At the annual meeting of the NNGA, Sept 5-6, 1917, Mr. Harry R. Weber, a lawyer from Cincinnati, brought to the attention of Dr. Robert T. Morris, first president of the NNGA and world famous surgeon, the shells of a "perfect" black walnut. He found these shells in two successive years on a wing-dam on the north shore of the Ohio upstream from Cincinnati.

Wide search, correspondence and newspaper publicity seemed to fix the location of the tree in Floyd County, Va., near the headwaters of the New River, over 400 miles upstream from the wing-dam.

Mr. John W. Hershey made a 500 mile journey to investigate this tree only to be shown a spot in a bare pasture field where the stump had been.

Dr. J. Russell Smith, who wrote to dozens of newspapers in the New River basin, was the only member who did not believe that the will-of-the-wisp nut for which they were searching came from this tree.

All of these men involved in the great walnut hunt are with us today in spirit only.

Below, pieced together in chronological order, is my knowledge to date of the Clermont black walnut, from correspondence with the late Sterling Rouse and extracts from the Ohio Nut Growers' newsletters.

April 1, 1959, ONGA-Sterling Rouse Reports A New Black Walnut Discovery

The following is an excerpt from a letter dated January 16, 1959 from ONGA MEMBER Sterling Rouse, a nurseryman in Florence, Kentucky.

"I have discovered a black walnut with a shell 1/16 inch thick, cracks out excellent, nut average size, has plump creamy white meats of oily rich flavor, bears young and heavy crops. The original tree stood on the bank of the Ohio River in Clermont County, Ohio. The original tree has been cut for lumber, but I placed 5 grafts last April, Four grew, making from 7 to 10 feet growth. I expect to use all wood for propagation this spring. This is the thinnest shelled black walnut I have ever seen."

January 1, 1960 - "Sterling Rouse writes that sometime in January his new address will be R.F.D. Walton, Kentucky. The home which he now occupies, and in which he was born 71 years ago, together with 40 acres of orchard and nursery is being taken over for the enlargement of the greater Cincinnati airport. Mr. Rouse has recently been very much interested in propagating a black walnut with exceptionally thin shell which was originally from a tree discovered on the banks of the Ohio River in Clermont County. A short description of this walnut was printed in the newsletter for April 1, 1959. Any member interested in buying one of these trees should write to Mr. Rouse at once as he says he has a few small grafted trees for distribution. It is not clear whether the loss of his property will interrupt this propagation of nursery stock."

January 21, 1960 - I sent to R. Rouse for a grafted tree and was informed that he was sold out until the fall of '60.

1962 NNGA Annual Report page 66 - "Clermont black walnut-owner or discoverer-Shinkel-Point Pleasant, Ohio-Discovered 1912."

December 1, 1966, ONGA Dr. E.M. Shelton - "Of all the samples of nuts I have scored thus far, one of Clermont variety has scored highest."

March 1, 1967 - From a letter received from R. Rouse. - "The original Clermont black walnut tree stood on the bank of the Ohio River in Clermont County, Ohio, upriver from Point Pleasant, Ohio. After seeing a sample of the nuts I started to graft this variety. I was the first to graft this variety; it is one of the best I know of. It is similar to Myers, only larger. There are some other nurseries propagating the Clermont. It has not been on the market long enough to be well known. When better known, I think it will be one of the leaders." (Point Pleasant is 17 miles upstream from Cincinnati.)

May 14, 1967-I placed 3 grafts of Clermont, 2 of which grew well, one bearing a nut from stored pollen 5 months from grafting.

October 12 to 14, 1967 - I visited the parent Burson black walnut at Shade, Ohio again; the nuts are small but very well filled. After attending the West Virginia black walnut festival at Spencer, I returned, driving along the Ohio from Mt. Alto to Cincinnati. Inquiries at farms east of Point Pleasant failed to locate anyone who could tell me where the original tree had grown. I was directed to a scattered grove of black walnuts that, although it was near the river, and above Point Pleasant, showed no relation to a perfect black walnut in any of the samples that I picked up under 7 trees. These trees were growing between two burned-out mansions. The lush weed and tree growth reclaiming their remains gave one an eerie feeling even in broad daylight.

February 4, 1968-Visited Sterling Rouse at Walton, Kentucky. Talked with him about the Clermont as he and his wife milked cows in a steaming cowshed. Very cold outside.

