John James Dufour

Background

John Dufour was born in 1763 in the commune of Chatelard, district of Vevay, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland, the eldest child of Jean Jacques Dufour, a Swiss vinedresser.

Career

Dufour came to America in 1796 with the definite purpose of founding a grape colony to cultivate the grape, for wine.  After an extensive search for a suitable situation for the vineyard, he arrived at Lexington, Kentucky, on August 28, 1798, where he organized a vineyard association.  A tract of 630 acres, called the First Vineyard, was purchased on the Kentucky River about twenty-five miles from Lexington.  After the vineyard was well started, Dufour sent for his brothers and sisters in Switzerland.  They, with relatives and friends, a little band of seventeen, arrived at the First Vineyard in the summer of 1801. They were full of hope but their efforts were doomed to failure, as a fatal disease soon attacked the vines.  

Some members of the colony then started the Second Vineyard, down the Ohio River at a place now called Vevay, Indiana.  The subscribers to the Vineyard Association having become disheartened, the association was dissolved and the full burden of carrying on the vineyards rested on the Swiss colony.  

In 1806 Dufour was obliged to return to Europe.  He left the vineyards in the hands of his younger brothers.  The second war with England broke out in his absence and he was delayed in returning until 1816.  In the meantime his brothers abandoned the First Vineyard and joined the other colonists at Vevay.  Here Dufour joined them on his return to America and here he wrote his book, The American Vine Dresser's Guide (1826).  He died at Vevay at the age of sixty-four, a few months after his book was published.  While his grape colony experiments ended in failure, he contributed an important chapter to the history of grape growing in America.

Achievements

• John Dufour is best known as a pioneer viticulturist in America. He is famous for founding one of the first vineyards in America and publishing The American Vine Dresser's Guide.

Works

More photos

• book

  • American Vine Dresser's Guide (Cultivation of the Vine and the Process of Wine Making in th)

    (The American Vine-Dresser's Guide, by Jean Jacques (John ...)

Personality

Dufour was a man of unusual intelligence, forethought, and perseverance.

Connections

Father:

Jean Jacques Dufour

References

• Sketch of the evolution of our native fruits
• The Swiss Settlement of Switzerland County, Indiana by Perret Dufour (2011-03-31)