Talk:Oscar H. Will III

Oscar H Will
I gather Oscar H. Will III is a grandson or great grandson of Oscar H. Will the famous ND seedman who produced and marketed garden seeds out of the Bismarck ND Oscar H. Will company. But there is nothing in this article to indicate such.

Oscar H Will the seedman has a bio on line that can be found here. https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr4/north-dakota-agriculture/part-2-production-agriculture/profile-oscar-h-will

At minimum, something similar should be on Wikipedia.

There is more to the story in that when Oscar H. Will came to North Dakota he knew that the climate prevented growing sweet potatoes popular in the Northeast where he had lived previously, and he ended up working with native americans on the Fort Berthold Indian reservation to come up with an alternative source. It turns out, the native americans at Fort Berthold were very fond of a winter squash variety that produced lots of fruit and matured in a growing season from late mat to the first week of September.. That variety is what we currently know as buttercup squash--and seeds were sold via the mail order Oscar H. Will seed company out of Bismarck.

Indeed, Oscar H. Will was famous for moving varieties of garden produce the tribes had been using into the more general seed market for gardeners on the Northern Plains. I see it is claimed Oscar H. Will introduced the Great Northern Bean (grown commercially and available in grocery stores everywhere to this day as well. I suspect the great northern bean is simply a cultivar of one of the beans that the native americans in North Dakota had been growingfor a long time, and perhaps Will's role was to introduce this bean to the larger gardening public while dubbing it Great Northern. I do not know for certain that piece of history.

But Wikipedia really needs an Oscar H Will piece and maybe one on his son George Will H Will seed company running for many decades into the 1960s I think, focusing on seeds from plants long grown by native american tribes in North Dakota with varieties currently grown by gardeners as well as commercially.

The Buttercup Squash is a superior winter squash to the more widely grown commercial Butternut squash, although there are fewer commercial growers nowadays, and the public does not seem to realize that the buttercup is the superior variety.

Back at my boyhood home on the Fort Berthold reservation, everyone knows that and buttercup squash are much sought after. 71.28.175.147 (talk) 12:49, 28 October 2023 (UTC)


 * I am now logged in I wrote the above.
 * (copy below)
 * I gather Oscar H. Will III is a grandson or great grandson of Oscar H. Will the famous ND seedman who produced and marketed garden seeds out of the Bismarck ND Oscar H. Will company. But there is nothing in this article to indicate such.
 * Oscar H Will the seedman has a bio on line that can be found here. https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr4/north-dakota-agriculture/part-2-production-agriculture/profile-oscar-h-will
 * At minimum, something similar should be on Wikipedia.
 * There is more to the story in that when Oscar H. Will came to North Dakota he knew that the climate prevented growing sweet potatoes popular in the Northeast where he had lived previously, and he ended up working with native americans on the Fort Berthold Indian reservation to come up with an alternative source. It turns out, the native americans at Fort Berthold were very fond of a winter squash variety that produced lots of fruit and matured in a growing season from late mat to the first week of September.. That variety is what we currently know as buttercup squash--and seeds were sold via the mail order Oscar H. Will seed company out of Bismarck.
 * Indeed, Oscar H. Will was famous for moving varieties of garden produce the tribes had been using into the more general seed market for gardeners on the Northern Plains. I see it is claimed Oscar H. Will introduced the Great Northern Bean (grown commercially and available in grocery stores everywhere to this day as well. I suspect the great northern bean is simply a cultivar of one of the beans that the native americans in North Dakota had been growingfor a long time, and perhaps Will's role was to introduce this bean to the larger gardening public while dubbing it Great Northern. I do not know for certain that piece of history.
 * But Wikipedia really needs an Oscar H Will piece and maybe one on his son George Will H Will seed company running for many decades into the 1960s I think, focusing on seeds from plants long grown by native american tribes in North Dakota with varieties currently grown by gardeners as well as commercially.
 * The Buttercup Squash is a superior winter squash to the more widely grown commercial Butternut squash, although there are fewer commercial growers nowadays, and the public does not seem to realize that the buttercup is the superior variety.
 * Back at my boyhood home on the Fort Berthold reservation, everyone knows that and buttercup squash are much sought after. Daviddebertin (talk) 13:04, 28 October 2023 (UTC)