Historical Portrait
John Wirt Delivering Oranges in Exeter, California
Archive record
Historic 1895 photograph of Civil War veteran John Wirt delivering the first oranges to Exeter, California with donkeys. Public domain historical image.
About this photograph
The record identifies John Wirt as a Civil War veteran delivering oranges to Exeter, California in 1895. No further details about Wirt or his wartime service appear in the record.
Exeter sits in Tulare County, in California's San Joaquin Valley. The valley was settled heavily in the late nineteenth century and became a farming region dependent on irrigated agriculture.
The Grand Army of the Republic was the fraternal organisation of Union veterans, founded in 1866. It grew into a substantial political force and its local posts ran reunions and memorial observances for decades after the war ended.
The photograph is held by the Internet Archive as part of the Tulare County Library's local history collection. That collection documents ordinary residents, families, schools and businesses rather than public figures.
The caption describes this as the delivery of the first oranges to Exeter, though the record itself does not specify whether this was literally the first shipment or an early one. The photographer is unknown.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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