Friends of the Wild Flower Garden

Martha Crone History

Martha and Eloise

Martha Crone’s connection to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and to her assistance in founding The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden are linked back to her innate loving response to wild things and their place in the environment. Like most people who devote a passionate lifetime to the pursuit of a certain subject or hobby, she was largely self-taught about wild plants and birds. Her first contact with the Garden was as an inquisitive and persistent visitor, extracting information from Eloise Butler and in turn bringing in specimens and providing assistance to Eloise.

Fig. 1. At the left we see a group of friends gathered on August 3, 1931 for Eloise Butler's 80th birthday. Eloise is in the middle with the basket, Martha Crone's husband, William, is directly behind Eloise and Martha is 2nd from the right. Photo - Minn. Historical Society

By the time Martha became Curator following the death of Eloise Butler in 1933, she recalls that she had spent about 15 years helping out in the Garden. She and her husband William, a dentist, lived at 3723 Lyndale Ave. North in Minneapolis. Together, they were avid explorers of plant habitat, especially mushroom habitat.

Martha was secretary of the Minnesota Mycological Society from 1926 onward for a number of years. Considering the need for large numbers of plants for the developing Wildflower Garden, the Crones were able to provide good assistance to Eloise Butler in finding sources for wild plants and for rescuing plants from areas where the native habitat was soon to be overrun with development. (Back to top)

Becoming Curator

An inference may be drawn that since Martha was helping Eloise Butler in the Garden for those 15 years prior to her being appointed curator that that transition was preordained and automatic. That does not appear to be the case. For example: It can be inferred from a letter written by Eloise Butler to a Mrs. Pearl Frazer in Grand Forks, North Dakota, that Superintendent of Parks, Mr. Wirth had his options open in looking for a person to replace Eloise Butler, since she was ready to retire. Mrs. Frazer had been in correspondence with Mr. Wirth about a position in the park system and Mr Wirth, believing she was referring the the Curator position asked Eloise to write to her. Eloise’s reply letter to Mrs. Frazer, at the request of Mr. Wirth, laid out what the job of Curator entailed, and ended by saying “If you and Mr. Wirth come to an agreement, he has suggested that I correspond with you during the winter and inform you more fully of the work.” As this letter was dated Sept. 29, 1932, (1) it is obvious that Martha was not yet a shoo-in for the job and perhaps only agreed to take it when there were no other persons with the experience necessary on the horizon. Not that she was not recommended for the position. She was highly recommended for it by interested parties, but perhaps the Superintendent needed to do his due diligence in filling the position. Mrs. Frazer ultimately declined interest as she was looking for more of a nature photography position, not full responsibility for a garden.

Plant Collecting

Eloise Butler typically returned to Malden, Massachusetts each fall after the Garden closed. Martha would be the direct recipient of plant packages from Eloise while she was back in Malden. In a letter of 3 November 1925, Eloise writes to Martha that “I took advantage of the weather to ‘Shop’ around the neighborhood a bit, and am mailing you a box of the ‘finds.’” For the seeds and plants sent to her, Martha was expected to heel them in until Spring when Eloise would return. (3)

Mrs. Cram, in her letter, goes on to talk about certain plants that Eloise had sent to her for heeling in to her garden until Eloise could return to Minneapolis in the Spring of 1933. These included New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae), (fig 3 at left) Stiff Aster (Aster linariifolius) and Butter and Eggs (Linaria vulgaris).

Garden Highlights 1933 to 1944

Here are some of the key Garden events of these years, taken from Martha’s Annual Reports to the Superintendent of Parks. (4) There is more detail on the linked page - Key Garden Events of the Crone Years.

In 1933, Martha completed the planting around the Mallard Pool area that had been started by Eloise Butler. The early 1930s were years of drought. She writes about the losses of plants, but also her planting efforts to replace species. She remarks on how visitors were becoming acquainted with the Garden as a place to study birds, as the birds were unmolested there and one could see as many as 100 different birds. She gets a new fence to surround the Garden to replace the original run down fence. At her request, in 1939, the Garden stays open into October so that visitors can see the fall blooms and colors. The Garden always closed on September 30, but this year the close date is moved to October 15th, where it is today.

