Union Nurseries (L.G. Bragg & Co.)

Fruit and Ornamental Tree Growers

After the Michigan Asylum for the Insane (Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital) opened in 1859, the old “road to Genesee Prairie” south of Kalamazoo became known as Asylum Road and remained as such for decades. Today, it’s difficult to imagine how the smoothly paved thoroughfare, now called Oakland Drive, was at one time little more than a muddy two-track rural road. Yet long before it became a modern residential neighborhood, big business was quite literally growing along that old treelined dirt lane.

During the 1860s, an enterprising grower from Paw Paw named Leonard Bragg established a prosperous nursery business along Asylum Road south of the village. Bragg’s Union Nurseries employed hundreds and grew to be among the oldest and largest fruit and ornamental tree nurseries in the country. Bragg’s operation supplied growers throughout the Midwest and along the Eastern Seaboard with prime seedlings and quality nursery stock for more than half a century.

Leonard Gilmore Bragg

Leonard Gilmore Bragg (1830-1907) was born on 19 August 1830 in Monroe County, New York. After his marriage to Mary Sherwood (1833-1898) in 1853, the couple lived in Carlton, New York, for a time while Bragg sharpened his horticultural skills. In 1857, the Braggs moved to Michigan, where Leonard established Bragg, Curtis & Co. with his older brother Phabritus I. “Pay” Bragg (1822-1886) and others. Their Union Nurseries were then located along the south side of the old territorial road (now Red Arrow Highway), two miles east of the village of Paw Paw.

Union Nurseries

The business had grown substantially by 1868 and after more than a decade in operation, the brothers parted ways. Pay Bragg remained in Antwerp Township, where he continued in the nursery business, while Leonard Bragg purchased an 83-acre plot of land south of Kalamazoo from pioneer Smith Wood, where he (re)established the Union Nurseries with partner Edgar M. Potter. Bragg’s home and company headquarters were then located near Woods Lake along the west side of Asylum Road, about where Winchell Avenue now meets Oakland Drive.

“The State Fair. The Union Nurseries, Bragg & Co., proprietors, were on hand with specimens of their raising, which were first class.”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 19 September 1872

L.G. Bragg & Co.

By 1873, Bragg and Potter had gone their separate ways, although both men kept on in the nursery business; Potter as the proprietor of “Asylum Hill Nurseries” on the southeast corner of Asylum Road and Howard Street, and Bragg with his nearby “Union Nurseries.” A year later, Bragg purchased the former Isiah and Susan Goodridge home on West South Street (85 South Street), just east of Kalamazoo College’s Lower Hall, and moved his family and company office there. Shortly thereafter, the business was incorporated as “L.G. Bragg & Co.” with partners G.C. Jones and James N. Stearns. While Jones appears to have been a silent partner, Bragg and Stearns won numerous awards at the annual State Fair, both individually and collectively. Bragg’s exhibit of fruit trees and evergreens at the 1877 State Fair was called “the smoothest, hardiest, and most healthful ever seen” (Gazette).

Bragg’s nurseries flourished during the 1870s and 1880s. Eventually, his operation covered property on both sides of Asylum Road (Oakland Drive) between Woods Lake and the Michigan Asylum, along with yet more land south of the old Oshtemo Road (Parkview Avenue), in the area now known as the Oakwood Neighborhood.

“Mr. Bragg does business in nearly every state in the union and no man in the union raises better stock. It is by all odds the finest nursery in the state. The proprietor has spent a life time in the nursery business and he understands it in all of its details.”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 28 May 1896

In 1880, Bragg and Stearns went their separate ways. Stearns retained a company fruit farm in South Haven, while Bragg continued with the nursery business in Kalamazoo. At its peak, Bragg’s Union Nurseries encompassed more than 300 acres with millions of trees under cultivation, from ornamental hardwoods and evergreens to fruit trees and berry bushes. The company employed more than 100 workers on the nursery grounds and maintained a 150-member sales force that canvassed a dozen states across the Midwest and portions of Canada.

“Common Sense Tree Digger”

To help streamline the tree transplanting process, Bragg invented a laborsaving “Common Sense Tree Digger,” for which he was awarded patent protection in April 1883. When hitched to a team of horses, one person could extract trees from the ground by the row with this device.

“Mr. Bragg has a tree digger, of which he is the patentee, that will do the work of 50 men and more satisfactorily. He hitches eight of his Clydesdale horses onto it and they take the trees out by the row.”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 28 May 1896

Award-winning Clydesdales

In January 1882, Bragg traveled to New York in pursuit of his latest passion and returned with a three-year-old Clydesdale colt. Weeks later, Bragg ventured to Toronto where he purchased eight Clydesdale stallions and began breeding the prizewinning horses. His stallion won second premium at the State Fair in September 1884, and 3rd place in September 1885.

The Bennett-Bragg House

After forming a partnership in 1884 with former village treasurer William C. Hoyt, Bragg and his wife moved to a home on Woodward Avenue for a time, and relocated their business offices to the rooms over A.E. Sherwood’s grocery store on the northwest corner of Main and Church streets. A few years later, Bragg purchased the John Rea property (former S.O. Bennett home) on the north side of West Main at Elm Street and began a series of improvements. He raised the house by 18 inches with a new foundation, then added a new porch along the south and east sides of the home, and a large bay window on the west side. He then built a new barn and an office for the nursery business that spanned Arcadia Creek along the northern portion of his lot. Although semi-retired by then, Bragg continued to raise his prizewinning Clydesdales while keeping close watch over his nursery operation.

“Bragg’s Lake”

Bragg’s expansive enterprise once occupied land on both sides of Asylum Road between Woods Lake and the Michigan Asylum, including the Kleinstuck farm to the east with its marshy pond that was once known as Bragg’s Lake. (Carl Kleinstuck purchased the property from Bragg in 1885 and named it “Saxonia Farms” after his German homeland. Today, it’s a 48-acre nature preserve owned and managed by Western Michigan University.)

By 1890, Bragg had begun to sell off bits and pieces of his property, except for the 217-acre nursery grounds on Asylum Avenue, which included more than one hundred acres of open farmland around the east and north sides of Woods Lake. It was Bragg’s property at the east end of the lake that became Lake View Park when the local streetcar company developed its resort there in 1893.

“By politeness of Mr. L.G. Bragg, the street car company will provide tables and seats. Good music is expected.  Everybody bring your lunch and come!”

– Kalamazoo Gazette, 4 July 1893

Mary Sherwood Bragg passed away in November 1898 after a brief illness. Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane conducted the services at her funeral. On New Year’s Day, 1900, L.G. Bragg married Cornelia Ann Stewart (1862-1924) at the home of her cousin, Nathaniel H. Stewart, a well-known lawyer and circuit judge in Kalamazoo.

Leonard Bragg passed away in April 1907 at the age of 76. Cornelia Bragg remained at their home on West Main Street until her death in 1924. The Bragg home and offices were later replaced by the Armintrout grocery and meat market, which now houses Comensoli’s Italian Bistro. Bragg’s orchards eventually became family neighborhoods. In fact, if you look carefully, you might still find a few aging fruit trees and old evergreens scattered throughout the Winchell and Oakwood neighborhoods, lingering remnants of Leonard Bragg’s Union Nurseries.

Written by Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, January 2023. Updated September 2024.