Unboxing History

Vintage Celebrations: The Timeless Story Behind a 114-Year-Old Christmas Tree

• Unboxing History | History Expert Jodi Wright-Gidley & Galveston Author Christine Hopkins • Season 1 • Episode 12

Share episode

Send us a text

Could the oldest Christmas tree in the United States be in Galveston? In this special holiday episode of Unboxing History, Christine Hopkins and Jodi Wright-Gidley, hosts of the Unboxing History Podcast, presented by the Galveston County Museum, discuss a 114-year-old artificial Christmas tree, potentially the oldest in Texas or the country. The tree, donated by Mr. Lynn Ringh, features ornaments with rich histories, including a straw hat from Tampico, Mexico, and a World War II-era cardboard and foil ornament. Mr. Ringh shares heartfelt stories about his family's traditions, the Great Depression's impact, and why the tree holds significant sentimental value. The episode highlights the importance of preserving and donating family heirlooms to museums to keep history alive.



Thank you for listening to Unboxing History, presented by the Galveston County Museum.
For more information, visit our website.

History of the Galveston County Museum
The Galveston County Museum was formed in 1976. It was located on Market Street for many years. After Hurricane Ike damaged the HVAC and electrical systems in 2008, the unharmed artifacts were moved. Now, the museum is located in the Galveston County courthouse building at 722 Moody/21st Street in Galveston.

​Galveston County Museum is a joint project of the Galveston County Commissioners Court and Galveston County History, Inc. The museum cares for a collection of 20,000 artifacts and archives. We also maintain the Historical Commission's library. If you are interested in research or donating an artifact related to Galveston County history, please call 409.766.2340.

Follow us on Facebook
Follow up on Instagram

Episode 12

[00:00:00] 

[00:00:16] Christine Hopkins: Welcome to Unboxing History. I'm Christine Hopkins, co host of the Unboxing History podcast presented by the Galveston County Museum. 

[00:00:23] Jodi Wright-Gidley: And I'm Jodi Wright-Gidley, director of the Galveston County Museum. 

[00:00:26] Christine Hopkins: As part of Unboxing History, we unbox artifacts that are part of a museum's collection.

[00:00:33] Christine Hopkins: So today I think we're doing something special for the holidays. So Jodi, Tell me, what do we have? 

[00:00:39] Jodi Wright-Gidley: So we are unboxing something that's related to a Christmas tree. It's that time of year. And so Christmas trees are something many of us have in our homes at this time of year. And we have a Christmas tree in our collection that is a hundred and fourteen years old.

[00:00:56] Christine Hopkins: Oh my gosh.

[00:00:56] Jodi Wright-Gidley: It may even be the oldest Christmas tree in Texas, [00:01:00] maybe the oldest in the country. We're not exactly sure. And so in the box today, we have a couple of ornaments that are from the tree and we'll get into the whole story in a little bit, but one of the ornaments that hangs on this 114 year old tree is this little ornament.

[00:01:15] Jodi Wright-Gidley: It is a little straw hat from Tampico, Mexico. So Galveston and the town of Tampico used to have a very tight trade relationship. They would trade and a lot of people would travel there for business or for vacation. And so this little hat was brought by a member of the family in the early 1900s and it became a Christmas ornament on the family tree that you're going to learn about.

[00:01:40] Jodi Wright-Gidley: There was also a little ornament on the tree from the early 1900s that is a little teddy bear. One of the little girls in the family had gotten this as a gift, and they turned it into an ornament to hang on their tree that was in their family for years. And so that's 

[00:01:55] Christine Hopkins: And look at that bear! He has little eyes, and he has a cute little red [00:02:00] ribbon.

[00:02:00] Christine Hopkins: Oh, and I mean, that is amazing, and it's in such great shape for being such an old bear. 

[00:02:05] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yes, this family has cared for this tree for a long time. and taking great care of it, and that's why it's still here. 

[00:02:11] Christine Hopkins: Well, so, who are we going to be talking to today? 

[00:02:15] Jodi Wright-Gidley: So, we are going to be talking to the person that donated the tree, Mr. Lynn Ringh, and he's going to tell us the story. 

[00:02:21] Christine Hopkins: Well, I'm going to turn it over to you. 

[00:02:22] Jodi Wright-Gidley: So Mr. Ringh, thank you for coming today to tell us the story of the Christmas tree. 

[00:02:28] Lynn Ringh: Thank you. 

[00:02:29] Jodi Wright-Gidley: So from what I've learned, Christmas trees became really popular in Germany in the early 1700s, and then eventually Americans started taking on that tradition of having Christmas trees in their homes. But Germany was also worried about deforestation, so they started making artificial trees.

[00:02:46] Jodi Wright-Gidley: So this is an artificial tree. Can you tell us about how your family first bought it? 

