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The Raintree was an exotic
plant, brought from the Orient,
perhaps by one of the idealistic
communities of Americans who
helped settle Indiana. One grows
in the midst of legendary
Raintree county's great swamp of
the Shawmucky River. Folklore
has it that those who find it
discover love under a rain of
yellow blossoms. |
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Another tale tells of a ragged
preacher wandering the shores of
a lake in the middle of the
county. That preacher, known to
us all as Johnny Appleseed,
spent his life traveling through
the land planting apple orchards
in the wilderness. Among the
thousands of seeds he entrusted
to the earth was one special
seed -- the Golden Raintree.
"Luck, happiness, the
realization of dreams, the
secret of life itself -- all
belong to him who finds the
Raintree." |
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Ross
Lockridge wove this
tale of the mystical tree that
poets in every land, in every
language have sung about in his
Civil War era novel Raintree
County. |
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Lockridge was the author of
Shockley in Straughn in the
southern part of Henry County.
Throughout a single day in 1892,
its hero John Shawnessy, recalls
the great moments of his life --
from the love affairs of his
youth in Indiana to the battles
of the Civil War, to the
politics of the Gilded Age, to
his homecoming as schoolteacher,
husband, and father.
In
the book the reader will find
Knightstown known as Beardstown,
New Castle as Free Haven, and
Straughn as Waycross. The inside
front and back covers show older
pictures of the very same Court
House that currently stands in
New Castle.
Even
with characters and towns
resembling those of true life in
Henry County, the story itself
is fiction. |
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The novel Raintree County helped
put Henry County on the map in
1948. There are a number of
businesses in the county that
have used Raintree in their
names in order to obtain
recognition and savor the
attention Raintree County
brought to Henry County in the
late 1940"s. |
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