The Catalpa Tree

Posted on by LHS Staff

Written by Paul Dechow
(LHS Board Member 2022-Present)

Memories of Leelanau are everything to me, including those that are not mine. The stories of my family and county continue to intrigue and thrill me.

In August of 1865 my great grandfather, John F. T. Dechow, returned from the Civil War to marry his young sweetheart, Ellanora Shalda. Both John and Ellanora immigrated as children from Europe in the mid 1850s and soon thereafter worked with their families to create subsistence farms in Port Oneida and North Unity respectively. They were among the first group of European immigrants to this area. After marriage, they homesteaded a farm in what we now call the Bohemian Valley, a short distance from their parents’ farms. They felled timber and built a small log cabin in an area that unfortunately was low and subject to occasional flooding in the spring. By the early 1880s, they had 10 children and had accumulated sufficient resources to build a frame farm house and a new barn higher up west of the cabin. There they lived until about 1905 when their second son John H. Dechow (my grandfather) took over the farm. They lived in Maple City for a time but frequently came home to the farm. Their large second floor bedroom remained reserved for them until after Ellanora’s death in 1919.

One intriguing part of their plantings around the new house was a northern catalpa tree. These trees originated from a small area near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers far south of Leelanau. They were to become popular as ornamental plantings because of their broad panicles of magnificent flowers and large leaves and have been planted throughout the country and abroad. But we will never know why they thought the tree would grow here in such a climate different from that of its home, or where they obtained the seedling for that planting. But the tree did grow in front of the farm house and for about the next 125 years served as a spot for family photos, in front of the house and under the shade of the catalpa.

Some of the oldest photos are among my favorites. One is a beautiful portrait of John and Ellanora under the catalpa tree during the last summer of John’s life in 1907. The photo was partially colorized at the time and has come down to us this way. John sits on a chair with Ellanora standing to his left with her hand on his shoulder. John’s right arm and hand are held stiffly across his lap showing the results of a wound he suffered at the Battle of Spotsylvania in May 1864. John’s right elbow was shattered by a miniball. I remember son Frank Dechow’s comment when asked how John built a farm in this condition. His reply: “ma did everything.”

John F. T. Dechow and Ellanora Shalda Dechow under the catalpa tree in front of their frame farmhouse in the summer of 1907, a few months before John’s death.

Another photo shows a bucolic family scene taken the same day. Here we see John sitting to the right under the catalpa tree while Ellanora sits with her arm around a grandchild in the middle of the photograph. Four of their children, a daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren surround Ellanora.

Family scene in front of the framed farmhouse and under the catalpa tree. Son John had taken over the running of the farm and his family is shown also in the photo, along with three of his sisters and the children of one. Left to right are John H. Dechow (the author’s grandfather) holding his son Carl Dechow on his lap, Evelyn Dechow Kropp (daughter of John and Zena), Zena Steiger Dechow (the author’s grandmother, wife of John H., and mother of Carl and Evelyn; standing in back), Violet Lowes Peet,  Verna Lowes Wilcox next to Ellanora Shalda Dechow, Olive Dechow Manney (sitting), Sofia Dechow Cluff (standing and partially hidden by a Catalpa leaf), May Dechow Lowes releasing an active Kenneth Lowes, and John F. T. Dechow.

More family photos have been taken over the decades. Here are a few from the author’s lifetime. The first is from 1975, the year I graduated from college showing me, three of my aunts, and a cousin. The second is the last family photo taken under the catalpa tree at the dinner following the funeral of Don Dechow in 2011. The author stands next to his last remaining aunt at the time, Eileen Dechow, and surrounded by other great grand children of John and Ellanora. A few years after my grandfather’s death in 1945, the farm was sold out of the family. The farmhouse and a few surrounding acres were repurchased by son Don and his sister Eileen Dechow in the mid 1960s. The house is still owned by Don’s son, David Dechow. The author and his wife, Joanne Blum, purchased the farm across the road from the Dechow farm in 1985 from the estate of cousin, Julius Shalda. This farm was begun by Ellanora’s brother (the author’s great great uncle), Frank Shalda, around 1870. 

Under the catalpa tree in 1975. Left to right are Paul Dechow (the author) , three of his aunts, Ida Dechow Pinfold, Emma Anderson Dechow (wife of Carl Dechow), Geraldine Smarch Dechow (wife of Donald Dechow), and cousin Kenneth Dechow (son of Carl and Emma). Except for the author, all have passed from this world.
The last family photo taken under the catalpa tree following the funeral of Donald Dechow in 2011.Left to right are Deborah Dechow Smith (daughter of Don and Gerry), John Sims (husband of the author’s sister, Darlene Dechow Sims), Judy Dechow Smith (daughter of Carl and Emma), Paul Dechow (the author), Eileen Dechow (aunt to everyone in this photo), Carol Dechow Minor (daughter of Carl and Emma), Ruth Smith Crouch (daughter of Judy and Dwight). In the back on the tire swing hanging from the catalpa tree is Matthew Smith (son of Deborah and Gerald).

Our final photo of the catalpa tree is from early August 2015 when the brutal straight-line windstorm decimated the forests around Glen Arbor and other parts of western Leelanau County. Here the tree has succumbed to the winds and lies partially on the Dechow farmhouse. I milled the tree, and its remains are in the wood room in my pole barn. 

The catalpa tree fell on the farmhouse, resulting in only minor damage, during the severe straight time windstorm in August 2015. Standing behind the tree is Ian Dechow (son of the author and wife, Joanne Blum).

The photo below shows me with a paddleboard made partially with wood from the catalpa tree. The catalpa wood is suitable for building light weight furniture or objects like paddle boards that benefit from wood with a density nearly as low as basswood. Yet the catalpa wood is dark in color creating a color contrast with lighter woods. I do not know of another wood that has this combination of low density and dark color.

The author in March 2025 holding a paddle board that he built with wood from his farm in the Bohemian Valley in Cleveland Township. The dark center strip between the two wings of spalted basswood,  the nose of the paddleboard, and other parts not seen are made with wood from the family catalpa tree.

The catalpa tree is one metaphor for my love of the history of my family and Leelanau County. This is exemplified by the Leelanau Historical Society, where it is a pleasure for me to attend the meetings of the board among those who share this love. Even though the Dechow catalpa tree is now gone, the objects built from it will remind us of all those who were part of its life. We collect these objects and photographs to ground us to the past. What is special in Leelanau is that so many feel this same devotion regardless of the length of their history in our county.