[00:02:52] Lynn Ringh: Well, I'm the grandson of Francisco, known as Frank Martin, [00:03:00] from Marseille, France. And his, uh, and my grandmother was from Dudley, England. Her name was Jane Witt, and she went by Jenny. And, uh, they were both immigrants to Galveston, and later they met and married, and they had a large family, uh, seven children, two girls and five boys.

[00:03:30] Lynn Ringh: My mother was next to the youngest, Constance was her name, And the youngest was Frank Jr. And um, uh, they went shopping at Eiband's Department Store. And while they were there, they saw this group of artificial Christmas trees And immediately, uh, her, her son, Frank Jr. said, I like that [00:04:00] one, the largest one.

[00:04:02] Lynn Ringh: And she says, well, first we need to find out the price. And when they found out it was 11 dollars she said, we have to go home and talk to your father about this. And I've calculated through a friend, that 11 dollars in 1910 would be the equivalent to 335 dollars today. 

[00:04:24] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Wow.

[00:04:24] Lynn Ringh: So that's why they went home to discuss it. And they bought the tallest tree.

[00:04:29] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Okay. 

[00:04:30] Lynn Ringh: And they had tabletop to, to this size. And, uh, there are different ornaments on the tree. through the years. Um, first of all, um, the straw hat is right here. And that was brought from my uh, from my uh, from my Mother's, uh, father from Tampico, Mexico in [00:05:00] 1906, and they started hanging it on the tree. And likewise, the angel at the top is probably older than the tree.

[00:05:11] Lynn Ringh: And the color is just still beautiful. It's just amazing. And, um, uh, the teddy bear also was given to her as a child. And, um, the slipper is from her 16th birthday. party favors. And it's made out of leather. And, uh, there's another, um, oh, stocking at the very bottom. Uh, this tells you this, what the size of the stockings today are this big. And that's what they used to put candy in. And, uh, this is, all of these ornaments are older than the tree itself. [00:06:00] And, uh, this one also is older. It's Santa Claus coming out of the rooftop. And this is older. And it's a balloon with an angel.

[00:06:13] Lynn Ringh: It's incredible. Uh, in World War II, you could not buy any glass ornaments from Europe. But, uh, And, uh, this is from World War II. Made out of cardboard and foil. And that's what they were selling in the United States at that time. And, um, so it's been a pleasure for me to have the tree. Uh, the tree was actually given to my, my mother when, when Uh, the family moved to Houston from Galveston, and that was in the late 1920s.

[00:06:55] Lynn Ringh: In mid 1960s, she passed the tree to me. And, uh, [00:07:00] at that time, I started a new tradition, uh, I've rotated the tree among family members for a festive Christmas Eve buffet. And, uh, I went to, uh, all over Houston to my family's. And, uh, one year I took it to my nephew, John and Mary's home in Bellville, Texas.

[00:07:29] Lynn Ringh: And as a joke, I came up and said something to his brother, Harry Lynn, and his wife that lived in Atlanta, and no, it was in Woodstock at the time. And as a joke, I went up and said to Harry Lynn, I said, I understand you're, you're going to have the tree in Atlanta. in, uh, Georgia next year and he, he said, Oh no, no, where did you hear that?

[00:07:56] Lynn Ringh: And his, his, uh, wife Kathy heard it and [00:08:00] says, Oh, that would be wonderful. So somehow or other, I got everything in my car and drove to Woodstock and we put up the tree for them. It was for the millennium. 

[00:08:12] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Okay. 

[00:08:13] Lynn Ringh: Yeah. 2000. Now the tree itself, uh, is, is pretty unusual. These limbs are actually made of iron. And I cannot bend them.

[00:08:29] Lynn Ringh: And yet, the limbs that go into the wooden trunk of the tree. It's flexible, right there, where you can push up and wrap it and store it until next Christmas. And so, it's great. Uh, some of the um, candlestick holders are still there. And a lot of them have disappeared. Just like the foliage. The fur [00:09:00] was wrapped around.

[00:09:01] Lynn Ringh: You can see a little bit of the fur. And with a fine wire, it was handmade, it was wrapped around each limb to, to maintain the fur. And um, the trunk of the tree is actually wooden. Oh, oh, there's the sand. 

[00:09:23] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Can you tell us about the sand bucket? 

[00:09:24] Lynn Ringh: Yes. Before they got the red light, the, uh, electric lights, around 1912, uh, they would burn the candles, which we did, uh, only one or two candles, and we would let the children blow out the candle and make a wish, but, uh, there, there's nothing more beautiful than, uh, candlelight. Candles burning on the tree.

