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Health & Fitness

The Tree Section and Ghosts

The Tree Section is known as the Tree Section because … of … well … because of all … the trees.

The picture to the right shows The Garfield Home and a section of Mentor Avenue known to some Mentorites as The Tree Section. The Tree Section is known as the Tree Section because … of … well … because of all … the trees.

Most people agree that the Tree Section of Mentor Avenue is the prettiest part of Mentor Avenue because of … well … because of all the trees. And some of those pretty trees are quite historic.

According to the rangers at the President James A. Garfield home, Mrs. Lucretia Garfield had a Ginko tree (Ginko Biloba) planted in the side yard after President Garfield was assassinated in 1881.  That would make the tree somewhere around 130 years old, even older than Dick Goddard.  It (the tree, not Dick Goddard) is a magnificent, mature, ginko specimen, it can be seen on the west side of the house. 

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Ginkos, thought to be extinct in the wild, were cultivated in China by monks for over one thousand years. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, ginko extract is used in traditional medicine to treat memory loss and circulatory problems.  It's the top ranked herbal medication in Germany and France. And does OK in the U.S., too.

Mrs. Garfield obviously knew what she was doing when she put her ginko in.

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Here are a couple of bits of trivia about the Garfield home that have nothing to do with trees.  See if you can figure out which is true and which is most likely bunk:

1- The Garfield property was originally called The Mentor Farm.  In 1880, many of the reporters covering Garfield's presidential campaign, run from Garfield's front porch, had to sleep on the lawn due to a shortage of rooms at the local hostelries.  They began calling The Mentor Farm – Lawnfield - and the name stuck.

2- According to Realhaunts.com, Mrs. Lucretia Garfield is said to haunt the house.  She reportedly turns on the lights at night after they've been turned off and cleans up messes left by workmen.

(1-true;2-bunk)

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