A Buckeye , Just For Luck

My father, Steve Lewis Arrowood, told me about Grandpa Arrowood, William Lewis "Pat" Arrowood, going home to the mountains of NC, near Bakersville, in Pigeon Roost, to see his relatives. He would take my Dad, as a child, into the woods, among the trees, to look for buckeyes. They are the seeds of the buckeye tree, a sort of nut they produce. They are shiny, blackish brown, and they look like giant beans..

Grandpa always had one in his pocket for luck. There was one in his pants pocket the day that he died. My Dad carried that buckeye from that day forward.

Dad took me to the winding path..the road is still not paved, just as it was when Dad was a child, just up the road from where Uncle John Arrowood's Cement factory stood, on Altapass Road.
I could almost see Granddad, standing among the trees and looking back, smiling at my Dad scampering among the leaves.

A buckeye in your pocket couldn't hurt any, could it?

~ The Buckeye - Description, Uses and Legend


Botanical Name: The botanical name for the Buckeye is Aesculus which was taken by the Swedish botanist, Carl von Linne from “Aesculapius,” the name of the mythological Greek god of medicine. The Ohio variety was named Aesculus glabra, by the German botanist Willdenow in 1809.

Common Name: The common name “Buckeye” was derived from the Native Americans who noticed that the glossy, chestnut-brown seeds with the lighter circular “eye” looked very similar to the eye of a buck (male) deer.

Description of the Ohio Buckeye Seed Nut: The seed nut is glossy and chestnut-brown in color. It is velvety smooth to the touch with a lighter circular “eye.” It is contained in a spiny, two-inch hull and is set in five palmately compound, five inch long, deciduous leaflets. The leaf formation has been described as “praying hands” by poet Albrecht Duerer. The seeds and bark are slightly poisonous and bitter tasting. The properties can be eliminated by heating and leaching.

Uses by Native Americans and Early Settlers: The Native Americans roasted, peeled and mashed the buckeye nut, which they called “Hetuck,” into a nutritional meal. The early settlers found the buckeye wood to be lightweight (28 pounds per cubic foot as compared to 75 pounds per cubic foot for oak), to be readily split, and to be easily carved or whittled. Due to these qualities, the buckeye wood was used by settlers to make utensils. Thin planed strips of the wood were woven into a variety of hats and baskets. The buckeye wood has been found ideal in artificial limbs production due to its lightness and non-splitting characteristics.

Medicinal Properties: Early travellers and explorers carried the rare and curious buckeye to the east with them and reported the Aesculus glabra’s highly prized medicinal properties and talismanic attribute of wisdom. The extracts from the inner bark of the nut has been used in cerebro-spinal treatments. Some believe that the buckeye relieves rheumatism pain and provides good fortune when carried in the pockets of their garments or worn as an amulet around the neck. Instantly dubbed “buckeye” in frontier speech, the mysterious nut was used as a general cure-all for generations.