BUCYRUS—A group of young gardeners are “digging up” history on the east side of town.

Two junior garden clubs on Friday spruced up the grounds of the historic Hopley Monument on East Mansfield Street. They planted colorful flowers, shrubs, and grasses, then filled in around the base of the massive stone marker with rich brown mulch.

The 1887 relic has new “roots.”

“This monument, there is no other like in on the entire stretch of the Lincoln Highway,” said Mary Lee Minor, a local history buff and president of the Earth, Wind, and Flowers Garden Club in Bucyrus, which oversees the junior members of the group.

Minor selected sun-loving plants for the project – red geraniums, red and white petunias, and white lobelia. Four boxwoods and two pots of tall grasses were also planted around the perimeter by members of “Peas in a Pod” and “Nuts About Nature.”

Minor obtained a $500 grant for the beautification in March from the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs.
But she said the idea originated with Elaine Gebhardt Naples, who has been working from Texas to help revive her hometown and preserve a piece of its history.

The monument – a Lincoln Highway marker – was erected by lodge members and friends to honor John Edward Hopley, a pioneer in developing the coast-to-coast road. Hopley also founded the Bucyrus Evening Telegraph newspaper in town and served as editor and manager for many years.

Hopley was the first state consul for Ohio of the Lincoln Highway Association. He was appointed by President William McKinley to the U.S. Consul at South Hampton, England, and was promoted to Consul of Montevideo, Uruguay, by President Theodore Roosevelt. He died in 1927.

The monument, until recently, was barely visible to those traveling along the busy highway, Minor said.
In June, however, she said six massive pine trees on the property were pruned and trimmed, courtesy of Oberlander’s Tree & Landscape in Bucyrus.

“The big pine trees almost made that monument dwarfed,” said Minor, who took several pictures of it before the transformation began. “It looks much better because you can clearly see the monument now.”

And, thanks to many hands, the centuries-old marker is finally “blossoming” after all these years.