by Dr. Leo J. Friis, published in 1982
The Anaheim Gazette reported on July 24, 1886, that a group of grape growers had met in the local Kroeger's Hall and appointed August Langenberger and Frederick Hartung to correspond with Professor Eugene W. Hilgard of the University of California "regarding the disease which has of late shown itself in many vineyards." The Gazette's account of this meeting was the first public acknowledgment that Anaheim vintners were in trouble. Despite the editor's nonchalant effort to pretend that the disease was something new, everyone knew that the blight had first been detected two years before in the southwest portion of the city. In 1885 the Gazette had casually noted that "this year was an off year for Mission grapes", but in 1886 the stark truth could no longer be disregarded and the editor reported that "vines which appeared vigorous and healthy three weeks or a month ago, are beginning to shrivel and dry, and the berries are dropping off."
Noting that the disease only attacked wine grapes of the Mission variety, zealots of the temperance movement gleefully pointed out that the wrath of God had descended on the wine industry. But their joy was short lived for the raisin grapes succumbed soon afterwards. The disease spread to Santa Ana in 1885 and to Fullerton, Orange, McPherson, Tustin and Garden Grove in the following year. In 1886 Timothy Carroll dug out thirty acres of dead vines, the first vineyard to be removed. One year later Samuel Shrewsbury saw a vine die at his home in Santiago Canyon, fourteen miles from the nearest vineyard. The whole valley was swept by the disease. Not even the wild grapes were spared. Fifty wineries in and about Anaheim became idle. The luxuriant raisin grape vineyards of McPherson, Orange and Garden Grove perished. Economically the loss was catastrophic. William G. McPherson estimated that 25,000 acres of vines died.
Newton B. Pierce, special agent of the United States Department of Agriculture, made a careful study of the disease and its onslaught in Orange County. He was unable to determine its cause or cure and called it the "California Vine Disease" although most people referred to it as the "Anaheim Disease", the name given by the Board of State Viticultural Commissioners. Many years later it was discovered that the blight was caused by a virus carried principally by leafhoppers. It was renamed "Pierce's Disease" for the man who first described it scientifically. By whatever name it be called, it dealt a staggering blow to the economy of Orange County. In the meantime local citrus growers were also in serious difficulty.
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