Democrat Pear

The first excerpt speaks of a type of Pear originating in PA. which I found an interesting tidbit. So, I searched for a few more details about this type of pear and the final excerpt is an interesting tidbit of a different matter. I did find a handful of references to this kind of a Pear but I did not find the name of the person or the time frame from when this species of pear originated.

Democrat.
Originated in Pennsylvania. Tree a vigorous grower and productive.
Fruit medium or below, obovate roundish. Skin greenish yellow, nettings and patches of russet, and dotted with conspicuous russet and brown dots. Stalk long, slender, curved, set in a small cavity. Calyx large, open. Basin abrupt, uneven. Flesh half melting, juicy, sweet, pleasant. Good. September.
Source: The Fruit and Fruit Trees of America ©1890

Democrat Pear.—This is the name given to a new seedling described in the Gardener's Monthly. Mr. Meehan, the editor, states that it is equal to the Ott in quality, and double in size, rivalling in this respect the Beurre" Giffart. It ripens the end of August, and has a greenish yellow skin, sprinkled with white dots. The tree is a strong grower, and early and regular bearer.
Source: The Magazine of Horticulture, botany, and all useful discoveries. ©1859


Change Of A Pear To An Apple Tree.— A Natchez correspondent sends us the following:
"We have recently heard of a vegetable -curiosity, which is vouched foi by as strong
testimony as is usually brought for the proof of anything. Some years ago Mr. John Lambert, the father of one of the proprietors of the Democrat and Courier, had an apple stock which he grafted with a favorite variety of apple. After the graft had attained a good growth he put in one of the limbs a pear graft, which grew off finely and produced for two years a crop of rather inferior pears. Thus far there is nothing wonderful, but this year on the grafted pear limb of the tree there is, instead of pears, a crop of apples of an entirely different appearance from those on the other branches of the tree. Mr. Lambert, who is a very close observer, is confident of the identity of the graft, and of having gathered from it last year and the year previous a crop of pears. We have seen the apples from the original graft and those said to have been produced on the pear branch, and there is a very marked difference in their appearance; those on the apple stock are large and quite oblate in form, while those from the pear limb are small and pear-shaped and evidently inferior in quality to their step-brothers. If Mr. Lambert is correct in his recollection, (and there is no reason why he should not be), this is an instance of vegetable breeding-back of which we have never before heard an instance."

To all of which we have to say that when any one meets with such curiosities they should remember that they will not be believed in by those who do not see, unless the evidence is overwhelming. The specimens should be submitted to those who have made plant life a study,—and if possible, to a dozen or more of them ; for the most careful will sometimes get taken in.
So far as the present case is concerned, we should of course rather believe that Mr. Lambert is mistaken, than that the pear had changed to an apple, —and he is very likly to be mistaken, as the pear is usually short lived when grafted on the apple,—and a sprout from the apple is of all things most likely, in time to quietly take the pear's place. But we like to see specimens of these wonders before we offer reasons for them.
Source: The Gardners' Monthy ©1875