STATE CHAMPION SUGARBERRY TREE GRACES CAPE GIRARDEAU CEMETERY

The Cape Girardeau state champion sugarberry tree's longevity and stubborn character can be seen through Bob Mainfield's voice and Terrell Weaver's hands.

"That hackberry, or sugarberry, tree has some of the softest wood I've ever cut," Mainfield, a caretaker at the old Lorimier Cemetery, said with reverence.

"We had to cut down two younger sugarberrys here because their limbs were falling down, but this one seems to want to stay up a lot longer," Mainfield said.

A sugarberry tree comes from the hackberry line and was born to bear sweet edible fruit. However, the sugarberry tree at Lorimier, considered to be at least 180 years old, seems to have taken on a different purpose at this stage of its life.

Mainfield and Weaver, the cemetery's sexton, seem to think the tree bears something that can only be appreciated through the mind's eye.

Perhaps that something special is the tree's ability to defy the history of its species.

One of the traits of the sugarberry tree is that it offers little resistance to nature's death knell once its limbs grow weary or fall prey to disease. The champion tree at Lorimier, however, has outlasted all others at one of the first community graveyards established west of the Mississippi.

"The sugarberry tree is so soft on the inside that when one limb goes it seems like it's only a matter of time before the whole thing falls apart," Weaver said, his hands fanning out against a warm afternoon sun.

The largest and most stately sugarberry tree at old Lorimier experienced surgery for the first time in its life four months ago. "A strong wind knocked down one of the limbs and we had to cut it," Weaver said. "But the rest of it still looks healthy. It will probably outlast us all."

Weaver said he likes to absorb the rich history of the Lorimier Cemetery while standing near the sugarberry tree.

"I like to stand there and imagine what things were like when these people were living," Weaver, who appreciates a less complicated world, said. "Things seem to have changed a lot over the years.

"People used to get fixed up when they went to a cemetery," he said. "They liked to take their time and enjoy the surroundings. Now it seems like everybody is in a hurry." Many of those buried in the cemetery date back to the late 1800s or early 1900s.

Weaver said the sugarberry tree, which stands at the edge of a slope that overlooks the Mississippi, serves as a fitting shrine to the history of the cemetery, which includes the likes of Cape Girardeau luminaries like Louis Houck and Charlotte Pemanpieh Bougainville, first wife of Louis Lorimier, the city's founding father.

The sugarberry tree, which stands 95 feet tall and has a span of 209 feet, qualifies as the largest of its kind in Missouri. It presides over the cemetery like a benevolent giant, its thick gray limbs jutting into the sky like a herd of elephants raising their trunks to establish dominance.

A state champion tree is determined by a point system that includes the circumference (inches) plus height (feet), plus one-fourth crown spread measured in feet.

It is one of eight state champion trees in Cape Girardeau and Cape Girardeau County.

Reminded that the sugarberry resides just a few feet from the headstone of A. M. Casebolt, a former editor of the Cape Girardeau News from 1866-1876, Weaver acknowledged the irony with an expansive smile.

"I guess the newsman did his best to push the sugarberry up, up, up," Weaver said, his fingers curled and pushing farther upward with each repetition. "It's probably the reason it's so newsworthy today."

Having served as the cemetery's sexton for the past 11 years, Weaver is also aware of the inscription on Casebolt's headstone that lists him as a philanthropist. "Maybe contributing to the tree's health was his last gift," he said.

History had much to do with the sugarberry's entry into the Missouri Department of Conservation's record books as a state champion. Bruce Palmer, forestry information specialist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, was drawn to the old Lorimier Cemetery in search of the tree that fascinated Lorimier. Palmer was writing an article about historic trees for the Missouri Conservation magazine.

"I was looking for the tree Lorimier liked so much," Palmer said. "I heard he was so taken by this tree he decided he wanted to be buried next to it. When I realized it was no longer there, I saw the sugarberry and decided to measure it."

The elm tree that caught Lorimier's fancy finally succumbed to time and disease in 1961. When Lorimier gave the land for a graveyard prior to 1780, he sought a tract overlooking the Mississippi. An article that appeared in the Southeast Missourian in 1946 said Lorimier "was attracted to this particular site because of the tree that likely had considerable size."

Palmer said cemeteries are a logical place for trees to prosper and endure because they aren't disturbed and receive constant attention. He said the soil and moisture in this region are also contributing factors to the longevity and size of some trees here.

Palmer discovered two other trees in a Southeast Missouri cemetery that were deemed Missouri champions -- a black hickory and winged elm tree in the old McKendree Cemetery between Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

"There's something about a tree's ability to outlast the people around it that I find interesting," Palmer said. "The longer it lasts, the more history it gathers."

The same Southeast Missourian article published in 1946 said that when the State Highway Department prepared an exhibit for the World's Fair held in New York City in 1939, the Lorimier Elm was featured in a panorama mural painting.

"The Lorimier Elm showed the beauty of the first state admitted to the Union west of the Mississippi," the article said.

Now the sugarberry tree at old Lorimier is receiving a similar kind of distinction.

"We made an effort to clean up the area around the tree about 10 years ago because it seemed a shame not to give the tree the dignity it deserved," Weaver said.