Davey Tree Flipbooks

21 July/August 2026 | THE DAVEY BULLETIN DAVEY TIES TO FIRST U.S. FORESTRY SCHOOL AT BILTMORE In recent years, Davey crews have enjoyed the esteemed privilege of caring for elements of the grounds at the histor- ic, 8,000-acre Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, once home to George Vanderbilt, the grandson of steam- ship and railroad magnate Cornelius "the Commodore" Vanderbilt. George Vanderbilt used his estate, famous for its setting in Pisgah National Forest, to found the Biltmore Forest School around 1900 – America's fi rst forestry education entity. Van- derbilt used his estate to practice a variety of self-suffi cient landscape practices. He hired trained forester Gifford Pin- chot, who would later serve as the fi rst chief of the United States Forest Service, to develop a forestry plan for the land. Pinchot was succeeded at Biltmore by German forester Dr. Carl A. Schenck, who founded the Biltmore Forest School and graduated 300 of America's fi rst professionally trained foresters. One of those Biltmore Forest School graduates was long- time Davey employee Urb Throm, who retired from Davey in 1958 as a sales arborist after 43 years with the company. Throm graduated from the Biltmore Forest School in 1910, studied one year at the University of Darmstadt, Germa- ny, to become a forest engineer and FROM THE ARCHIVES then spent fi ve years as a forester before joining Davey. There are other historic ties between Davey and the Biltmore Forest School. In the early 1900s, Davey used testimonials from arboricul- ture experts in magazine ads promoting Davey tree surgery. One of those expert testimonials came in the early 1900s from Dr. H.D. House, then botanist for the state of New York and a former professor at the Biltmore Forest School. House had visited Kent to attend a Davey sales arborist convention and attested to their utmost professionalism and expertise. "After an inspection of work accomplished by your men and a study of their methods, I am convinced that their work measures up to the highest degree of effi ciency which training and experience can produce," House said. And there's one more Davey-Vanderbilt connection. In 1924, Davey commissioned an oil painting on the estate of one of the company's clients, William H. Vanderbilt, in Newport, Rhode Island. The painting of William Vanderbilt's estate was then used in company magazine advertisements in the 1920s. William Vanderbilt was the eldest son of Cornelius, and was the father of – you guessed it – Biltmore Estate developer George Vanderbilt. A magazine ad from the early 1900s featuring a testimonial of Davey tree surgery by a former professor at the Biltmore Forest School. The March 1971 Davey Bulletin outlines ties between Davey and Biltmore. An ad featuring Davey client William H. Vanderbilt's estate. The March 1971 Davey Bulletin An ad featuring Davey client An original oil painting (background) of Davey client William H. Vanderbilt's estate. The oil painting, magazine ads and historical Bulletin volumes are housed in the Davey archives at the SEED Campus.

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