If C.D. Dean had his way, they'd have named the live oak planted outside Guyton City Hall Friday morning in memory of Jim Tweedy, who served for years as principal at the one-time elementary school that city government calls home. Instead, Keep Effingham Beautiful arranged to plant the tree in Dean's honor. The sapling is only about head-high now. It's fitting that it is a live oak, said Dean, given that Guyton is a city rich with the huge, spreading shade trees. A row of live oaks was planted a few years back, lining the one-time railroad bed that runs through the heart of town.
Older trees adorn homes and church yards throughout the city.
The brief ceremony in Guyton was just one of three separate tree plantings held throughout the county Friday, commemorating Arbor Day. Another live oak was planted next-door to the Effingham County Senior Citizens' Center. If it's given a little water and is taken care of, it will be here for many, many years. Guyton's newest live oak is part of the state Century Tree Project, whose object is to plant trees that can be expected to live more than 100 years. Arbor Day has burgeoned in communities throughout the U.S. since 1872, when J. Sterling Morton organized the first Arbor Day in Nebraska.