Mr. Tiedke was from Blooming, Illinois and came to Papinville area around 1909. He bought the land south of Papinville which is now known as the Osage Valley Pecan Orchard, which is owned by Ron and Marcelle Marquardt and sons. While in Illinois he worked in a nursery, because he knew a lot about grafting trees. He would come to Papinville for vacation at first and walked down to his property trying to clear out area.
In 1919 he moved to Papinville for about nine months and stayed with different people in the area. Some times he would be run off. He was a hard man to get along with and a hard person to please. He would come in the spring and cut graft wood, do the grafting, work in the grove and gather nuts in the fall. Around December he would ship a lot of pecans back to Illinois and then return to Illinois for about three months.
People thought he was a little strange the way he would graft the trees. He would cut off all the limbs and some times had to climb a ladder tying on the graft wood. People thought the trees would never sprout again and they would die. The trees that he grafted today are big trees and produce a lot of pecans. The trees he planted, that he would graft to, where as big as a quarter. He brought graft wood back with him when came back to Papinville in the spring.
When he had time, he would go around the area to different people’s places and looked for a good variety of nut. He was interested in finding a pecan that was thin shelled, large, easy to crack, good tasting and produce well. He told Herman Steuck that he had the nut on his place and if it did as well as he thought it would he was going to name the variety “Steuck”, (Herman Steuck is my grandpa). Back then people were not too interested in pecans. They were just a pecan.
While Mr. Tiedke was working on his grove, he also did some research and sent information to the Missouri University. During the depression people were trying to find a way to make a little bit of extra money, so people started to pick pecans to sell. Mr. Tiedke had told a man by the name of Hirsche about this special nut he had found. Mr. Hirsche got some graft wood from Mr. Tiedke and started doing some studies on it and later decided to patent it under his name. The pecan that was to be known as the “Steuck Pecan” is now known as the “Hirsche”. Grandpa didn’t think it was important to patent a pecan. It was just a small nut.
Mr. Hirsche came back this way and wanted to see the tree where Mr.Tiedke had found the pecan. Herman Steuck had sold the land (west of the Papinville bridge) and the person that bought the property had cut the tree down. Fred Marquardt, my father who had bought the land from Mr. Tiedke, took him down to the Osage Valley Pecan Orchard that M r.Tiedke had developed, to show him some of the pecan trees that Tiedke had planted and grafted of the tree they found that became the Hirsche Pecan. This is when we found out that he had patented the tree using the name “Hirsche”. So if you are looking in at a garden catalog and see a pecan tree by the name of “Hirsche” you will know that variety came from Papinville area.
Today the trees are still producing pecans. We have several trees in our yard that are nice big trees and produce a nice nut. In Ron Marquardt’s grove there are a lot of the trees Tiedke grafted of different varieties that he brought back with him from Illinois.
Both of our families are still harvesting pecans and our children are now helping with the harvest. Our family has been in the pecan business since 1947 when our dad bought the property from Mr. Tiedke. By 1929 Tiedke did not come back to Papinville. He had worn out his welcome in the area. He passed away in 1943 in Illnois. The property grew up in a lot of brush with him not coming back to Papinville. It was a big job to clear all the brush. The trees are still producing a lot of nuts . Thanks to Mr. Tiedke for his interest in pecans. Hope you have enjoyed the story.
Submitted by Phyllis Stewart