[00:09:54] Lynn Ringh: And if you notice, there are proportions, the limbs are proportions, just so [00:10:00] evenly, that you can burn the candles, and it will not burn the limb, uh, above. it or below it. And so for precaution, uh, uh, a pan of sand that's wet would always go at the bottom of the tree in case there was a fire. And, uh, And then they were one of the first families in Galveston to get the electric lights.

[00:10:28] Lynn Ringh: And I believe there were only about six or ten lights per string at the time. And they were very large. So, uh, then the tree, uh, and I think it was in 2016 was the last time that we put up the tree in honor of my, my sister. And, um, then in [00:11:00] 2022, uh, my nephew, John and Mary Connolly from Bellville and Harry Lynn and, uh, his wife Kathy came in from, from Georgia and took me on my 90th birthday and we stayed at the Grand Galvez Hotel and it was wonderful and we came over and we met, uh, Jodi and she said that they had a, uh, Kind of like a cart that they could roll the tree in and out. And I thought that was so wonderful. I told her right there on the spot, that I want to donate the tree.

[00:11:43] Lynn Ringh: And, uh, we decided that October the 15th, 2022, My nephew John and I brought the tree down and decorated it. 

[00:11:53] Jodi Wright-Gidley: And we bring it out every year. 

[00:11:56] 

[00:11:56] Lynn Ringh: So Mr. Ringh, why was it so important for you to hold on this tree for so [00:12:00] long?

[00:12:00] Lynn Ringh: Well, um, times were not good for us, uh, when we were growing up. And it was natural, but my father never recovered from the Great Depression in the 1930s, in 1929. 1930. Uh, I was born in 1932, the last one in my family, and the tree was basically all that we had. I remember my mother's sister, Aunt Jenny, she was the oldest in the Martin family, and lived in California. And she would always send us a box with all kind of goodies. And one of the things I'll never forget that she sent were, for my brother Frank and I, were socks that were full of pennies and nickels.

[00:12:58] Lynn Ringh: And it was so [00:13:00] great, we would count and recount them and recount them to see who had the most. But, uh, it was things like that, you know. that just made Christmas. In fact, we knew if a U. S. Postal truck was coming around on 21st Street in the Heights where we lived, uh, the Shell Road, that that truck is going to stop in front of our house.

[00:13:26] Lynn Ringh: And we would say, if we'd see the truck, we'd say, here comes Aunt Jenny. Because we knew, and sure enough, it would stop. And my mother would always put it, You know, the homes then had no closet space and we would put this tree in a, in our room that, uh, the closet was this big, but when it folds up, it would just go in there.

[00:13:49] Lynn Ringh: And then my mother's room, uh, they also had a closet about this big and she would always take everything out of the closet. box that Aunt Jenny sent [00:14:00] and put it at the top and you can imagine us going up there and rattling everything trying to figure out but the tree itself was Christmas to us and no no nothing else mattered as long as we had the tree. 

[00:14:20] Lynn Ringh: So, anyway, I miss it, but I think it's, I've always said, um, that if ever, The tree that I couldn't take it anymore at age 92. Uh, that, um, I think it should go back to where it originated.

[00:14:40] Lynn Ringh: Uh, in Galveston, and I think this is a perfect place for it. Thank you, Jodi. 

[00:14:46] Lynn Ringh: So i want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas to all. 

[00:14:51] Christine Hopkins: Jodi, wow. When he talked about why he kept the tree, it was very emotional, and I think that's one of the things about the [00:15:00] holidays and traditions, there's so much related to that, the stories and the memories and the nostalgia.

[00:15:08] Christine Hopkins: know, what do you, what have you noticed when people are looking at 

[00:15:11] Jodi Wright-Gidley: this exhibit? 

[00:15:12] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Well, people notice it right away because it's right in the front entrance of the museum. And people start talking. And they talk about the ornaments. They recognize some maybe like they had as a kid or still have. And they spend a lot of time looking at it because there's so much to see.

[00:15:30] Jodi Wright-Gidley: And then they start talking about what their traditions were. So I enjoy listening and kind of overhearing what they're saying about that tree, and they have stories to tell. 

[00:15:41] Christine Hopkins: Well, and you said that it came from Eiband's. And so for me, that immediately took me back. Because I was telling you that when I was little, we would go to Eiband's Department Store, and I'd get my red velvet dress, and my mom would get my black patent shoes and my tights [00:16:00] so I would have my outfit for Midnight Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. You know, which is just around the corner from Eiband's Department Store, just a short couple of blocks away. You know, and it's such a wonderful treasure to have something with so much history. Like you said, it could, who knows, it could be the oldest Christmas tree in Texas, you know, if not beyond that.

[00:16:20] Christine Hopkins: And that that family preserved. it and then moved it every year to celebrate and then they celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the tree. I think that just says so much. So when it comes to items like this, you know, why is it important for people to consider donating those things to the museum? 

