FREMONT, Ohio — Along Fremont’s red-bricked Soldiers Memorial Parkway and McKinley Memorial Parkway, many of the trees planted a century ago to honor the city’s fallen now stand as stumps with small brass placards. A neighborhood effort is bringing the shade back: 25 red, yellow and Ohio buckeye trees will be planted by the city to replace the stumps and dying trees along the parkways, with the restoration expected to be complete by next Memorial Day, according to the Fremont News-Messenger.
The memorial itself dates to 1920. Its original black shield-shaped sign is inscribed, “In Memory of our Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, who gave their lives in the service of their country,” listing World War I, the Mexican Border campaign, the China Relief Expedition, the Philippine Insurrection and the War with Spain, according to the News-Messenger. The memorial was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. In all, 85 memorial trees were planted along Soldiers Memorial Parkway for the World War I dead, and 10 more on McKinley Parkway for the dead of the four earlier actions — each tree carrying a metal label with a soldier’s name, rank, unit, and place and date of death, the News-Messenger reported.
Time is the problem the project answers. Buckeye trees live about 50 years, according to John Havens, the superintendent and arborist for the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums property, who is working on the restoration and was quoted by the News-Messenger. A memorial planted in the 1920s has now outlived two generations of its own trees, and the stumps along the parkways are what remains of the most recent one.
Joe Albrechta is the organizer for the neighborhood committee that has spearheaded the restoration, according to the News-Messenger. But the spark, by Albrechta’s own account to the News-Messenger, was a neighbor and his dog. Tony Chudzinski walks the parkways several times a day with Merlin, a large, friendly Old English sheepdog — “Merlin is a staple in the neighborhood,” Chudzinski told the News-Messenger — and the dog draws neighbors of all ages out to pet him, where they see the memorials along the way.
For the Chudzinskis, the walk is personal. Tony’s great-uncle, Roman L. Chudzinski, followed Tony’s grandfather into U.S. Army service during World War I and is honored with a tree and a brass plaque on the parkway. “My grandfather’s youngest brother was in Camp Sherman, developed pneumonia and died before he could get over to fight,” Chudzinski told the News-Messenger. “Unfortunately, all he got for his effort was the tree here. He never married and had no kids.” While there are many memorials for World War I veterans, the News-Messenger reported, the parkway tree is the only one carrying Roman’s name.
The Birchard Historical Neighborhood is still taking donations for the parkways. More than $5,000 has been collected so far toward an estimated project cost of about $8,000, according to the News-Messenger. The city is contributing in kind: its maintenance crews will remove the stumps and plant the trees, an in-kind donation also estimated at several thousand dollars in value, the News-Messenger reported.
The parkways sit next to Fremont ProMedica Hospital, and Chudzinski argued, in the News-Messenger’s reporting, that research shows trees can help the healing process. Fremont Mayor Danny Sanchez made a similar point to the News-Messenger: “All of these things make a difference. This is a safe, quiet place where people can get a peace of mind.” Neighbors agree the paths themselves are the draw — Hannah Capuano, who stopped with her two-year-old daughter, Pia, to pet Merlin, told the News-Messenger the tree-lined walking paths were “one of the biggest draws for us in moving here about three years ago.”
The restoration lands in a week when Fremont is already turning toward its veterans. Fremont VFW Post 2947 will host the annual Veterans Day ceremony at the Sandusky County Courthouse on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m., and the Fremont Exchange Club will host a Flags of Honor ceremony at 11:30 a.m. that day at the old middle school grounds on Park Avenue and at the Birchard Public Library, according to the News-Messenger.
Related coverage from NewsForce247: veterans’ stories are being carried across the region this month — a Marion filmmaker’s ‘Wall That Heals’ documentary screens Nov. 12 in Delaware — and in Toledo, the giving season opened as the UToledo Thanksgiving lunch launched Angel Tree gifts for Toledo children.
What happens next: the neighborhood committee continues collecting donations toward the roughly $8,000 goal, city crews will remove the stumps and plant the 25 replacement trees, and the restored parkways are expected to be in place by next Memorial Day, according to the News-Messenger. When they are, each new tree will again stand over a brass name — including Roman Chudzinski’s.
Photo: Christopher L. Riley, CC BY-SA