W. Atlee Burpee (1858- 1915)
- Age at death:
- 57
- Cause of Death:
- Cirrhosis of Liver
- Interment:
- 11/19/1915
- Grave Location:
- M 49
Washington Atlee Burpee was Doylestown’s most famous Seed man. Burpee was born on April 5th, 1858 at Sheffield, New Brunswick. His parents moved to Philadelphia when he was a child.
By 14 his hobby was breeding chickens, greens and turkeys. He attended private schools and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1878.
In 1876, the 18-year-old Atlee started a mail-order chicken business in the family house with $1,000 loaned to him by his mother. In 1878, Burpee founded W Atlee Burpee & Company, mainly for garden seeds, but poultry wasn’t dropped from the Burpee catalog until the 1940’s.
By 1888, the family home, Fordhook Farms, in Doylestown was established as an experimental farm to test and evaluate new varieties of vegetable sand flowers, and to produce seeds.
At Atlee’s death in 1915, the company had 300 employees, and it was the largest seed company in the world.