In the months between the spring of 1917 and the fall of the following year, an exodus occurred in Pilot Point. Around 100 young men from the small town boarded trains bound for war and glory as the United States entered World War I.
That trip through town to the train depot, located on what is now Scott Lane, was once lined with sentries of its own. Approximately 100 hackberry trees were planted during the war — one for every soldier.
“They planted one tree for every soldier from Pilot Point that went to war,” explained City Historian Jay Melugin. “There were a little over 100 soldiers from Pilot Point in the military during World War I. There’s a tree for each one of them.”
The trees were planted by the 19th Century and the now-disbanded El Progresso ladies’ clubs alongside what was then the route leading out of town.
“Those two ladies’ clubs organized a tree planting along the road leading from The Square down Washington Street and turning left on what was called Depot Street,” said Melugin. “The reason they picked that route is because to leave Pilot Point, those soldiers had to go down that street and go to Depot Street and catch the train. The trees were for them.”
While more than 100 of the hackberries used to line Washington and Depot streets, few of them remain. The hackberry is a native species, fast growing and resistant to drought and local pests. Unfortunately, the lifespan of the species is somewhat short and by the 1960s several of the trees began to “die off and deteriorate,” Melugin said.
“They lasted for a number of years, were very beautiful, but Hackberry trees do not have a long life,” he explained. “There are very few remaining today but they can be seen.”
The trees remain are located near Scott Lane on Washington Street. They offer a tangible reminder of the impact that World War I had on Pilot Point and on small communities across the country.
“It affected everyone in this community and nearly everyone in town had a relative — brothers, or a father, or son or uncle — that went to war because World War I was a very popular war,” Melugin said. “Most all of the young men in that age group joined up because they wanted to be in the service. They wanted to go to war.”
Dubbed the Great War by 20th century patriots, by 1917 America’s entry into the fray was largely supported by the nation’s populace. Melugin said that attitude went hand-in-hand with a rise in patriotism during the era, but was also a response to wartime atrocities committed by German forces.
“The Germans had done a lot of things that were considered not honorable within the standards of war at that time,” explained Melugin. “They used poison gas; they used submarine warfare; they sunk civilian ships and things of that nature. This tended to arouse the rage of the American people.”
America entered the war in the spring of 1917 and by November of 1918, the fighting had concluded. The nation lost more than 100,000 soldiers during the conflict. Warfare would never be the same and unemployment often waited for soldiers when they returned home. The impact across the nation was huge, especially in small towns like Pilot Point.
“It had pretty large impact on the American people, World War I did, in every community, but especially in the little farm communities like Pilot Point because so many of your young men went,” Melugin said. “That’s who fought this war. It wasn’t kids from the city necessarily; it was the country boys.”
And in Pilot Point, those country boys were welcomed home by the sight of row after row of hackberry trees.
This article originally appeared in the Pilot Point Post-Signal.
Heather Michelle Tipton 