Timeline of United States discoveries
The Red Delicious is a clone of apple cultigen, now comprising more than 50 cultivars. The Red Delicious apple was discovered in 1875 by Jesse Hiatt on his farm in Peru, Iowa. Believing that the seedling was nothing more than nuisance. After chopping down the tree three times, Hiatt decided to let the tree grow and eventually, it produced an unknown and new harvest of red apples. Hiatt would eventually sell the rights to this type of apple to the Stark Brothers Nurseries and Orchards who renamed it the Red Delicious.
Rome apple
The story is given that in 1817 Joel Gillet (also spelled "Gillett" or "Gillette" by his descendants) found a seedling tree in a shipment from a nursery. His son planted the tree on the banks of the Ohio River in Rome Township near Proctorville, Ohio where several years later it was found producing red fruit. His cousin, Horatio Nelson Gillett took cuttings and started a nursery to promote the apple. Originally known as 'Gillett's Seedling', it was renamed the 'Rome Beauty' in 1832 in honor of the township. The original tree survived into the 1850s until it was felled by erosion of the river bank.