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Tom’s Tree

For decades, it was a ritual for many of the families whose loved ones were interred at Evergreen Cemetery to regularly tend their lots and the lots of the departed without similar volunteer “caretakers.”

Such was the case with the family of now Dr. Thomas H. Fay, whose great-grandfather, James Tilatha Thomas, had founded the Cemetery back in 1856. One weekend, while attending to their family lot, a then 9-year old Tom was told by his father to pull a small oak seedling (or “weed” as it was referred to) from the ground. Young Tom implored his father to save it, saying it was the same height as he. He bargained, “If you let it grow, I will take care of it… and I will grow with it.” Now, nearly 80 years later, Dr. Fay remarks, “Of course we both kept growing, but it has surpassed me!”

Dr. Fay with his tree

Dr. Fay with his tree

Tom’s Tree Today

Tom’s Tree Today

Walk Through

  • Beginnings
  • James Tilatha Thomas
  • James Bledsoe Bailey
  • Augustus Steele
  • Watson and Olivia Porter
  • Major William R. Thomas
  • Stars & Stripes
  • William Haisley Lynch
  • The Yellow Fever Monument
  • The Statesmen
  • The Scientists
  • Dr. Sarah Lucretia Robb
  • Norman DeVaux
  • Dr. James Robert Cade
  • The Educators
  • The Birds of Evergreen Cemetery
  • The Trees of Evergreen Cemetery
  • Funerary Art
  • Woodmen of the World Funerary Art
  • Our Neighbors
  • Tom’s Tree
  • Evergreen’s Beloved Maud
  • A Prayer for Evergreen

Artists

  • Frank Barone
  • Eleanor Blair
  • Randy Batista
  • John A. O’Connor
  • Bob Senesac
  • Anne Seraphine
  • Russell Etling
  • Artist Contact Information

Credits

  • Exhibition Team
  • Exhibition Sponsors
© Copyright Evergreen Cemetery Association of Gainesville, Inc. and City of Gainesville Parks Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department • Developed by Lunchbox Design, Gainesville, Florida