The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-04-24
The Largest Southern Tree.

The "big tree" in Washington, Ga,
is probably the Oldest and largest in the
Southern States. The town of Wash
ington has always been the home Of
culture and refinement, and Robert
Toombs, Alexander Stephens and other
Georgia celebrities have from its bord-
ers, passed their names into history. In
visiting various points of interest round
the place:we walked q mile or so through
the beautiful unbroken forest, crossed q
valley meadow with its winding stream,
and ascended an eminence, the footstool
of the forest monarch. Some distance
from the big tree is a giant brother,
which, towering broad and high above
its neighbors, and concealed at dis
tance by foliage, impresses you on its ap-
pearance as being the monarch himself,
but when you reach the little knoll, with
its open space, on which stands the COM
pact mass of bark and timber, and gaze
aloft on the huge limbs, themselves
larger than surrounding trees, you stand
before the largest representative of the
vegetable kingdom in the Southern
States. The "big tree" which is on the
grounds of Mr.. Adam Alexander, a
prominent citizen and devoted elder of
the Presbyterian Church, is a Tulip
bearing Poplar Liriodendron TulipJeral
with height of 155 feet, adiameter of 8
feet, circumference of about 2S feet,
and its lowest branches are SIS feet from
the ground. Mr.. Alexander told me
that one day, while riding, he and Maj.
Anthony Porter drew up their horses
sidewise on the opposite sides of the tree
and could not, around it, see even the
tips of each others horses heads or
tails.
This grove was Gods first Prcsbyte-
rian temple in Georgia, for about the
year 1880 the South Carolina Presbytery
sent delegates, who held meeting and
ordained Rev. William Springer, the
first Presbyterian pastor in Georgia, un-
der the branches of this tree. Among
the officiating members of this open air
Presbytery was Rev. John Brown, D. D.,
the first President of Franklin College,
now the University of Georgia.
DR.. Brown and his friend, DR.. Lorenzo
Taylor, of the Baptist Church, were both
eminent for their piety; both were full
of animal spirits, and both were great
musicians. DR.. Taylor being able to
play any instrument from all organ to a
Jew's-harp. Being together on one &C.
casion, Dr.. Brown called for music,
whereupon DR.. Taylor seized his fiddle
an asked what he would have. "Well," !"
replied DR.. Brown, 81 suppose something
devotional" Gall right" answered DR..
Taylor, striking up jig, II can get just
as much devotion out of Scotch reel as
any other style ofmusic."
In the mouth Of July, 1865, the big tree
was struck by lightning, shivering its top
and blasting its vitality for some distance
below, and occasionally a limb, which
the blight of decay has reached, comes
rattling and crashing down. But still
the gnarled and powerful branches
stretch their shade over the ground Of
sacred associations; still men approach
the massive trunk with reverence, and
gaze up into the fronded spire whose
amounting has not been by cruise of oil
but storm and tempest, aud on whose
tresses the lightning flung its glittering
coronet.
Trees spring up and die beside it;
companions of its youth have all faded
and fallen away. But summer and win
ter, seed time and harvest, it stands
grandly and peerlessly on its centuried
foundation, and will long retain its dis
tinction-the leafy monarch of the
Southern forests--Ne,o York Observer.