To the Editor,

The name of the Jesse Stuart book Trees of Heaven comes from the kind of tree that is plentiful on the land. The land in eastern Kentucky where two families lived in 1931-32. The Bushman and Tussie families live on neighboring farms that both families have loved for generations.

The Bushman family has always been workers who paid their way through life, and owned their land. In fact, all Anse Bushman thinks about is how hard and how long can he and his family work and save. Fronnie worries over where her husband Anse will go as he leaves this world.

The Tussie family has always worked just enough to get by, and never owned the land they lived on. They are squatters who have always lived in someone else’s world and in whatever shack they could pull together. Now the trees that provided for the Tussie’s are almost all gone, except for the Tree of Heaven–the Ailanthus.

They are useless for building, but precious to Tarvin and Subinea. They are the Bushman son and Tussie’s daughter who fall in love and have secret meetings.

Among the Ailanthus trees, Fronnie’s not worried about her son. She worries about her husband’s soul. There is much trouble ahead for both families.

“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:10.