Gerald Knight shares the story of the Howell melon after he’s chosen as grand marshal

Gerald Knight smiles from ear to ear after learning that he has been chosen as the 2022 Howell Melon Festival Grand Marshal at Mark’s Midtown Coney on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.

HOWELL — For many years, stories about the history of how melons made their way to Howell have been told, but longtime farmer Gerald Knight, recently chosen as festival grand marshal, said he can set the record straight.

“There’s so many tales,” he said.

The real story, he explained, involves his father and his friends sharing tasty melons from Indiana and using the saved seeds to grow their own. But that all came after Knight’s family emigrated from England.

Knight’s great-grandfather, who owned a construction company in England a century ago, was killed while roofing a steeple. After he passed, Knight’s grandfather used money from the company to come to America.

“The only people he knew was somebody in Howell,” Knight said.

Knight’s grandfather met a woman at a local bank, moved south of town and bought a farm, which used to be the county poor farm, and Knight Farm was born in the 1900s.

Years later, the family began growing melons and a local doctor helped publicize the fruit. It all eventually led to the annual festival, now in its 62nd year. This year’s festival is set for Aug. 10-14.

The History of the Howell Melon

As far as how the melons made their way to the farm, Knight said his father, Stanley Knight, Willard Wiltse and two others were the trailblazers in growing the melons.

Knight explained that in high school in the 1920s, the group would visit what was known as Ten Cent Farm at lunchtime to hang out with the horses and feed them.

It was there they met Tony, who owned the farm, and he gave them melons he got from his brother in Indiana. The local youths tried the melons for the first time and saved the seeds.

“They were so sweet and good, so they decided they would grow them,” Knight said.

At the time, Knight said, all the boys worked in a greenhouse, located where Howell Country Lane Flowers now stands, in the winter.

“When spring came, they grew melons and planted them on my grandpa’s farm and that’s basically how they got started,” Knight said.

Story continues

Howell resident Gerald Knight is named the 2022 Howell Melon Festival Grand Marshal. Pictured left to right, Daughters Polly Schmitz and Robin Love, Knight and Daughter Mandy Rutzel stand in front of Mark’s Midtown Coney on Tuesday, June 28. Not pictured: Son Frank Knight.

“They started out with 30,000 plants,” Knight said.

Not long after they got started, Knight said, there was a man in town who wanted to promote the melons and encouraged Stanley Knight to place a sticker or a stamp on them.

Gerald Knight said the man was killed in a crash, but when they emptied his pockets, they found the stamp he designed  — and that became the stamp that signified a Howell honey sweet melon.

Over time, the melon they produced changed. According to Knight, disease ruined the original melon variety and they had to transition to a hybrid melon.

“The first melons were little. They were so sweet. You’d get 14 or 15 in a bushel, now you’re lucky if you get five,” Knight said.

Knight carried on the legacy with his family. With the help of his daughters, son, stepchildren and high school kids who seek summer jobs.

In the 1980s, kids from Pinckney to Fowlerville, up to 150, would help throughout the season, with about 30 per day taking part. They were growing melons on as many as 23 or 24 acres.

Now Knight works alongside his nephew, Doug Dryer, whom he considers his right-hand man.

“If he didn’t help me, I wouldn’t be doing it,” Knight said.

Honoring his Legacy

In honor of the Knight family’s history, Gerald Knight has been named the Howell Melon Festival grand marshal for 2022.

“The Howell Melon Festival is a wonderful tradition celebrating our agricultural community. It is only fitting that one of the original melon farmers serve as our grand marshal for this year’s parade. We sincerely thank Mr. Knight and his family, as well as the agricultural community, for all they have contributed and continue to contribute,” Suida said.

“The 62nd Melon Festival is going back to its roots and there is no better way to do that than by honoring one of the original melon farmers,” said Jordan Jones, recreation manager of special events for the Howell Area Parks and Recreation Authority.

Knight was surprised with the honor June 28, when Howell City Manager Erv Suida and Executive Administrative Director Kim Lockhart paid a visit to Knight at his favorite place, Mark’s Midtown Coney in downtown.

It’s an honor,” Knight said.

“(The melons are) such an integral part of our history. With his dad raising the melon, just very special,” Knight’s daughter Robin Love said.

“This means everything. It’s a long tradition and he’s needing to be recognized for this. To us it means everything that he’s the grand marshal,” said Polly Schmitz, another of Knight’s children.

The big surprise came when Knight’s three daughters, Love, Schmitz and Mandy Rutzel, and others, walked through the door with flowers and a grand marshal sash.

“It’s an honor only because over the years things change and people don’t even remember some of the historical stuff and even though its not near what it used to be this kinda brings it back to light,” Rutzel said.

City of Howell representatives celebrate at Mark’s Midtown Coney after revealing that Gerald Knight would be the 2022 Howell Melon Festival Grand Marshal on Tuesday, June 28. Pictured left to right, Howell City Manager Erv Suida, Executive Administrative Assistant to the city manager Kym Lockhart, Knight and City of Howell Communications Specialist Danica Katnik.

The Birth of the Howell Melon Festival

The Howell Melon Festival was founded in 1960 by Dr. Louis (Pat) May, a local physician and melon grower.

Knight said he remembers clearly. He said it was a regular day out delivering melons. He was in Lansing at the time, about 7 or 8 years old.

He said the family pickup held about 30 bushels of melons. They delivered to the stores, came back to Howell and had one bushel left. That day his sister was seeing Dr. May on Clinton Street.

“I remember, he came out to the pickup and he had to have the melons. He liked them, so he said we’ve got to have a melon festival. He was a promoter and so the next year he started the melon festival,” Knight said.

Later, May began to grow melons himself and became a foundational piece of the Howell Melon Festival.

“He was a farmer who had the hobby of being a doctor,” Love said.

May passed away in September 2013. According to his obituary, he was well-known for the development of the Howell melon and his involvement with the Howell Melon Festival

“He put the melon of the map,” Schmitz said.

Contact Livingston Daily reporter Patricia Alvord at palvord@livingstondaily.com about news coverage.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Howell resident Gerald Knight tells the story of the Howell melon