Des Moines' new trees have historic connections

Two Osage orange trees propagated from those near President Abraham Lincoln's gravesite will be planted during an event Monday at Hoyt Sherman Place.

Why it matters: The planting marks the final phase of an outdoor stage and lawn enhancement plan envisioned more than a century ago.

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• Plus, officials will give away 100 red oak saplings to commemorate the project and the theater's centennial.

Flashback: Hoyt Sherman is one of Des Moines' founders and served under Lincoln in the Civil War. His brother, William Tecumseh Sherman, was a famous Civil War general who also served under Lincoln.

• Hoyt Sherman's mansion near downtown was expanded and transformed into the city's first public art museum by the Des Moines Women's Club a few years after his death in 1904.
• The club also built the site's Victorian theater, which is frequently used at Hoyt Sherman Place today.

Zoom in: DSM's cuttings come from trees that were growing in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, even before Lincoln was buried there.

• The Brenton Arboretum in Dallas Center grew and donated the trees to Hoyt Sherman Place.

If you go: Monday's ceremony includes a General Ulysses S. Grant reenactor, starting at noon.

No hedge apples! DSM's Osage orange trees are male varieties and won't produce fruit like this. Photo: Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images