Jacksonville Tree Project

What a beautiful time of the year! The historic, ISD campus is home to 2 more new trees! Thank you Superintendent Julee Nist for allowing us to plant trees over the years. As you drive or walk by ISD or nearby Duncan Park, take a minute and enjoy the fall colors! 🍁

Sweet story about Jacksonville’s “Elm City” past and the love of trees! Look forward to seeing it in the museum. Thanks Nick S. Little for sharing.

Last week Jacksonville Area Museum board member Nick Little, Board Chairman Allan Worrell, and Museum Manager McKenna Servis traveled to the home of Ms. Betty (Query) Smith to pick up the newest item in the museums vast collection!

Nicknamed “Elm City”, Jacksonville was famous for its large number of elm trees within its limits. However, by the 1950s many of Jacksonville’s famous trees had been devastated by Dutch Elm disease which resulted in many of the elm trees dying and subsequently cut down.

Betty remembers the Elm tree that stood in her front yard as she grew up in Jacksonville. After Dutch Elm disease had ravaged through the elm tree population in Jacksonville, the city had come to remove the tree that had stood for so long in Betty’s front yard. Her father asked the city employees removing the tree to save him a slab of the tree which he then had turned into a coffee table. The coffee table has moved with Betty through her life and it is now a prized piece of the museums collection.

Photo is of McKenna Servis, Betty Smith, and Nick Little standing with the coffee table before bringing it back to Jacksonville, taken by Allan Worrell.

To read more about Jacksonville as Elm City see “The Way We Were Volume I” by Greg Olson. Books are available at Our Town Books in Jacksonville.

A shaded yard/neighborhood/city is important when the temp/humidity index is 113°!

The street trees you plant today will provide shade, beauty, and protection in the coming years for countless people. Reach out to your neighbors or city council members about planting them!

Diamond Grove on a beautiful spring day. Thank you cemetery staff for taking such good care of the grounds and the young trees! We appreciate your efforts.