Mortgage Lifter, Estler's

This variety was donated to SSE by Charles Wyatt (MD WY C) in the early 2000s. Charles began sharing it in the 1999 SSE Yearbook and Exchange, indicating he received the variety from Bob Estler, the son of William Estler who developed the tomato. Further history was provided in 2020 by Bob Batman, the grandson of Hazel Stadler who owned Stadler Greenhouses in Nitro, West Virginia. Bob Batman explained that William Estler of Barboursville, WV developed this variety circa 1922 by crossing the Ponderosa tomato and the Pritchard tomato. Estler legally retained exclusive naming rights in 1932. However, he found many nurseries in the area "pirating" his tomato in subsequent years. William Estler later developed a friendship with Hazel Stadler who, when not knowing he was Estler, told him straight that she couldn't sell the Mortgage Lifter because it was an exclusive variety. Estler allowed the Stadler Greenhouses (and only Stadler) to sell this variety in their retail shop and wholesale (Bob Batman estimates that was in the 1950s). Stadler became known as "The Home of the Mortgage Lifter." William Estler grew the variety until his death in 1968 and his son took over the business. Sometime in the 1980s, Estler's lawyer failed to renew the copyrighted name and subsequently the original Mortgage Lifter was sold by many others. William Estler's son, Bob, and later Bob's son-in-law, Dean Williams, carried on the family legacy of growing this variety.