Howland’s new shade tree has deep roots

Pecan tree moved from original Clayland homestead to store.

  • A new pecan tree was planted outside the W.B. Howland Company store in Live Oak last week. The tree was transplanted from the original Howland homestead in the Clayland area, the site of the family’s first Suwannee County store. (COURTESY)
    A new pecan tree was planted outside the W.B. Howland Company store in Live Oak last week. The tree was transplanted from the original Howland homestead in the Clayland area, the site of the family’s first Suwannee County store. (COURTESY)

    The W.B. Howland Company is reaching back into its roots — literally — as it celebrates its 100th anniversary of its Live Oak location.

    After the company was forced to cut down the old pecan tree that stood outside the business since it opened in 1926, it last week planted its replacement ahead of the company’s 100th year celebration planned for March 28. And that new tree isn’t just some other pecan tree.

    Rather, the Howlands planted a tree that was growing on the family homestead and the site of the previous store in Clayland.

    “It came from the Howland home place,” W.B. Howland owner Lyn Fletcher said. “(It ties in) the whole thing.”

    The Clayland store, which opened in the 1880s, was the Howland’s first location in Suwannee county and second in the South — the family previously had a store in Madison County that opened in 1843.

    The current property owner of the Howland homestead — Mickey Boatright — gave permission to Fletcher and the Howland’s store to transplant the pecan tree from the Clayland area and move it to the Live Oak store.

    Hunstman Tree Service moved the tree for the company with it now rooted in the parking lot, ready to provide shade for customers just like its predecessor, which originally shaded the store and had stood in the parking lot of the current store for the past 50-plus years.

    “Here’s to the next 100 years of shade and growth,” the company wrote on social media about the new tree being planted at the store.

    Fletcher said the original pecan tree at the store could not be saved, leading to it having to be cut down. He added that it apparently had been struck by lighting, leading to its death.