The Nation's Christmas Tree by Zina Abbott

 

My husband and I have not done much traveling since the Covid-19 Pandemic started. However, we did wish to make at least one trip to the Sierra Nevada Mountains this past summer. Over the years, we usually opt to go to Yosemite National Park. This year, since we were aware the Sequoia National Park, just south of Yosemite, had suffered devastating fires two summers in the row, we decided we needed to visit before the whole thing burned to the ground.

 

Map ctsy NPS, circled Gen. Grant Grove author addition

King’s Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park are immediately next to each other. In some places, they appear to intertwine. Approaching from the north, we ended up entering King’s Canyon NP first and followed the signs to the General Grant Grove, where we found the General Grant Tree.

What I found interesting was finding the sign that identified it as also being “The Nation’s Christmas Tree.”

Here is a little history of these national parks.  Sequoia National Park was established on September 25, 1890, making it our country’s second national park. King’s Canyon National Park was not established until fifty years later. However, a week after Sequoia NP was established, General Grant National Park was established. The motivation behind the formation of these parks was to protect these living organisms—specifically, the giant Sequoia trees—from logging.

Top of General Grant Tree

The size and grandeur of these trees began to capture the public’s attention long before the land on which they grew was set aside as national parks.

In the 1867, while Ulysses S. Grant still rode the crest of popularity as the favored Union general of the Civil War, one  of the giant sequoias was named the General Grant Tree in his honor by Lucretia Baker. She mailed Gen. Grant branches from the tree. 

He responded with the following letter:

"Your favor of the 5th of September, by Express, accompanying a box containing branches &c. from the largest tree in California, and no doubt in the world, which too partial friends have done me the honor to name after me, is at hand. Please accept my thanks for thus remembering me and also for the kind expressions of regard contained in your letter."

 

Efforts to protect the giant Sequoia trees in general, and specifically the General Grant Tree began in the 1870s.

In October of 1879, upon returning from a world tour, Pres. Grant did take the opportunity to visit the giant sequoia trees in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, plus he toured Yosemite Valley for six days.

In 1924, a local California man was approached by a young girl who declared that the General Grant Tree would make a lovely Christmas tree. The following year, the nearby community of Sanger sponsored a Christmas service at the tree—a tradition that has continued.

 

Since 1925, each Christmas, a wreath has been placed at the base of the General Grant Tree to honor those who have served in the nation’s armed forces.

In 1926, President Coolidge officially designated the General Grant Tree as the “Nation’s Christmas Tree.”

In 1956, thirty years later, President Eisenhower designated the tree as a National Shrine. The purpose was to “provide further recognition of the Nation’s Christmas Tree as a living symbol of our American Heritage…in memory of the men and women of the Armed Forces who have served and fought and died to keep this Nation free…” It was officially dedicated on Veteran’s day in 1956.

In the 1800s, thousands traveled to the parks to see these giant trees believed to be the world’s oldest living organisms. I'm grateful my husband and joined the throngs of people who came to view these wonders of nature this past year. I am also grateful the 2022 fire season passed without there being a major fire that threatened these beautiful giants.

 

My Christmas romance this year is Marigold from the Christmas Quilt Brides series. You may find the book description and purchase link by CLICKING HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

www.nps.gov

https://www.doi.gov/blog/11-things-you-didnt-know-about-sequoia-and-kings-canyon-national-parks

https://www.grantcottage.org/blog/thenationschristmastree

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Grant_(tree)

Black Friday-1800s Style by Zina Abbott

  

“Black Friday” is a fairly recent marketing innovation designed to help businesses to get their profit and loss sheets “in the black” through promoting sales for Christmas. However, in the 1800s, when many people still lived in rural areas, the situation was much different than from today. Most of what people acquired they either made themselves, or they bought from a local dry goods store or mercantile—or specialty shops. However, what about those items that were either not available from local shops, or which, by the time the local retailer added his profit margin, were too expensive for the average person to purchase?

Toward the end of the century, another means of purchasing wanted goods at a reasonable price became available—mail order catalogs.Unlike today, those shopping by catalog dared not wait until the Friday after Thanksgiving (especially in the years Thanksgiving fell on the fifth Thursday until the Forth Thursday was established).

Between the mid-to-late 1800s and the mid-1930s, Chicago was one of the most important industrial centers in the country. It was from Chicago folks all over North America could order goods from a catalog.

MONTGOMERY WARD

The first of what became the two biggest general appeal mail order catalogs was the Montgomery Ward catalog founded by Aaron Mongomery Ward. 

It is believed he started his business at his first office, either in a single room at 825 North Clark Street^. or in a loft above a livery stable on Kinzie Street, between Rush and State Streets.

While working as a traveling salesman for various dry-goods retailers, Aaron Montgomery Ward came in contact with members of rural American communities, who desired strongly the comforts of city life. Unfortunately many in rural areas were subject to inflated costs passed on by intermediaries. Also, the levels of product quality were often at question. Ward’s goal was to eliminate the intermediaries, and, thereby, provide goods for rural community members at a lower cost. Using his catalog, customers would purchase goods by mail and have them delivered to their nearest train station.

