From the archive: Arboreta is one of Cape's hidden treasures

Published in the Southeast Missourian, Jan. 9, 1995:

Arboreta, situated on Old Sprigg Street Road on the north end of Cape Girardeau, has been home to six generations of the family of Judge I.R. Kelso. (Fred Lynch ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

ARBORETA RELIC OF VAST ESTATE

By MARK BLISS
Southeast Missourian

The stone and brick terraces of the Kelso Arboreta stand as a timeless reminder of what once was the Kelso estate, an 800-acre farm that stretched across the rolling hills from Old Sprigg Road to the Mississippi River.

Stone pillars on either side of Old Sprigg Road, a sidewalk and a low wall still mark what was once the south entrance to the Kelso property.

Motorists who travel along the winding road from Lexington to Bertling readily notice these structures and may wonder why they are there.

That stretch of road has become more heavily traveled since Lexington was extended from Cape Rock Drive to Old Sprigg Road.

The farm was owned by Judge I.R. Kelso, a widely known lawyer and Cape Girardeau civic leader who died on Nov. 21, 1951, at the age of 80.

Arboreta has been home to six generations of Kelso's family. A grandson, Richard Renfrow, still lives on the home place, in a former green-bean cannery that was converted into a cedar-sided home some 40 years ago.

The home sits atop a slope just to the west of the terraced sunken garden along Old Sprigg.

Renfrow, 68, has fond memories of his grandfather and life on the farm, which once was filled with cattle and orchards of apple, peach and pear trees.

"I started working on the farm when I was 2 years old," Renfrow said. "When I was 4, I was out milking cows. When I was 8, I was walking behind a plow and raking hay."

Renfrow's grandfather "believed in kids, and getting them up and going early."

Kelso was born in Audrain County Sept. 13, 1871. In 1906, he and his family moved to Cape Girardeau, where he opened a law practice.

He was one of the pioneering leaders of the growing utility business in the early decades of this century.

Kelso established a holding company, which acquired about 40 utility companies from Missouri to Arizona over a 12-year period, from 1920 to 1932.

He was president of all these companies, including Missouri Utilities.

He wanted to provide economical power for industry and agriculture and quality water systems.

In those days, electricity was generated primarily by steam plants.

Kelso was instrumental in the establishment of the Cape Rock water plant, which replaced the old plant on North Main Street and which was subject to flooding from the nearby Mississippi River.

"He was busy," Renfrow said. "He was on the road all the time."

In 1930, Kelso took the whole family with him when he went out west to inspect his utility operations.

The family made the trip in a Franklin car and a station wagon. But Kelso left the driving to others.

"He never drove a car," Renfrow said. "He grew up driving a team of horses and he never changed."

For Renfrow, the trip was unforgettable. "I was 4 years old and I remember it like it was yesterday. Man, that was my first big event."

Renfrow relates the experience:

He would get you up at 3:30 in the morning and drive until noon, and then quit because it was too hot. Then in the afternoon, a sandstorm would come up.

Roads were primitive at best. "You would drive on dirt and grass."

Kelso visited the line crews, who bunked in covered wagons at the places where they were putting up the power lines.

The old hotels didn't have doors or windows or anything. They were just old adobe buildings.

"It was still frontier. We would visit the Indians. They lived in beehive-shaped adobe huts on the prairie. You had to get down on your hands and knees to crawl in."

Over the years, Kelso was involved in a number of enterprises.

He served as general counsel for the Terminal Railroad Association, which operated Union Station in St. Louis. He also organized the Kelso Oil Co.

He was a key player in the legal battle in the 1940s that ultimately succeeded in preventing the federal government from tearing down the Common Pleas Courthouse and the neighboring Carnegie Library for a post office.

Kelso established the Springdale bird sanctuary, which is now a part of Southeast Missouri State University's Kelso Wildlife Sanctuary; led the move for the city to acquire Cape Rock Park; and donated the land for Twin Trees Park.

(Southeast Missourian archive)

TERRACED PLOT HOME TO PLAYS, PICNICS, STUDY

By MARK BLISS
Southeast Missourian

Even in the dead of winter, the Kelso Arboreta grabs the attention of passing motorists.

There is still something majestic about the brick and stone terraced, sunken garden and its gazebo on the west side of Old Sprigg Road.

The garden was once part of the sprawling estate of Judge I.R. Kelso. His grandson, Richard Renfrow, still lives there, in a house perched just up a steep driveway from the garden.

Renfrow, 68, is visibly proud of the arboreta, built in the 1920s to solve a sinkhole problem. His mother, Ruth Renfrow, who was Kelso's daughter, designed it. She died in 1975.

The stone used in creating the terraced landscape came from the rubble of a quarry site, where Houck Stadium is.

The garden became a center for picnics, plays and nature study.

The place served as an outdoors stage in the 1930s. Everything from Greek tragedies to Bible stories were performed there. There also were some more modern productions.

"I was in the 'Wizard of Oz' down there. I was a munchkin," Renfrow said.

Church and service club picnics were held at the garden.

In the summers, students from preschool to college learned about nature and the performing arts at the Shadybrook School, which Renfrow's mother operated in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The school was housed in a two-story, cedar-sided home, which still stands near a creek just west of the stone pillars along Old Sprigg Road, a short distance south of the garden.

"We had an old wooden station wagon for those who didn't have cars and we would pick them up," Renfrow said.

"You had milk and graham crackers in the middle of the morning and it sure was good."