Redwood's Fern Leaf Beech

A cherished local landmark, Redwood's Fern Leaf Beech is one of the glories of the Library's grounds. Famed horticulturist Charles Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum considered it to be the finest specimen of its kind in America. Originally, it was brought as a seedling from overseas in 1835 by Robert Johnston, who gave it to the Library as a gift.

We are very proud of this old tree and are also most happy to have preserved a letter written in 1915, that is quoted below, from Miss Mary Estelle Powell.

"In reply to your question respecting the 'Fern leafed Beech', my grandfather, Mr. Robert Johnston of Jamaica, and his family crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 1832, with Mr. Grant Thorburn - a voyage in a sailing vessel gave time to forge friendships. In 1843, Mr. Johnston purchased the 45 acre farm at the corner of the beach and fronting the ocean, an 'Easton farm.' He obtained many seeds, plants and shrubs from the seed firm, Messrs. Thorburn & Co. He ordered from England two fern leafed beeches. Before the order was received in New York, Mr. Thorburn died (whether Mr. Grant Thorburn or his son I do not know) but when the two flower pots containing the sturdy little beeches came to Newport they were sent as a personal present from the widow Mrs. Thorburn to my grandfather in memory of her husband.

Not long before my mother died she told me that she distinctly remembered going to the Redwood Library with her father. He himself dug the hole in the ground and turned the plant out of the pot; while he filled it with earth, she held the stem upright and all was safely accomplished. My grandfather died in 1839 - and as he was much occupied with matters in Jamaica the last few years of his life, it rather tends to verify my mother's remark that she was young enough to feel it a great honor to hold the tree.

She was born in 1821. I think she was right in saying the tree was planted about 1833-35. It was probably two years or three years old at the time. I should judge it to be about seventy-eight or eighty years old now. My grandfather and mother always claimed it to be the first of its kind in Newport.

The Fern Leaf Beech, circa 1889.

I do not know what became of the second tree; my mother thought it had been planted at the Beach, or that it might have been set at the other side of the Redwood gate."