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Weekdays 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday & Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. |
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In 1936, shortly after the Great Depression, Harry and Mary Jane Seiler Shealer Williams and their son, Paul Alexander Shealer, purchased approximately 45 acres of land one mile east of Auburn, PA. Today this parcel of land is known as “the home farm”. The purchase was made with inheritance money received from Mary Jane’s father.
Shortly after the farm was purchased, Paul and his step-father planted some Norway spruce they had received from the state to be used for conservation planting/reforestation.
For the next four years Christmas trees were the farthest thought from the family. Income was received not from the land, but from off-the-farm employment. When Paul was discharged from the United States Navy in 1945, he and Harry were looking for a way to get enough money to purchase a turkey for Christmas dinner. As you can guess, things were tough back then, to say the least. They came up with the idea to cut some of the Norway spruce they had planted years earlier. These trees were virtually wild; they had had no pest control and had never been sheared. But the idea went over big with the residents in the Auburn area.
Trees were cut from the hillside south of the house and barn, across the Pine Creek. They were dragged to the banks of the creek. With Harry on one side and Paul on the other side, they would throw a rope back and forth across the creek and drag the trees through the icy waters. They then took the trees to the barn to thaw out and dry.
A sign was placed at the top of the lane: “Christmas Trees 25 cents”. That first season they earned enough money for not just a Christmas turkey but a few small gifts as well. Evergreen Acres was born!
©2008 Evergreen Acres Tree Farm | 135 Fort Lebanon Road, Auburn, PA 17922
Phone: 570-366-2809 | Fax: 570-366-4620 | Email: evergreenacres2809@hotmail.com