s are supplied by Louis Gerardi.--Ed.)

Joseph Gerardi was born in the year 1868 on the old Hagamann farm, five
and one-half miles northwest of Lebanon, Ill., in O'Fallon Township. He
was the fourth child of John and Catherine (Haas) Gerardi.

When he reached the age of five years, his parents moved on a farm three
and one-half miles southeast of Trenton, Illinois, in Clinton County.
His early schooling was obtained in the McKee School near his home and
in St. Mary's School in the town of Trenton, Illinois. After graduating
from the eighth grade, he helped his father through the spring and
summer months with the farm work, but in the winter attended McKee
school.

In the year 1894 at the age of 25 years he left the home farm in Clinton
County, and moved to a farm two and one-half miles southeast of
Jerseyville, Illinois, in Jersey County. Here he began the study of
fruit growing, and became an agent for the Stark Bros. Nursery.

In 1907 he married Eleanor Collignon of Trenton, Illinois. To this union
six children were born: Eleanor Barbara, Sharlotte Catherine, Eugenia
Ruth, Louis Joseph, Bernice Marie, and Gertrude Beatrice.

In the spring of 1918 he sold this farm and moved to Trenton, Ill.,
where he worked with his father-in-law, John Martin Collignon, doing
construction work. During this year he searched for a farm with soil
suitable for fruit growing.

In 1919 he purchased a 110 acre farm situated two and one-half miles
west of O'Fallon, Illinois. The next year he set out twenty acres of
Stark Bros. trees.

While living on this farm in the fall of 1920 the little family had its
first great loss. Here the oldest girl, Eleanor Barbara, died from a
railroad accident.

Julius Rohr, watching him work with his trees, encouraged him to start
his own nursery because he knew so much about trees. With this
encouragement, he started his own nursery in 1923. As demand increased
he added a general line of nursery stock.

Being interested in better varieties of fruit trees, he also became
interested in better varieties of nuts. Having some native nut trees on
his farm, he began to buy the better varieties of nut trees grown by
other nurseries. When these came into bearing, not being satisfied with
the known varieties of nuts on the market, he began his search for
better nuts.

In the fall of 1930 while searching in the river bottoms of Clinton
County, Illinois, he discovered the Gerardi hican, and began its
propagat