Olives

There are some pretty old olive trees in the historic township. The mission was established in 1797 and olives were probably planted soon thereafter. Some very old and very big olive trees are on the old mission grounds. Irvington has some along the Olive Avenue that the Gallegos children used to get to the train station. The California Nursery Historical Park has some that were planted sometime after 1884.

Possibly the Shinn olives are descendants of the mission olives. 

Charles Howard Shinn wrote in 1890 "John Rock, the veteran nurseryman, formerly of San José, now of Niles, is probably the leading spirit of the present time in the practical development of the industry. He does not write about the olive, but he has made two journeys to France, Spain and Italy within the past five years, and, like W. B. West. he knows exactly what to look for, and where to find it." Rock had 156 different olive varieties in his Hatch & Rock orchard in Biggs, CA.

James Shinn told us in 2022 that  Joseph Clark Shinn rode out the quake of 1906, holding onto one of the olive trees. Joseph was one of the sons of James and Lucy Shinn, and father of Joseph Jr.  He was 45 years old at the time.  James was told the story by his father, VADM Allen M. Shinn. 

The Friends of Heirloom Flowers replanted a missing olive in this line of trees in November 2022. It was purchased by the City of Fremont.

More interesting stuff about olives in Niles:

• Olive Avenue