I have recently posted reviews of my travel to Himachal and because of word limit could not write about a great person Mr. Stokes.
Mr. Samuel Stokes came to India somewhere in 1904-05. Mr. Stoke travelled to various places in Himachal. He reached Thanedhar and stayed in a cave too. He did experiments with some crops and those were successful. At that time Thanedhar was a deserted place and people used to live down near river as they were dependent on agriculture.
In 1916 Mr. Stokes brought apple sapplings from America and planted here. It was again a success. He had settled in Thanedhar and married a local girl. He also converted to Arya Samaj and was named Satyanand. He shared his success with locals and distributed apple sapplings to them. He also educated them as to how to take care of apple trees.
An apple tree takes 10 years care to yield results, that means his first batch of fruit must have come by 1926. Locals of area came and set up apple orchards in Thanedhar. It is not only Thanedhar, entire Shimla belt and Rampur belt was benefited by Mr. Stokes's initiatives.
And that's how the economy of this belt changed. Thanedhar is a rich village with beautiful houses and modern facilities. I have high regards for Mr. Stokes, who changed the lives of our people.