September 1968, ONGA-"Recently we published inquiries from some of our readers as to whether the Clermont and Elmer Myers walnuts might be one and the same variety. We are indebted to Sterling Rouse, of Walton, Kentucky, who has propagated the Clermont, for the following story of its history.

The Clermont Walnut

This is the history of the Clermont walnut, as told by Albert Kistner, who lived most of his life in the locality where the tree grew. It was locally known as the "pear" walnut due to the unhulled walnut having a short neck on the stem end like a pear. Because of its thin shell, buyers of country produce always paid more for nuts from this tree than for the average wild nuts.

The tree stood on the river bank on distillery property. Mr. Kistner stated that about 1908 or 1910 his uncle sent some young trees to relatives who lived near Toledo, Ohio, and some to relatives near Bellefontaine. What became of these trees is unknown. These must have been seedlings, as very little nut grafting was done at that date.

Mr. Kistner, who owned a farm near Point Pleasant, planted two grafted trees of Clermont on this farm. Upon his return from service after World War I, he learned that the original Clermont tree had been cut for gun stocks. The tenant on his farm had cut and used one of his trees as fuel to burn a tobacco bed. (The tenant moved to another farm next year.) The other tree stood near the house, and a storm blew out half of the top opposite the house. Kistner sold the farm and the new owner was afraid the remaining top would fall on the house, so he cut the tree. However, Mr. Kistner in the meantime had secured scions and grafted some trees on his property in Point Pleasant. They are still growing and producing nuts.

Mr. Kistner had a government appointment and traveled through northern Kentucky. In some way he learned that I was propagating Carpathian walnuts so he called to obtain a scion wood and we became close friends. On one of his visits he showed me a sample nut and some shells of the Clermont. I was much interested. In the spring of 1959 he brought some scion wood and I top-worked two small trees. The grafts made wonderful growth, from six to ten feet the first year.

At this time it was only called "pear" walnut. We thought this was a poor name, so we decided on Clermont in honor of the county in which the original tree stood.

As to where the seed nut came from to grow the Clermont tree I can only guess. Presumably the seed nut that produced the Clermont tree came down the river in high water, landed on the bank on the distillery property, and sprouted.

As to the relation of the Myers and Clermont to each other, there is some difference in the shell formation, although they look very much alike. The Myers could be a seedling of the Clermont.

Mr. Sterling Rouse passed away on June 30, 1969.

April 1, 1970 ONGA - "A sample of Clermont (furnished by another grower) matched its previous high score of 18."

The Elmer Myers first came to the notice of NNGA members in the national contest of 1926. In 1931 it was described by the owner as being in a dying condition. If it was a graft or seedling of the Clermont it would have been about 25 years old in 1931.

Is the Clermont the lost black walnut? Is the Clermont a perfect walnut? Is the Clermont the Elmer Myers? Is the Elmer Myers a seedling of the Clermont? Perhaps the only way to find out is to plant a tree of each and compare the leaves, vigor, blooming, bearing and nuts.

Had Mr. Rouse been an NNGA member and his 4-1-59 ONGA paper on the Clermont been published in The Nutshell, perhaps Dr. J. Russell Smith would have read it and recalled nut shells found on a wing-dam of the Ohio, long, long ago.

Literature Cited

Robert. T. Morris. Ann. Report NNGA 1917, page 13.
Harry R. Weber. Ann. Report NNGA 1922, pages 29 and 30.
Harry R. Weber. Ann. Report NNGA 1935, page 33.
Harry R. Weber. Ann. Report NNGA 1949, pages 167 and 168.
J. Russell Smith. Tree Crops 1953, pages 232-233.
Davidson & Reed. The Improved Nut Trees of North America 1954, pages 50-51.
Sterling Rouse. Newsletter ONGA Apr. 1959.
Sterling Rouse. Newsletter ONGA Jan. 1960.
Elbert M. Shelton. Newsletter ONGA Dec. 1966.
Sterling Rouse. Newsletter ONGA Sept. 1968.
Elbert M. Shelton. Newsletter ONGA Apr. 1970.

** Dennis Madison passed away on April 10, 2010 at his Harrisville, Michigan home. Mr. Madison was a long time member of the Michigan Nut Growers Association and creator of the Vestor Walnut. He was awarded a Keep Michigan Beautiful Award in 1980 for his funding and planting of hundreds of trees. He was also a member of NNGA.