Family Fridays: The Ash Tree Bernard Planted in 1918
The Ash Tree Bernard Planted in 1918
Written by Dr. Adam Fleddermann, Founder & CEO of Fleddermann von Rieste, who designs every watch and oversees manufacturing and operations.
In 1918, my great-grandparents Bernard and Cecilia bought a farm in St. Mary’s, Indiana. They bought it from Cecilia’s people, the Laker family, which is the sort of thing that happened in those days and still does out here.
Sometime that year, Bernard planted an ash tree.
It is still standing.
I want to sit with that for a second, because I don’t think it’s a small thing. A man in his working years, with a new mortgage and a farm to get going and every reason to spend his daylight on something that would pay him back that season, took the time to put a tree in the ground. Ash is not a fast tree. He was not going to sit in its shade in any meaningful way. He planted it knowing the good of it would land on people he was never going to meet.
I’m one of those people. So is my dad. So are my kids.
Bernard passed in the 1950s, long before I came along. Everything I know about him is secondhand: that he took pride in his Belgian draft horses, that he bought the good ones on purpose, that his watch from Ritzi Jewelers in Brookville ended up meaning enough to my dad that I noticed as a boy. And that he planted a tree.
The farm is still in the family. My grandmother Edith is 96 and still lives there and still gardens, which tells you something about that soil and more about her. My uncle Martin runs the day-to-day farming now, the oldest of the nine children raised in that house.
And my dad talks about his grandsons farming that ground in 2095. He says it with a date attached, plain as anything, knowing full well he won’t be there for it. He gets that from somewhere.
I think about that tree more than I probably should for a man who makes watches. But it’s the same instinct, isn’t it. You build a thing well and you point it at somebody who isn’t born yet.
That’s the whole idea behind heirloom watches, and honestly behind this family owned watch company. We’re just doing it in steel instead of timber.
Anyway. Happy Friday.
If there’s something in your family that somebody planted for you, a tree or a house or a habit, I’d like to hear about it. Just hit reply.
Dr. Adam Fleddermann, Founder & CEO
Dr. Adam Fleddermann founded Fleddermann von Rieste after growing up watching his father care for a watch passed down through generations of the family. He designs every watch and oversees the brand’s global supply chain, operations, and manufacturing, working alongside an AWCI-certified watchmaker and his team who lead the hand-assembly of every timepiece in Indiana.
