A Family History Rose Bush?
As I look out my kitchen window and see the signs of spring, I also see a special rose bush that reminds me of a great-grandmother I never knew. Soon that rose bush will burst with pink blooms.Annie Chisholm, born in 1864, was the daughter of Thornton Chisholm, the blazer of the first and original Chisholm Trail from DeWitt County, Texas to St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1866, he took the first herd of 1,800 longhorns north to catch the train for the Chicago stockyards. Big city dwellers were hungry for beef!In 1889, Annie married John Joseph Filleman, the son of Swiss immigrants. John and Annie promptly moved from Texas to eastern Arizona. Among the necessities of life they carried to their new home, they ostensibly brought a small rose bush. The bush grew in the corner of the yard at their ranch home on Eagle Creek, Arizona. The blooms were large with tightly woven petals. The old-timers recall their incredible fragrance. The variety has been determined to be Fantin Latour, developed by botanists in the 1860’s. A description of this variety calls it “a charming rose bearing large clusters of beautifully formed, full-petalled flowers”. Some of Annie’s descendants took cuttings from the rose bush and propagated them in their own yards, and then shared cuttings from their bushes. I obtained a cutting from a cousin about eight years ago.
My cutting has thrived, just as John and Annie’s posterity have thrived. I look out my kitchen window and see back in time through about 125 years and a lot of living. Thank you, Great-Grandma Annie, for the legacy and the beautiful rose bush!
Raquel Lindaas, AG(R)
