Author: Becca Bauerhaus

When the property was purchased by our owners in 2016, there were three migrant cottages located right next to the current tasting room, which housed seasonal workers and their families for decades. To preserve the history and integrity of the property, when the cottages were taken down, we saved much of the building materials, including the wooden walls, roofing, bottles and other miscellany left by former inhabitants. The wood you see in our tasting rooms that covers our walls incorporates that same wood.

The land on which our winery and tasting room are located was previously owned by the Wadsworth family, who were early area pioneers and pillars of the community. Their family resided in other Ganges township locations throughout the years, but when they lived here the land was filled with peach and cherry orchards. Mr. Wadsworth bought the property in 1934 for $3,400.

According to the 1875 agriculture census, the Wadsworths owned 80 acres and produced 200 bushels of onions, 210 bushels of White Belgian carrots; owned 73 Merino sheep, some “good, well-bred cows”, and shipped 1,200 baskets of peaches. L.D. Wadsworth was one of the first directors of the Fennville Fruit company, formed in 1897 as a cooperative marketer of the area’s fruit.

James Wadsworth and his family were the second family to settle in Ganges township, and one of the first settlers to break soil and plant crops in the late 1830’s. Before the first school in the area (Peachbelt School) was built in 1867, children were taught in the Wadsworth home.