In 1939, a spring is tapped in the bog, to supply a constant level of water to the open pool that existed then. These pools in the bog subsequently silted in and had to excavated several times. Eventually, they were left silted in and today while there can be standing water in the bog, there is not the large open pool that existed from the 1930s to the mid 1960s. (Comparative photos at right.)

In the early 1940s there were more variety’s of Lady’s-slipper blooming in the Garden than exist today - six varieties blooming in 1940. Also that year, the giant white oak, estimated at 700 years of age, was taken down. (Back to top)

The Upland Garden Addition

A large change in the Garden occurred in 1944 when most of what is now the Upland Garden was added to the Wildflower Garden and fenced in, through the assistance of Clinton Odell. (Photo at right; The Odell page gives more background on Odell's work in the Garden). Martha now had a garden for all seasons. As she states in her History of the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden: “During mid-summer when the spring flowers have gone and the shade of the woodland is so dense that few plants bloom there, then it is that the prairie and upland garden comes into its own. This tract consists of gently rolling hills and prairie, and is fully 75 feet higher than the woodland garden. The contrast is all the more striking between the upland and the woodland gardens, since they are so closely allied.” (5) (Note: The addition of slightly more acreage to the Upland Garden in 1993 brought the Garden to its current configuration.)

Martha began work immediately in the new addition. Besides doing whatever clearing work was required on the new land, she set out 210 new plants in the area in 1944. These plants were of 30 different kinds that she had collected on four field trips that summer. In 1945 she set out another 4,000, again from field trip collections and from the assistance of others. In some instances she reports that native soil was also brought in for certain plants. She also completed 2,000 feet of new trails that year. For the next several years she set out new marker labels (250 alone in 1946) that were obtained courtesy of Clinton Odell. (Back to top)

Garden Highlights 1945 to 1959

Here are some of the key Garden events of these years, taken from Martha’s Annual Reports to the Board of Park Commissioners. There is more detail on the linked page. Key Garden Events of the Crone Years.

In 1946, the path that now exists going through the bog in the Woodland Garden was created. City water was brought into the Upland Garden in 1947 to provide a supplement when rainfall was short. The droughts of the 1930s had been disastrous for a number of plants in the Woodland Garden, and now with the expansion into the Upland Garden, Martha believed that there were just too many special plants to allow the water supply to rely on chancy rainfall in the hot months. The water supply did not reach the Woodland Garden however, until years later. Fig 10 at right: Martha Crone inserting a marker for Blazing Star in the new Upland Garden. Photo as published in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, May 21, 1950. Minnesota Historical Society, Martha Crone Collection.

In 1950 Martha introduced the first free Garden Brochures for Self-Conducted Tours. She references the success of these in several reports (10,000 distributed in 1952) and in 1953 there was also available Garden plant lists, which were sold for 10 cents each to visitors. Also in 1950, Martha began to put together a set of color slides of Garden plants that she could use for illustrated lectures about the Garden. She began to give talks in 1951.

In 1955 the Garden received a gift of funds from the Minnetonka Garden Club to create a fern hill in an undeveloped part of the Garden. She began this project in 1956 by setting out 2,160 fern plants followed by 308 the next year and completing the project in 1958 when the total reached 2,843 fern plants.

In 1956 Martha was awarded a Bronze Medal for achievement in horticulture from the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. The first telephone was installed in the Garden in 1957, following Martha’s request for one in 1951.

Garden Assistants

As Eloise had realized, the task of caring for such a special place was more than could be accomplished by one person, especially considering that plants do not live forever and must be constantly replaced. Martha states in her History that up to 1951 she herself had set out some 42,500 plants. In that history she stated that the garden contained over 1,000 species not including mosses, algae and fungi. She attached a census to her history listing 787 individual species of plants and shrubs. All tools used in the Garden were hand tools, no power equipment, no electrical equipment, nothing but muscle power.

The only place of protection in the Garden from storms or other adversities was the small office structure in the Woodland Garden that had originally been build in 1912 as a tool shed. Very little had been spent on it's refurbishment and it was slowly growing inadequate.

