HISTORY
CUCUMBER TREE

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The Cucumber Tree Mystery
Cucumber Tree Gets Recognition

The Cucumber Tree Mystery  by Wilma Bednarz.  December 1970.

To the mystery lover, the "Cucumber Tree" of Violet Bank in Colonial Heights, Virginia, on the Appomattox River furnishes a genuine stickler to solve.

Was it a statesman, an impatient lover, a colonial conservationist, or a Revolutionary War hero who planted the tree?

"What is the 'Cucumber Tree'?" I asked the woman in the Petersburg Tourist Center after seeing the name in a brochure?

"It is a cucumber magnolia, which is over 200 years old.  It dates to pre-Revolutionary War days.  There are several theories as to how it came to be planted here, so far away from the Appalachians where it is native," she said in a soft Virginia drawl.

"The tree gets its name from the long cucumber-like fruit that it bears.  The magnolia trees that you see around here and through the south are the swamp or southern magnolias," she added.

It was fall and everywhere I went, I had been attracted by the bright red seeds of the southern magnolia cascading from their cones.

The woman in the tourist center spoke affectionately of the tree, "It is our mystery tree!"

Since I have never been able to resist a mystery, I drove across the Appomattox from Petersburg into Colonial Heights.  Turning up a narrow street lines with pleasant old houses, I could see a park-like square ahead.  Great elms along the street were shedding their leaves in the gusting winds.  At the corner, I veered the car around a huge bonfire at the curb.  Leaping flames were trying hard to escape the old man feeding it leaves from a bushel basket.  He waved casually at me.

I proceeded down a foot-hardened path, and the overwhelming size of a tree immediately caught my attention.

The tree dwarfed all the other trees and the old white clapboard house called Violet Bank, which is now used as a Civil War museum.  The broad leaves of this shelter from the seasons spread a beneficent atmosphere over the sloping thinned-out lawn.  Countless birds busied themselves among the branches, scolding passersby.

The tree had not yet surrendered all its greenness to fall.  Some of the branches were as great in diameter as the elm trunks that I had just passed on the street.  Lower branches curved downward in their growth, some of them touching the ground.

The sounds of the city were hushed.  The sun streamed through the openings of the branches as it does through the windows of great churches.

I walked around the gigantic trunk.  Four men could not have reached around it.

The "Cucumber tree" shades Violet Bank, believed to be one of the guest houses of the original plantation built by Thomas Shore before the Revolution.  The original plantation house burned to the ground in 1810.

The Violet Bank estate belonged to the Shore family for almost a hundred years until it was sold in 1873.  The name came from either the blanket of violets covering the grounds in those days or from one of Thomas Shore's favorite Shakespearean quotations, "The bank where the violets grow."

Historians offer several theories to the riddle of the monumental "Cucumber tree" shading the classic plantation house.

For the romantically inclined, the story goes that a young man had ridden a long distance to court one of the daughters of Thomas Shore.  He had used a slip of the cucumber magnolia as a riding crop.  Upon reaching his destination, he threw it on the ground.   It took root, growing into the massive, spreading tree it is today.

A favorite account is that the tree was planted by a member of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, an exploring and conservation group of which George Washington was a member.

A third story is that one of Mr. Shore's daughters, who married a Dr. Gilliam, brought the sapling back from a visit to White Sulphur Springs, being impressed by one growing at that health spa.

At one point in its yearly cycle the tree bears a pod that closely resembles a gherkin cucumber, thus its common name of cucumber tree.

Regardless of the tree's origin, it is a magnificent sight and merits a trip to the house just to view its unique existence.  The house was partially destroyed by fire after the Civil War, but what remains has great interest.

Cucumber Tree Gets Recognition.  The author and source for this article are unknown.

Colonial Heights' historic "Cucumber Tree," growing at Violet Bank now for over 200 years, has received nationwide attention through an article in the December issue of "American Forests," the magazine published by the American Forestry Association.

Entitled "The Cucumber Tree Mystery," the article by Wilma Bednarz of Milwaukee, WI, gives an aura of romanticism to the story (fact and fiction) of the huge tree.

Mrs. Bednarz, also the author of short stories, books (primarily for teenagers), articles for a variety of magazines, and a contributor to the Milwaukee Journal, visited the Tri-City area approximately three years ago when her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Holdridge, were residents of Prince George County.

Interested in the history of the area, Mrs. Bednarz was intrigued by the Magnolia Acuminata, more readily known as the "Cucumber Tree," that grows in the southeast portion of Colonial Heights.

"Since I have never been able to resist a mystery, I drove across the Appomattox from Petersburg into Colonial Heights," she reported.

In explaining to her readers the mystery of the tree's origin, Mrs. Bednarz wrote, "For the romantically inclined, the story goes that a young man had ridden a long distance to court one of the daughters of Thomas Shore (the original owner of Violet Bank).  He had used a slip of the cucumber magnolia as a riding crop.  Upon reaching his destination, he threw it on the ground.  It took root, growing into the massive, spreading tree it is today.

"A favorite account is that the tree was planted by a member of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, an exploring and conservation group of which George Washington was a member.

"They often made trips into the unmapped areas of the Blue Ridge Mountains where the cucumber magnolia is native.  One of them, attracted by the tree's sturdiness could have brought it back with him from such a trip.

"For those with an historical bent, the explanation that the tree was planted by Peter Francisco, the strong man of the Revolution, might appeal.   Francisco, at 15, was six and a half feet tall and weighed 260 pounds.  It is known that he passed through this area, but I could find no record of why they thought he might have planted the tree.

"There are some who believe that Thomas Jefferson brought a slip of the tree to Thomas Shore from the Blue Ridge foothills around Monticello, his home.   Jefferson was a frequent visitor at Violet Bank . . . "

While its actual beginnings, and even the stories of history that have passed down to the present day, are not always to be verified and sometimes offer conflicting information, the historic significance of the tree, made more appealing by its tremendous size and beauty, has been captured by Mrs. Bednarz in her article.

A retired research chemist, Mrs. Bednarz now writes  "for the love of writing," and in Virginia found a subject to bring to the attention of all Americans.