Ralph Billow, a former longtime employee at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums in Fremont, OH, was recently honored at an American chestnut planting at Spiegel Grove – the same area where President Hayes, in 1873, had planted five, which are no longer there. Billow worked for the Hayes descendants as a gardener and chauffeur. He then served as the buildings and grounds superintendent at the Hayes Presidential Library & Museums until 1992.
TACF donated the two backcross trees that were planted at the ceremony. American chestnuts were once very prevalent around the United States and grew 100 feet tall and 10 to 12 feet wide, said Carolyn Keiffer, Ph.D., and president of TACF’s Ohio Chapter, who attended the event. “Some folks called them the redwoods of the east,” she said.
Read the full article at the Hayes Presidential Library & Museums website.