Each year in April, a little known, little publicized festival occurs in our county seat of Marshfield, Missouri, known locally as the (Marshfield) Cherry Blossom Festival. Use to be, if you Googled “Cherry Blossom Festival”, it might not even show in the first few pages of the search over MUCH LARGER events by the same name – Washington, D.C., Japan, Virginia, etc. Today, I see it sits #2 under the National event in D.C.
In fact, we were aware of it only by local newspaper press, and never attended, until its founder, Nicholas Inman approached us to house some guests and setup a military living history display in 2008, the second year of the festival.
The event began as the brainchild of a twenties-something citizen of Marshfield, Nicholas Inman, who as a Washington D.C. intern, experienced the nation’s capital cherry blossom blooms and festival, and wanted to share it with his hometown. In 2004, he began a campaign to plant cherry blossom trees around this SW Missouri town. Not only planting, but having notable Missourians partake in it such as State First Ladies, Senators, sports figures, etc.
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| 2004 - Lori Houser Holden ceremoniously plants the first official cherry blossom tree in Marshfield in front of the Webster County Museum. Holden was Missouri First Lady at the time of the planting. Pictured with Holden are Dr. Tommy Macdonnell, Rev. Charles Embree and Nicholas W. Inman. |
In 2006, a grassroots group of citizens were formed to take this annual event to the next level, ultimately fulfilling another dream of Inman’s to eventually place a “First Family Museum” in the nation’s centrally located burg. TODAY, three day festival is held in a variety of Marshfield’s venues, mostly churches, awards a variety of medals and tributes for a variety of accomplishments, vendors and music, and luncheons and dinners hosting many, and I mean many, notable guests. In fact, it is not uncommon to have 25+ presidential family descendants each year in Marshfield mixed several authors and actors, many housed and shuttled by “host families”.
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| 2006 - Presidential descendants participate in the first Presidential Forum at the Jubilee Theater. Pictured (left to right) Shannon Lanier, Tom Colt (relative of President Andrew Johnson), Thom Daniel, John Truman, George Cleveland, Lyon Tyler, Richard Gatchell (relative of President James Monroe), Jennifer Harville and James Auchincloss. Marshfield native and Washington D.C. resident, Roy Howard Beck moderated the panel. |
Click HERE to see just who and what events took place in 2011. In seeing this, one is surprised that it remains a “little known” event outside the community.
For example, Blackberry Creek Retreat in 2008 hosted a National Archivist and author, author from Illinois, an Auschwitz survivor, a descendant of the Washington family, and Eisenhower’s great-grandson. Last year, we hosted Ike’s great-grandson and Tom Washington (again) along with the grandsons of Presidents Cleveland and FDR, as well as Donna Douglas, who played Elly Mae Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies. Additionally, Blackberry Creek Retreat was asked to host a Saturday evening “State Dinner” for about (100) guests, a fundraiser for the CBF Foundation. The past two speakers were the great-grandsons of Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower. We have been asked and agreed to host this year’s State Dinner as well.
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| 2011 - Merrill Atwater, President Eisenhower's Great Grandson was the guest speaker for last year's Cherry Blossom State Dinner here at Blackberry Creek Retreat, attended by host families and guest dignitaries. |
Watch the Cherry Blossom site, or FaceBook link and make plans to attend one, or ALL the events. Bring a friend, or a carload of friends and family. You won’t be disappointed and you might just get to meet some very interesting citizens of this great country. We will follow this blog post with a snapshot of three grandsons of Presidents we have hosted. We think you will find this very interesting…
Mark and Dixie
Blackberry Creek Retreat
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