Ward experienced a challenging beginning to his business, including having his inventory destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. He did manage to establish his business at his offices on the corner of North Clark and Kinzie streets with two partners and $1,600 in start-up capital.

Early Mongomery Ward catalogs

On August 18, 1872, the first Montgomery Ward catalog—designed by Mr. Ward himself—was released. There were other businesses that published mail order catalogs, but Aaron Montgomery Ward is credited with coining the term “general public mail order catalog.”  The catalog was first distributed as a single sheet of paper that sold 163 items and included instructions on how to order.

The following year, Ward was abandoned by his two partners. He continued his business with the help of his future brother-in-law, Richard Thorne.

Throughout the next several decades, Ward experienced rapid growth. Most rural customers were attracted to the wide range of items they otherwise could not purchase locally. Starting in 1875, Ward began his policy of satisfaction guaranteed or your money back, which prompted customers to place a great deal of trust in his catalog products. Ward’s catalog would quickly prove to be a success, with the catalog growing to 32 pages by 1874 and to 152, with 3,000 items, in 1876.

By 1883, a single page had turned into 200 pages, with over 10,000 items. The catalog, which became popularly known as the "Wish Book", later grew to 240 pages and 10,000 items with over three million subscribers.

In 1896, Wards encountered its first serious competition in the mail order business, when Richard Warren Sears introduced his first general catalog. In 1900, Wards had total sales of $8.7 million, compared to $10 million for Sears. Both companies struggled for dominance during much of the 20th century.

SEARS (SEARS & ROEBUCK)

After his family lost their fortune, Richard Warren Sears went to work for the railroad. In 1886, when he was twenty-three, his station received a shipment of gold watches from a Chicago manufacturer.

A common scam existing at the time involved wholesalers who would ship their products to retailers who had not ordered them. Upon refusal, the wholesaler would offer the already price-hiked items to the retailer at a lower consignment cost in the guise of alleviating the cost to ship the items back. The unsuspecting retailer would then agree to take this new-found bargain off the wholesaler's hands, mark up the items and sell them to the public, making a small profit in the transaction.

Knowing about the scam, the local consignee, jeweler Edward Stegerson, refused the unsolicited shipment.

Sears jumped at the opportunity, and made an agreement with the wholesaler to keep any profit he reaped above $12, and then he set about offering his wares to other station agents along the railroad line for $14. The watches were considered an item of urban sophistication. Also because of the growth of railways, and the recent application of time zones, farmers and railroads alike now needed to keep time accurately. For those two reasons the station agents had no trouble selling the watches to passers-by.

Within six months, Sears had netted $5,000. He felt so confident in this venture that he moved to Minneapolis and founded the R. W. Sears Watch Company. Possessing a talent for writing promotional copy, he placed advertisements in farm publications and mailed flyers to potential clients. He used the personal approach, speaking directly to rural and small-town communities, using his ads to persuade them to purchase by mail-order.

In 1887, Sears moved his company to Chicago. The same year, he also hired watch repairman, Alvah Curtis Roebuck to repair any watches being returned. Roebuck was Sears's first employee, and, in 1891, he became co-founder of Sears, Roebuck & Company.

In 1895 the company was short of cash. Roebuck left the business. Sears sold one half of the company for $75,000.00 to Aaron Nusbaum and his brother-in-law, Julius Rosenwald. The company was incorporated in Illinois as Sear Roebuck & Co. of Illinois on September 7, 1895.

The first Sears catalog was published in 1893 and offered only watches.

By 1897, items such as men's and ladies clothing,

Children’s clothing,

Footwear,

Sewing machines, sofas, chairs, and baby buggies

 

Stoves, silverware,

Bicycles, and athletic equipment were offered.

The 500-page catalog was sent to some 300,000 homes.

Like Ward, Sears catered to the rural customer. He knew what the rural customer needed. He also had experience working with the railroad and he knew how to ship merchandise to remote areas.

I have a reproduction copy of the 1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. catalog. What fun it is to scan through it and see the “hot” items of that era. Oh, if prices today were only the same.

 

 

After claiming land in New Ponca, Oklahoma Territory, during the 1893 Cherokee Outlet Land Run, Marigold Calloway, my heroine in Marigold, Christmas Quilt Brides, Book 2, ordered in a kit house to be shipped in by rail and assembled on her town lot. Although Sears catalog sold kit homes starting in 1908, hers was not from that company. However, in 1894, the year this story takes place, she definitely could have shopped using either of the featured catalogs.

To find the book description and link for Marigold, please CLICK HERE.

 

Sources:

http://websites.umich.edu/~eng217/student_projects/chicagoretail/wardstore.htm

https://www.chicagohistory.org/montgomery-ward/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Ward

https://archive.org/details/catalogueno13spr00mont

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Warren_Sears

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears