The Stories Trees Tell:
Unrooting the Past story by Crystal Simmons
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recinct 4's Kissing Tree looms large off T.C. Jester Boulevard and Louetta Road. With its gnarled, moss-covered branches, the ancient oak looks like it belongs on a stately, centuries-old campus instead of a busy intersection near a gas station. Although this humble home may not seem important at first, it's what makes Kissing Tree unique. The oak's roots go back more than 170 years to Prussian immigrant Herman Strack. A successful blacksmith, cattle owner, and business owner, Strack immigrated to the Klein area in 1848 and accumulated an estimated 1,445 acres over his lifetime. Family records show a large oak tree, believed to be the Kissing Tree, marked Strack's homestead and blacksmith shop.
As the area grew, family members sold off land. When the community had a need, the Stracks provided. Businesses, housing developments, roads, and other community amenities – like Strack Intermediate School and the Strack Family Cemetery – now sit on land sold or donated by the Strack family. Emil and Mary Strack Theiss eventually inherited the old Strack property where the tree grew and opened a farm. Julie Haggard, their niece and Herman Strack's great-great-granddaughter, recalled playing under the tree as a child with her sister, Marjorie, in the early 1950s. "As a child, I passed by the tree daily as I walked to Kuykendahl and Louetta, where the bus picked me up," she says. "There was no bus service on Louetta, as the road was gravel." The community looked much different back then. Instead of developments and convenience stores, Haggard remembers mossy forests and farmland. She considers Kissing Tree a remnant of that time. "The old tradition was to make Easter nests for the kids out of the tree moss," she says. "There was moss 2
Precinct4Update Spring/Summer 2021
all over that tree. You don't see moss on the trees like that anymore. All the trees but that one have been bulldozed down and are gone." As the community grew, Earnest Strack opened Strack's Restaurant in 1982, which provided farm-fresh favorites, along with a banquet hall for weddings, anniversaries, and birthday parties. Before T.C. Jester Boulevard opened, the large oak served as a popular picnic and photo spot among locals. Many proposals took place under its branches over the next 40 years, earning it the name Kissing Tree. Despite its popularity, the oak's future seemed uncertain after the restaurant closed in 2014. Developers bought the property and planned a Circle K convenience store and gas station. They intended to remove the Kissing Tree to build a driveway for traffic entering the store off T.C. Jester Boulevard. But the tree hadn’t been forgotten. THIS PAGE Julie Haggard draws a map of the old Strack property to help certify Kissing Tree as a "Famous Tree of Texas." PHOTO BY Crystal Simmons