While Eloise had not been able to secure any paid park staff help, Martha had several workers from the Park Board available to her when needed during the late 1940s. There are references in various writings, such as Friends President Mrs. Faragher's April 25, 1969 letter that Martha worked virtually alone. (6) But while that may be true prior to 1946, time records in the Crone files indicate that two workmen were usually available for continuous help in the Garden from 1946 through early 1949, one Fred Gau, being continuously employed. Clinton Odell made donations to the Park Board, beginning in 1946 and for several years thereafter, to partially cover the cost of these workmen. There is then a period from May 1949 onward, when she apparently lost that help, perhaps due to Park board funding restrictions. She references in her 1953 report how help is really needed and that she had received some additional garden help for 50 days in early summer.

Finally, in 1955 she again had the services of two employees, one being Ken Avery, who would be her successor as Curator when she retired in January 1959. Mr. Avery was in fact hired by the Park Board as Mrs. Crone's assistant. Mr. Avery became curator upon Martha’s retirement. (He would have two assistants working for him in the beginning of his tenure, but eventually it became one assistant and then no assistants.)

The Curator position was never “highly paid” in terms of salary. For example, Martha’s net pay after taxes and after a pension deduction was $56.42 for the last half of October, 1946. She was expected to be around every day the Garden was open, which was every day except Wednesdays - that was her day off and the gates were locked. (7) (Back to top)

Martha's Opinion on the Purpose of the Garden

Comments from 1943: “It (The Garden) has been a powerful factor in building an appreciation of Minnesota’s native wild flowers. The garden teaches people to observe flowers and enjoy them in their natural environment. It has lessened the tendency to pick flowers and take them home where they wilt in a few short hours. We invite many more of our citizens to come to know the relaxation and contentment and beauty that can be found just 10 minutes from downtown Minneapolis.”

“Once the plants have been introduced and have become established, they are disturbed as little as possible and are not watered or cultivated. If they are crowded out by weeds or other plants, it is just too bad. We believe in keeping our wild flower sanctuary as wild as possible. If we were to attempt to control the flowers carefully, it would mean that the wild aspect of the area would disappear.” (7)

(Note: By the time Martha wrote her brief History of the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden in 1951 her attitude had changed. Easy growing plants and invasives could rapidly spread and shade out more desirable plants. Some control was needed). (Note: The spelling at that time of “Wildflower” in the Garden name was as two separate words.) (Back to Top)

While the Garden activities would be enough for most people, Martha managed to be active in several other ventures. The most long-lived activity would be her affiliation with the Minnesota Mycological Society. Martha maintained her membership until at least 1977. She was Secretary of the Society from 1926 until 1943. Her husband, Dr. Wm. Crone was treasurer from 1926 to 1929, when he became Vice President. He retained that role until 1939. Several highlights gleaned from the minutes of the Societies Annual Meeting are as follows:

1926: The Society displayed 44 varieties of mushrooms at the Minnesota State Fair (the State Fair display would be an annual event for the Group).
1927: A great abundance of Morels.
1927: The Crones gathered 1000 specimens of the deadly Amanita phalloides for the University of Minnesota for experimental purposes.
1933: No morels this season at all.
1935: The large quantity of morels to be found was without precedent. (9)

There is an interesting connection between Martha Crone, wild plants and the University of Minnesota. Martha and her husband Dr. William Crone became interested in a parcel of land in Anoka County, in the area of East Bethel, as a source for plant observation and collecting. The area, then known as Cedar Creek Forest, was swamp and bog with upland areas of dense woodland. In her log of plantings at Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, this is the area referred to when she writes of plants obtained from "Cedar" or "Cedar Swamp" or "North of Anoka". On July 1, 1936 Martha recorded digging up 24 Ramshead Lady’s-slippers (Cypripedium arietinum) and 3 Ground Junipers (Juniperus communis) and transplanting them in Eloise Butler. The Ramshead’s had 30 blooms the following year, but unfortunately they died in 1938 from excess moisture.

On December 31st, 1936, the Crone’s purchased 40 acres of this area for a total price of $375 with $10 down payment. In the middle of this land there was dry upland that resembled an island within the swampland. Here they built a cabin in 1938, carrying the building materials through the swamp to reach the dry land. It was not until 1939 that they finished what could be called a causeway that reached the “island” without getting one’s feet wet. The cabin area became known as “Crone’s Island”. In late summer 1938, the cabin was broken into and all there inside possessions were stolen. The county Sheriff was notified and the Crones proceeded to secure the cabin more tightly and over the next year completed the finishing touches.

