Atlee's grandfather and father were physicians and expected him to follow in their footsteps. Atlee gave it a try, enrolling into the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, but later dropped out, not wanting to be a surgeon.
Atlee had other ideas. He was fascinated by the sciences of breeding and genetics. Research and published papers by Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel inspired him. As a boy he started out with breeding chickens, geese and turkeys, later including livestock, dogs and even plants. He created his own breeding experiments, wrote papers that were published in the USA and abroad, and corresponded with breeders from England, some coming to visit him at his parents' home in Philadelphia. All this by the age of 16!
When he was 18 years old, Burpee got himself a partner and, with $1000 loaned to him by his mother, they started up a poultry breeding business, to be run out of the family home. Soon they had a small store in Philadelphia and also started selling corn feed. In 1787 Burpee dropped his partner and, at the request of customers, added vegetable seeds to his inventory. He traveled throughout the USA and Europe in search of varieties that were new and interesting. He exchanged and handed out mail order catalogs- his first catalog was 48 pages long. One million catalogs were distributed!
The Burpee Family started up Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in 1888 to serve as both a new home and a place to grow onions, beets, carrots, peas, cabbage and flowers for the seed business. Famous varieties developed at Fordhook include Iceberg lettuce, Fordhook lima beans and Golden Bantam sweet corn.
Floradale Farms in Lompoc, California ,was set up in 1909 to grow, evaluate, and harvest seeds from sweet peas. In Swedesboro, New Jersey, Sunnybrook Farms was set up to specialize in tomatos, eggplants, peppers and different kinds of squash. The company worked with Santa Paula Farms in California during the 1950's to develop hybrid zinnias.
Burpee's company grew to sell supplies and tools for farming and gardening, seeds, poultry and hogs.
W. Atlee Burpee died in 1915 at his home at Fordhook Farm. He is buried in the Doylestown Cemetary, Section M, Plot 49. At this time, Burpee Seed was the largest seed company in the world that received upward of 10,000 orders per day.
Atlee's son, David, inherited the business and took it in a new direction. David encouraged people to grow their own gardens during WW2, a time when the war cut off the seed supply from Europe that caused crop shortages. These home gardens were called "Victory Gardens" and "War Gardens." David's interest in flowers created new breeding programs for the company. During his leadership, crossbred double nasturtiums, Big Boy tomatos, Ambrosia cantaloups, and new varieties of petunias and marigolds were developed.
In 1950 the renouned plant breeder John Mondry discovered a new/freak all-female zinnia plant growing at Santa Paula Farms in California. Further study and work developed Super Hybrid zinnias, popular in the 1960's.
By 1960 the company had grown to handing out over 4 million seed catalogs.
David sold Burpee Seed to General Foods in 1970. Their Philadelphia headquarters was moved to Warminster, Pennsylvania in 1974. Five years later, General Foods sold Burpee Seeds to ITT. David continued with them as a consultant until his death in 1980.
In 1991 Burpee Seed was sold to George J. Ball, Inc which is a family-run business specializing in horticultural products. Atlee's grandson Jonathan Burpee worked at Burpee until 1993.
Today, George Ball Jr. runs Burpee Seed which still maintains Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Some of the original buildings are now on the grounds of Delaware Valley College. The main house is now a B&B called The Inn at Fordhook. Burpee Seed Company continues to be a leader in the sale of seeds, plants, and gardening tools and accessories via mail order catalogs and the internet.
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It's unlikely the Burpee name or family came from French-Canadian Hugeunots but from misspellings. From research by Thomas Burpee: • The story of the Burpee name begins with Thomas Burkby who came from Yorkshire England in the 1630s and settled in Massachusetts.
• Burkby is also the name of a Yorkshire town whose name may come from a word that means village inhabited by persons of mixed Viking background.
• Thomas, like many of his contemporaries, could not write and probably couldn't read as well. He signed a deed in 1693 with a "mark" and not a signature. Those were the days when people were very loose about how they wrote down a name.
• Up to 1700, the name was Burkby or Burkbee with variations. The name then becomes Burbey or Burbee, there is no “p” as yet. In 1715, the “b” is replaced by a “p” and the name becomes Burpe or Burpee.
It's unlikely the Burpee name or family came from French-Canadian Hugeunots but from misspellings. From research by Thomas Burpee: • The story of the Burpee name begins with Thomas Burkby who came from Yorkshire England in the 1630s and settled in Massachusetts.
• Burkby is also the name of a Yorkshire town whose name may come from a word that means village inhabited by persons of mixed Viking background.
• Thomas, like many of his contemporaries, could not write and probably couldn't read as well. He signed a deed in 1693 with a "mark" and not a signature. Those were the days when people were very loose about how they wrote down a name.
• Up to 1700, the name was Burkby or Burkbee with variations. The name then becomes Burbey or Burbee, there is no “p” as yet. In 1715, the “b” is replaced by a “p” and the name becomes Burpe or Burpee.
It's unlikely the Burpee name or family came from French-Canadian Hugeunots but from misspellings. From research by Thomas Burpee:
• The story of the Burpee name begins with Thomas Burkby who came from Yorkshire England in the 1630s and settled in Massachusetts.
• Burkby is also the name of a Yorkshire town whose name may come from a word that means village inhabited by persons of mixed Viking background.
• Thomas, like many of his contemporaries, could not write and probably couldn't read as well. He signed a deed in 1693 with a "mark" and not a signature. Those were the days when people were very loose about how they wrote down a name.
• Up to 1700, the name was Burkby or Burkbee with variations. The name then becomes Burbey or Burbee, there is no “p” as yet. In 1715, the “b” is replaced by a “p” and the name becomes Burpe or Burpee.
It's unlikely the Burpee name or family came from French-Canadian Hugeunots but from misspellings. From research by Thomas Burpee: • The story of the Burpee name begins with Thomas Burkby who came from Yorkshire England in the 1630s and settled in Massachusetts.
• Burkby is also the name of a Yorkshire town whose name may come from a word that means village inhabited by persons of mixed Viking background.
• Thomas, like many of his contemporaries, could not write and probably couldn't read as well. He signed a deed in 1693 with a "mark" and not a signature. Those were the days when people were very loose about how they wrote down a name.
• Up to 1700, the name was Burkby or Burkbee with variations. The name then becomes Burbey or Burbee, there is no “p” as yet. In 1715, the “b” is replaced by a “p” and the name becomes Burpe or Burpee.
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