Waterloo bills itself as "Birthplace of Memorial Day," but not very many people in town remember The Scythe Tree.
In 1861, according to the plaque at the foot of The Scythe Tree, a Balm-of-Gilead poplar, "James Wyman Johnson came from the fields one morning, hung his scythe in the crotch of a small cottonwood tree, and said, 'Leave the scythe in the tree until I return'." Johnson went off to fight for the Union in the Civil War.
In 1864, Johnson died in a Confederate hospital after fighting in Plymouth, North Carolina. His parents never accepted the report of his death, and left the scythe in the tree for a homecoming that never happened.
A half century later, in 1918, brothers Raymond and Lynn Schaffe left their scythes in the same tree when they enlisted to fight in the US Navy during WWI. They came back (it was a shorter war) but apparently no one remembered to retrieve the scythes.
The tree has since grown and engulfed the scythes. The tree became a Waterloo landmark, then a tourist attraction as linen postcards circulated.
The Scythe Tree still stands on the front lawn of the Scythe Tree Farm. The rusted farm implement handles stick out of the trunk, now eight or ten feet in the air, supported by wires tied to the branches.
Curiously, this isn't the only tree assigned to hold a scythe for eternity. There are others around the US, though apparently not immortalized on a postcard such as the one in Waterloo. A scythe tree in Merengo, Iowa held the Civil War era scythe of farmer Richard Shelley until the tree fell over in a 1998 windstorm.
Unless civilization takes a large step backwards, there won't be any new scythe trees. Perhaps the shoe tree is the modern equivalent:"Leave my Skechers® in the tree until I return."
April 2007: Sheila Lorenz writes: I was the owner of the farm for 7 years. I researched every bit of history on my tree. That is our truck in the pic that was taken. The Scythe point is the only thing that still remains, and then it is only about 1" showing. The wooden part of the Scythe grew into the tree and probably is deteriorated
inside the tree.
March 2006: Mickey Hormann writes that he's a descendant of Richard Shelley, and that the Merengo scythe now resides in the Pioneer Heritage Museum in Merengo, Iowa. (Pioneer Heritage Museum, 675 E South St., Merengo, IA)
