HISTORY 
In 1927 a young elm tree, grown from collected seed by the 
Augustine Nursery, was planted on the front lawn of a home in 
Normal, Illinois to replace a tree just destroyed by a great storm. 
The tree was then 2 to 214 inches in trunk diameter and about 
five years old. About ten years later the tree was brought to the 
attention of the late Mr. Archie Augustine, the nurseryman son 
of its original grower, one of the founders and president of the 
Illinois State Nurserymen’s Association, and in 1929-30 president 
of the American Association of Nurserymen. Mr. Augustine had 
long believed that elms, being such ready cross-breeders, one day 
would be propagated in large numbers only by grafting in order 
to secure uniform trees for controlled planting. He was immedi- 
ately struck by the majestic appearance of this tree and realized 
after close inspection that it was the elm he had been looking 
for. He cut some scion wood and in his research nursery began 
to propagate by cuttings, grafts and late budding, attempting 
to discover the best method to use for quantity production of 
this type of elm. 
He also looked at the parent tree more closely. Dr. Douglas’ 
agriculture class at the University of Illinois, using the tree as 
a problem in 1947, when it was 25 years old, provided Mr. 
Augustine with the following measurements: 
Ms Cs104shhede 2 eee Dr ee ee as 80 feet 
SD Pea Ree ee ee eee 27 feet—straight wall 
Mirinkecircunteren ccm sees 7 feet, 3 inches 
Diameters = ee ee ae 2 feet, 4 inches” 
(The tree today is 90 feet tall and 3014 inches in trunk 
diameter.) He discovered that ‘‘the tree does not spread its roots 
as most elms, raises the soil but very little next to trunk, (and) 
its rooting habit is compact and anchors the tree securely 
(Augustine letter, April 1, 1947).” 
Mr. Augustine had not yet found an opportunity to propa- 
gate his new nameless elm in quantity. He continued to grow a 
few scions (grafts on American Elm) in his own nursery in 
order to perpetuate his discovery in case anything might happen 
to the parent tree. He gave a few scions of this newly-discovered 
elm to friends and arboretums. Two of these early scions, were 
planted in 1942 on the Normal, Lllinois residence of Mr. Harold 
Goodwin, a manager of the Funk Bros. Seed Company at Bloom- 
ington; today these two trees are 16 years old, 35 feet tall, 10 
inches in trunk diameter and show, to a striking degree, the 
identical columnar form of the parent tree. 
In 1946 Mr. Augustine approached Mr. William A. Beaudry, 
Chicago landscape engineer, with a plan to form an incorporated 
association which would undertake to propagate and distribute 
the new type elm. The Association was formed of a limited 
number of friends of the tree and the idea. The tree was named 
in honor of its founder and its own stately form. In 1947 Mr. 
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