[00:16:40] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Well, a lot of people sometimes offer something and they'll say, but that's not really important. It's just my family story, but it is important because in the big picture of history, those little family stories are it. Those are it. And so it really, just, if you might think it's not that important to anybody but you, it really is [00:17:00] important to history. 

[00:17:00] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yeah. 

[00:17:01] Christine Hopkins: Well, and so what's your favorite ornament on the tree?

[00:17:04] Jodi Wright-Gidley: I, the Tampico hat, I don't know why that is important to me, but I love the stories. I keep coming up with stories. I come across them about how these two cities really had a relationship. And so it was just another one like. Oh my gosh, here's another story about Tampico, Mexico. So that one just stands out.

[00:17:23] Christine Hopkins: Well, and the bear, the bear's adorable, just because it's a bear with the little black little eyes and the cute little mouth and it's just adorable. 

[00:17:30] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Well, we also had just last week, we put up the tree and then some relatives of Mr. Ringh came to the museum and they said, Oh, there's the tree. And they were telling me about the foil ornaments because that was the memory that stood out to them.

[00:17:44] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Um, and so you don't really necessarily think about over time I mean, 114 years, of course, ornaments have changed and what you remember for everybody is different. And there's just so many stories related to that tree. [00:18:00] 

[00:18:00] Christine Hopkins: So, there are some ornaments on the tree that are even older than the tree, is that correct?

[00:18:04] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Right. 

[00:18:05] Christine Hopkins: And how many ornaments are on the tree, do you think, just a rough guess? 

[00:18:08] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Oh, maybe a hundred. 

[00:18:09] Christine Hopkins: A hundred. 

[00:18:10] Christine Hopkins: Well, and they're, they're from all these different eras, depending on like if he bought them, or if they were his grandmother's, or his aunt's, or you know, so forth. And you were saying that, um, after we did our recording with him, he shared something else about, you know, um, why it was important for him to keep the tree, but you said another story.

[00:18:29] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yeah, his family had moved to Houston in the 30's, and, um, they, um, had lost their home because really because of the ripple effects of the Great Depression. And so his family had to move to another smaller home that had fewer bedrooms. And so all the boys were in one bedroom. The parents had a bedroom.

[00:18:45] Jodi Wright-Gidley: His sister didn't have a bedroom, but she was older than him and she was about 16 at that time. So she very quickly graduated high school. You know, back then you didn't go to high school until the 11th, only to the 11th grade, not 12th. And so then she started working as soon [00:19:00] as she could at a five and dime store.

[00:19:02] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Met her husband who came in as a customer, got married, and the rest is history for her. 

[00:19:07] Christine Hopkins: Oh, I love that. Well, so if people want to come and see this wonderful historic Christmas tree, when's the best time to visit the museum? 

[00:19:14] Jodi Wright-Gidley: So the museum is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for free from 10 to 4.

[00:19:19] Jodi Wright-Gidley: If you want to come on a Tuesday or Thursday, we are here. You've got to make an appointment with us. We do private tours and our Padlock Mystery Game. Um, and so, uh, just give us a call. We're, we're here. 

[00:19:29] Christine Hopkins: Well, and one thing to know with a Padlock Mystery Game. This is an opportunity for you to tour the museum on your own.

[00:19:37] Christine Hopkins: So it's perfect for the holiday season if you have a lot of family here and you want to look for an educational and fun experience, then make an appointment to come and do the Padlock Mystery Tour at the museum and you're going to really love it. How often do you get to explore a museum all on your own?

[00:19:53] Christine Hopkins: And you leave with a nice treat as well. It was so wonderful to meet Mr. Ringh. And he's so [00:20:00] passionate about it and I just think that I love that he donated this on his 90th birthday. . It's just a wonderful gift for the, for the museum.

[00:20:08] Christine Hopkins: This tree is a great example of donations. You can donate in a couple of ways to the museum. Explain to us a little bit about that. 

[00:20:16] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yeah. So artifacts are something we collect.

[00:20:18] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Our whole collection is made up of things the community has donated to us. We just want anything to do with Galveston County history. Um, so. You need to talk with us about it if you have something. Just give us a call or an email. You can find out how to contact us at our website, galvestoncountyhistory. org. And we'll talk to you about that and make arrangements for you to deliver it and sign some paperwork. Um, if you do want to make a cash donation, we do accept those. Those help us when we need to buy new supplies, to house our artifacts, because some of those get really expensive. And so if you want to make a monetary donation, you can do so also at our website.

[00:20:52] Jodi Wright-Gidley: We have a donate button.

[00:20:53] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Tune into Unboxing History everywhere you listen to your podcasts and find us on YouTube as well.

[00:20:59] Jodi Wright-Gidley: And make sure you [00:21:00] subscribe for updates on all the happenings at the museum. 

[00:21:03] I