About Us

Our early history as written by Jack Griffin in 1989.

“Fifty years ago in 1939, Fran Griffin purchased a small and failing tree service company, and shortly afterward in 1946 invited her brother, John 'Jack' Griffin, to come to Cincinnati to become her partner. The elder Griffin had just finished his duties for the Government in the steel mills when the war ended. Working in the steel mills helped support our troops including his younger brother, Thomas 'Tom' Griffin, a Doolittle Raider. As a young boy growing up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Jack worked as a water boy for his favorite football team the Acme Packers (Green Bay Packers) in the early 1920s, and after doing research on the word 'Acme' he found out that it was a Greek word that stood for being at the peak, being in the prime, and denoted the best of something. He decided that Acme would work perfectly, and named the company 'Acme Tree Service.'

(Jack Griffin is the young boy in the front)

The 50 years has been filled with many outstanding advances in the tree service business. Among them; changes in power equipment, relieving back breaking handwork, power saws, grinders, chippers, and many other power tools, as well as specialized trucks replaced old and obsolete equipment. 

Acme Tree Service cleared glide paths for government airports, cleared dead trees along state roads, and cleared some 200,000 trees a year for electric and telephone companies, as well as serviced private homes in 4 states: Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Some 20 years ago we concentrated solely on private work which was much more satisfying, and made us many friends along the way. During that time, we were called back by AT&T to clear many miles through the hills of Kentucky for underground cable.

We are very proud of our work, and the second and third generations of Griffins are carrying on as my son, Donald 'Don' Griffin, and his sons, Kevin, Patrick 'Pat', and Brien, get many hundreds of compliments on their fine work.”

The patriarch of the Griffin family set such a fine example of hard work and ethical standards that when Don took over as owner in the mid 1970s with his wife Rita and their sons; they sought to continue that example. Now in present times we’ve grown from just doing tree work to also doing landscaping, and we are now known as Acme Tree and Landscape Service. Not only have we grown as a business, but also as a family, as we now have a forth generation of Griffins; Corey, Kevin and Alex, sons of Brien, Kevin, and Pat respectively.

As any business and family should, we have of course polished our skills and sharpened our knowledge, new technology has played a helping hand too, but honest hard work is still the backbone of our livelihood. We are proud to be long time members of the community, and we still prefer our focus on private work; we count among our customers, old friends and now their children, old clients and now their children, other small business, and local schools and churches.

While Jack passed in 1996, we continue the tradition and legacy he started. We look forward to many more years working with our long time friends and customers, but our focus is always on the ones we have yet to meet and serve.

Mission Statement

To enhance the beauty of nature, and keep it safe and healthy for the enjoyment of our family, friends and neighbors.

Vision Statement

To accomplish this mission we have committed ourselves and our staff to excellence in skills and knowledge. To that end we attend industry related seminars and keep current with all relevant publications; we also only hire the best people who are willing to grow and learn with us. We are a family business and our goal is to treat all our customers as members of the family. No job is ever complete until our customers are fully satisfied with the work we have done.