This swampy bog area was of great interest to those in the botany profession. The first recorded research interest in the area dates back to 1929 when an aerial survey first disclosed the significance of the habitat. In 1947 a large “Study Area” was outlined by the University of Minnesota - the area included the Crone’s land. The purpose of the Study Area was for students of botany and professionals to be able to observe and study the habitat of a natural swamp and bog. On Sept. 14, 1957 the University of Minnesota dedicated the Cedar Creek Forest Laboratory. Martha was invited to attend. (William had passed away in 1951). Access to the lab area was via the Crone land and that of several other property owners.

On May 24, 1961, the University, by letter from University attorney R. Joel Tierney, offered to purchase her land if University funding could be obtained. At that point in time Martha was retired from the position of Curator at Eloise Butler. There is not a record in her papers as to the date of sale but it was sold.

The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden
and retirement from The Friends

When the Friends of the Wild Flower Garden organization was founded in 1952, Martha was a founding member. She became Secretary/Treasurer of the Friends and also editor of the Friend’s newsletter, The Fringed Gentian™, the first issue of which came out in January 1953. She continued as editor until 1971.

The Formation of The Friends allowed Martha to obtain some volunteer help on busy days at the Garden. In addition, The Friends provided certain funds to obtain items she needed in the Garden, such as a mosquito sprayer, seeds, bulbs, etc. The mosquito sprayer and a later mist sprayer acquired by Ken Avery were quite beneficial as the Garden was heaven on earth for mosquitoes. Back in 1933, Theodore Wirth had paid a visit to the Garden on the occasion of the Last Rites Ceremony for Eloise Butler and evidently had written a comment to Martha about the Mosquitoes. She replied “I wish to offer my apologies for the ill manners of my mosquitoes, they are rather difficult to train as each one lives only a short time.” (8)

As Secretary of The Friends, Martha continued to give slide lectures to interested groups. Martha retained the positions of secretary/treasurer and The Fringed Gentian™ editor until 1971, when after about 63 years of service to the Garden and the Friends (48 years after being appointed Curator in 1933 and about 15 years of service to Eloise Butler prior to that), she finally retired from all positions, turning the position of editor over to Mildred Olson. In honor of her long service to both the Garden and The Friends, the new shelter building, constructed and funded by The Friends in 1969 was dedicated to her on May 13, 1970.

Martha Crone was born on January 29, 1894, maiden name - Dischreit; she died in Minneapolis on February 5, 1989, at age 95. Her husband, William has passed away many years previously on January 2, 1951.

(Back to Top)

Martha's summation of her life's work.
(The following quote is the last that she wrote to members of The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden.)

Spring is Alive

"Once again the awaking of Spring, coming after a long time of waiting. How fortunate to have this lovely Reserve to enjoy where Springtime’s beauty unfolds in every flower. Flowers are eager to answer the call of the warming sun, even while patches of snow remain. They must make the most of the sunlight before the forest deepens and veils the woodland.
How delightful to hear the first songs of the returning birds. Wildflower and bird sanctuaries that have been established will greatly benefit future generations. How fortunate that this native area was added while still in it’s unspoiled state.
It’s most necessary to meet the demands of our expanding population. I have devoted my life to what I consider this satisfying pursuit."(11)

Specific References (all found in the general reference):
1. Letter, Eloise Butler to Mrs. Frazer, Sept. 29.1932.
2. Letter April 23, 1933, from Gertrude Cram to Martha Crone.
3. Letter from Eloise Butler to Martha Crone 3 November 1925.
4. Annual Report of the Garden Curator to the Superintendent of Parks (until 1945) thereafter to The Board of Park Commissioners. Martha Crone Collection. Minnesota Historical Society.
5. History of the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden, by Martha Crone, April 1951
6. Letter of Catherine Faragher, President of the Friends, to the Membership April 25, 1969.
7. Transcript of a radio broadcast for "Outdoor Minnesota" on August 11, 1943 (A Wednesday, Martha's day off at the garden)
8. Letter to Theodore Wirth, June 22, 1933. Martha Crone Collection. Minnesota Historical Society.
9. Papers and Newsletters of the Minnesota Mycological Society in the Martha Crone Collection. Minnesota Historical Society.
10. Papers and Newsletters of the Minneapolis Science Museum Society in the Martha Crone Collection. Minnesota Historical Society.
11. Published in The Fringed Gentian™, April 1976, Vol. 26 No.2