“P” is for Poellnitz, Baron Frederick Carl Hans Bruno

“P” is for Poellnitz, Baron Frederick Carl Hans Bruno , [1734-1801]. Nobleman, horticulturist, inventor. A native of Prussia, he settled in New York in 1782 where he purchased property. He experimented with fruit trees and other plants and developed a new plow and a threshing machine. Poellnitz and his threshing machine appeared in a 1788 parade in New York City to celebrate the ratification of the United States Constitution. President George Washington visited his place several times and the two corresponded about agricultural matters until Washington’s death. In 1790, he exchanged his New York property for a large plantation on the Pee Dee River in Marlboro County. Although a slaveholder, Baron Frederick Carl Hans Bruno Poellnitz expressed strong views about the need to abolish the practice and give full citizenship to African Americans.