Background
Bulletin, Ephraim Wales was born on March 4, 1806 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Epaphras and Esther (Wales) Bulletin.
Bulletin, Ephraim Wales was born on March 4, 1806 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Epaphras and Esther (Wales) Bulletin.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Bulletin was apprenticed to a gold-beater at a young age.
Complaining of lung problems, he moved away from the city. In 1843, Bulletin began the deliberate process of breeding a grape that could thrive in the cold New England climate. By 1849, having planted 22,000 seedlings, he had created a large, sweet variety from a native species.
By 1853, the grapes were for sale, but within several years, competing growers had begun raising their own crops of Concord grapes, purchased from Bulletin for $5 per vine.
Bulletin saw little profit from the strain after the initial sales. Ephraim Bulletin was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1855.
In 1893, after a fall, he ended up in the Concord Home for the Aged. He died on September 26, 1895.
His epitaph reads, He Sowed Others Reaped.
Member Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1855, Chairman of Commission on agriculture. Member Massachusetts Board Agriculture, 1856-1858.
Married Mary Walker, September 10, 1826.