'Leave it to Beaver' star Hugh Beaumont once owned a Christmas tree farm in Minnesota
Nov. 22—GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. — As many of you head to the Christmas tree lot to pick out that perfect pine, what would you think if one of America's favorite TV dads, Ward Cleaver, sold it to you?
Yes. That Ward Cleaver, as in June's husband and Wally and Beaver's dad.
Sounds likes a fever dream (like Greg Brady taking your order at Starbucks or Gidget soaping up your tires at the car wash). But Ward Cleaver helping you with your Christmas tree actually could have happened.
Hugh Beaumont, who starred as Ward Cleaver in the popular family sitcom "Leave It to Beaver" from 1957 to 1963, was once the proud owner of a Christmas tree farm in Grand Rapids.
However, most likely, Beaumont wasn't the guy strapping the spruce to your car top after you purchased it. (And as far as we can tell, Barbara Billingsley was also never spotted on the lot in her high heels and pearls.)
According to Carl Wegner, a longtime Christmas tree farmer in Grand Rapids, Beaumont's business plan was to raise the trees in Minnesota and ship a number of them to California to sell to customers there. One popular photo from the Minnesota Historical Society shows Beaumont presumably selling a tree to North Dakota native Lawrence Welk. Given the sign behind the two men advertising "Minnesota Trees," it's likely it was a publicity photo taken at a lot in California.
And if this story weren't unusual enough, Wegner said Beaumont had an interesting partner in his Christmas tree business.
"The guy who owned the other half of the 40-acre farm was a former Marlboro Man," Wegner said. "So you'd see the pictures of him around. But he must have been friends with Hugh, because they got into business together."
Wegner says the farm was eight miles east of Grand Rapids on Highway 2 and south about four miles.
By the early 1970s, the Marlboro Man had sold his half of the farm to Wegner, who was a young farmer just starting out.
Wegner said later Beaumont approached him about buying his part of the farm, but he wasn't able to do that. It was eventually sold to someone else.
Beaumont, a native of Lawrence, Kansas, was most likely first attracted to Minnesota because his wife was born there.
Kathryn Elizabeth Hohn was born July 15, 1920, in New Ulm, Minnesota. After the death of her Methodist minister father, Rev. Christian Hohn, it appears the family relocated to Crookston, where she attended Central High School.
Following graduation, she attended Hamline University, where she competed and won a radio contest called "Gateway to Hollywood." She began using the stage name Kathryn Adams and scored her first screen part in 1939's "5th Avenue Girl," starring Ginger Rogers. She is most remembered as Mrs. Brown in the 1942 Alfred Hitchcock film "Saboteur."
She married Beaumont in 1941, and according to newspaper reports of their wedding, the couple planned to honeymoon in Minnesota.
The couple eventually had three children, Hunter, Mark and Kristan. Kathryn retired from show business to raise the children. However, she came back briefly in 1946 to co-star with her husband in "Blonde for a Day."
It's not clear how often the Beaumonts came to Minnesota, but the Facebook group "
Sharing Minnesota History and Experiences
" features not just the story of Beaumont's Christmas tree farm, but also details about the family's life there.
The Beaumonts reportedly had their own island on Lake Wabana near Grand Rapids. While the official name of the island is Balgillo, it was nicknamed "Beaumont's Island" for obvious reasons.
Steven Ferrell said he remembers the Beaumonts being in Minnesota in the mid-1960s.
"My stepdad, Dr. Ferrell, was his doctor when he was there in the summer. We had dinner there once when I was about 8 and his son Hunter was there," he wrote on the Facebook page.
"He would fly there in a seaplane. Had meals at Wa Ga Tha Ka Resort on Wabana," said Doug Kelder.
Others who said they met Hugh Beaumont in Minnesota said he was "pleasant and down to earth," and generous.
"He used to play some golf at Pokegama. When I was 12, I caddied for him. He let me play along with him when I caddied. He was extremely pleasant and friendly. Tipped well, too. I liked him," wrote Terry McArdle.
Others on the page said they believed he might have also had a cabin on Clubhouse Lake by Marcell.
While his time spent in Minnesota was long after his "Leave It to Beaver" days, Beaumont kept busy writing screenplays (perhaps penning a few while enjoying the serenity and call of the loons on Lake Wabana). He also followed in his father-in-law's footsteps, becoming a Methodist minister.
In 1969, he told the Minneapolis Tribune that, despite making recent guest appearances on shows like "Mannix," "The Virginians" and "Petticoat Junction," he didn't want to talk about TV. He preferred to talk about his Minnesota-born wife and how he enjoyed being behind the camera. He directed local theater in St. Paul, Grand Rapids and Hibbing.
It seems one of America's favorite dads enjoyed his quiet life in Minnesota.
After suffering a stroke in 1970, Beaumont retired from acting and according to his obituary in the New York Times on May 16, 1982, he spent his later years living in Minnesota.
It is believed his ashes were scattered over Lake Wabana.
Kathryn Adams and Hugh Beaumont divorced in 1974. She remarried and became a successful psychologist and author. She died in Mankato in 2016 at the age of 96.