Story:
Probably one of the more famous and interesting stories: M.C. Byles was a radiator repairman who located his shop at the bottom of a steep hill – good business sense and it got him his nickname of Radiator Charlie! He bred 4 varieties of tomatoes together over several years to create this one and sold plants for $1.00 – a large sum back then. People came from all around to buy them and he earned enough to pay off his mortgage. Obviously, mortgages were smaller back then. 
Here are links about this story and a radio interview with him.
http://www.tomatogeek.com/2010/08/04/mortgage-lifter-tomato-story/
http://loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=05-P13-00038&segmentID=8
