Page News & Courier

Heritage and Heraldry

Milam's Gap and the legendary Milam Apple


Article of September 21, 2000

Now this may be a bit off the normal beaten path that I take as the author for this column, but this article does remain heritage/family focused. As some readers know, I get a bit nostalgic from time to time and recently, upon remembering Page County tales of the tasty Milam apple (which I have yet had the opportunity to try) it occurred to me that one of the many gaps that cross into Page County bears the Milam name. Was there a correlation and did the apple generate in Page County or nearby? A quick search of the Internet gave me a bit of insight. There isn't a great deal of data, but it is interesting. By the way, if somebody knows of a few good TRUE Milam saplings that they are looking to "liberate", let me know!

From a Milam family web site I discovered a story that was uncovered in a book written by Vera Milam Ryker. While disappointing that the Milam apple did not originate in Page, it still remains worthwhile to note that it did take root (no pun intended – well, maybe a little) in Madison County. The first mention of the elusive apple came from a letter written by Judge W. E. Bohannon of Criglersville, VA, dated October 16, 1927. "Judge Bohannon was a descendant of Thomas Milum through a daughter, and in 1927 he was past 80 years of age. According to Judge Bohannon:

Thomas received a grant of 203 acres from Lord Fairfax on January 31, 1749. It was here that Thomas lived and died in 1785. This grant of land is located in Madison County, Virginia at the eastern foot of the Blue Ridge range and is situated 10 miles northwest of Madison, the county seat. The "Milam Apple" known all over the country originated on this farm, and got its name from Thomas Milum. Also the first pass over the Blue Ridge Mountains from this county to the valley was opened by Thomas Milum and bears his name to this day, "Milam Gap."

Yet another version confirms Madison County origin but gives credit to a different family member. In the History of Madison County, Virginia (1926), Claude Yowell claimed that "the Milum Apple, a native of Madison County and very highly prized by the citizens of this county, had its origin near Milum's Gap. It originated from a seedling that came up in the yard of one Joseph Milum. The apple proved to be so good that people came from far and near to graft trees from this one. The apples were named for the man who owned the seedling, Joseph Milum and afterwards the gap in the Blue Ridge near his home was also named for him."

So, in summary, that's the story. Oh yes, take a look in Chapter 18 of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and you will see a passage mentioning the Milam apple. Additionally, the famous apple also appeared in S.A. Beach's The Apples of New York in 1905.

As for the Milam/Milum family, by the time of Beach's book, most had long-since removed from Madison County. As a matter of fact, there are none listed in the 1850 census of Madison County; the name being much more predominant in Southwest Virginia and in the Kanawha Valley of what would become West Virginia in just over a decade.

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