson made the move to Texas. He entered the real estate business with his brothers, but he spent most of his time as he did in Nebraska—experimenting with grapes. It did not take him long to realize that the vast biodiversity of Texas was great for grapes, and he began to collect vines from all over the state. His experiments with vine grafts and mixing grape varieties gained him a reputation as one of the leading experts in the nation, particularly in developing vines immune from disease. It would be a proficiency that proved handy.
European agriculture suffered a series of disasters in the 1840s and 1850s, and one of those hit the French vine-growing industry particularly hard. A devastating fungus parasite, odium, had killed almost 80% of French vines. The vintners tried to graft their vines with American cuttings, but those vines brought in even more devastating plant disease, phylloxera, and beginning in 1868 through 1880, more than six million acres of French wine grapes fell to the malady. French experts learned of Munson’s experiments in Denison, so they requested some of the hybrid rootstock he had grown in Texas. He shipped phylloxera-resistant vines to France, where it was grafted with French cuttings. Those Munson’s vines were resistant to the disease and thus saved the French wine industry from total devastation.
The French take wine seriously, so they hailed Munson as a hero. The French government sent a delegation to Denison in 1888 to confer on him the French Legion of Honor Chevalier du Mérite Agricole. It would not be the only honor he would receive. France elected him as the foreign corresponding member of the Société Nationale d’Agriculture de France and an honorary member of Société des Viticulteurs de France. His alma mater, the University of Kentucky, granted him an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1906. The French government also paid to have him travel to France in the 1890s where he was feted as a “savior” everywhere he visited.
Munson lived in Denison for the remainder of his life. Before he died in 1913, he founded and served as the president of the Texas Horticulture Society and served as a member of the Texas World’s Fair Commission in 1903-1904. He made the trip to the World’s Fair in St. Louis, where he served on the International Jury of Awards. Today, Grayson College, located between Denison and Sherman, operates the Thomas Volney Munson Memorial Vineyard, dedicated to the man who saved the French wine industry. Perhaps as a side note to history, Thomas and his brother rented a house to a man named David Eisenhower who moved to Denison in 1889, after his general store had failed. David lived in Denison for three years before moving back to Kansas. Of course, during that time, his wife gave birth to a son, Dwight David Eisenhower, who ended up doing ok for himself as well. Part of that other Denison resident’s legacy was conceiving and commanding the invasion of France in 1944 that liberated that nation from Hitler and Nazi Germany. So, I guess you could say that France certainly owes a great deal of gratitude to a small city in North Texas.
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.