Gingko tree was a gift from Charles Deam to a friend
By BARBARA BARBIERI
With the recent interest in Charles Deam and the young Deam Oak, now growing along the Wabash River at the edge of the property once owned by Deam, the history of another tree with a Deam connection has come to light.
That tree is a Gingko tree, growing right in the middle of what is now the Bluffton Regional Medical Center’s south parking lot.
Through sleuthing by Doug Sundling and George Rittenhouse, a former across the street neighbor from the tree, here is what we have learned.
Before the parking lot there were homes built along the 300 block of south Main Street, with one of those homes and back yards belonging to Zoe and Zander Malcolm. Across the street George Rittenhouse had his pharmacy. His daughter Linda, and later Linda’s daughter Brittany, enjoyed visiting the tree and Zoe when they would come to the pharmacy.
It was in a letter to Rittenhouse, written in 1987 by Zoe, who was then a resident at Swiss Village in Berne, that explained that the tree had been given to them by Charles Deam. It had been started as a seed brought back from China by Dr. Harold Caylor after one of his visits to China.
Both Zoe and Rittenhouse explained that the tree has a special way of losing its leaves. First the temperature must drop to 25 degrees and the next morning with the sun shining the golden leaves would fall quickly within about an hour. Each year when this was about to happen Zoe would alert the Rittenhouse family to come see.
At present the Gingko tree, so loved by Zoe and later Brittany, is still in the center of a small square park in the center of the Bluffton Regional Medical Center’s parking lot with picnic tables beside it. And the Rittenhouse family has named the tree “Brittany’s Gingko Tree.”
George Rittenhouse has moved to the Indianapolis area to live near granddaughter Brittany and other family members, but promises to be back to check on the tree every now and again.
barb@news-banner.com
