John A. Kennicott

John A. Kennicott was an American physician and horticulturist who became one of the leading promoters of scientific fruit growing and ornamental gardening in the antebellum Midwest. After settling in 1836 at a property he called The Grove, in what is now Glenview, Illinois, he served for years as the only physician within a wide radius while also pursuing his horticultural interests, and in the early 1840s he and his son Charles planted the first commercial nursery in the area. Kennicott co-founded the Illinois State Agricultural Society and freely distributed grafting scions from his own nursery to other growers, and he wrote extensively on horticulture and agriculture for regional journals. His advocacy and practical example helped shape the development of commercial fruit growing and landscape gardening across the region until his death in 1863.