CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Cleveland Tree Board celebrated one of the city’s oldest trees Tuesday afternoon, a 135-year-old southern magnolia that stands 65 feet tall next to Arnold Memorial Elementary School.
“Every tree has a story,” said Dan Hartman, the city’s urban forester, to a gathering of more than 130 students and a couple of dozen government and education officials at the ceremony.
Hartman related the tree’s tale according to its marker, which states that it had traveled as a seedling from Louisiana and was planted in the front yard of brick mason Joseph R. Taylor around 1876. The tree was a gift for Taylor’s daughter, Sallie.
After the sale of the Taylor homestead in the mid-1920s, the tree became a fixture on the Arnold campus, which was built in 1929.
“This beautiful tree has been a part of my family for many generations, and we are glad to see that it is finally getting the recognition it deserves,” Cleveland businessman Allan Jones said in an emailed statement.