The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-04
LOCUST TREES IN A cRAvEYARD.
They Grew and Spread Their Roots
and Drove out the Dead.

From the Lewiston Aiel Journal
In l7SS. when the old revolutionary sail
ors lived on the New Worcester planta-
tion across the Penobscot from Bangor
wanted to get the place incorporated and
applied for a charter. they intended 10 call
the town Orangetown IN honor of Orange
town. Md. but the early education Of the
man who drew up the petition had been so
badly neglected that when he wrote the
document he spelled the word Orrington.
and In this manner was good town name
born from very poor photography During
the los years which have passed since then
The people have made very few blunders.
They not only know what they want, but
they go for 1t with get-there impetuos-
ity which generally wins success.
In fact some citizens OF Or
rington can be truthfully charged
with having too much zeal
one resident-a woman bearing the
name Of Baker-has made herself famous
for all time by a little act Of thoughtful
kindness that would never have been no
tiCed had it been done in most towns Mrs.
Baker, though she lived and died years
before Secretary Morton was known. was
a firm believer In Arbor day. She set out
such native trees as she could find grow
ing on the hills and sent away to friends
and got several varieties that had lately
come over from Europe.
one spring morning in the fourth de-
cade of the present century coaster came
In from Boston, having a few trees on
board billed to Mrs Baker. Among them
was a rare species known as the honey
locust. The agent who sold il 10 her
praised 1t very highly, saying IL has large
racemes of fragrant white flowers and
beautiful pendulous foliage, making it a
most suitable ornament for "a cemetery.
In addition to these qualities, il was
thrifty and perfectly hardy, and could be
either grown as hedge or trimmed to a
single trunk.
Following the printed instructions
which came with every tree, she planted
her honey locust in the family lot in the
Old Chaplin cemetery on the road from
every kept its contract more perfectly
than that honey locust, 1t waXed big and
strong in the dry, gravelly soil and raised
up many offspring, all of which grew
wonderfully. Fifteen years later, when
Mrs. Baken Laid down the cares of life.
she was put to rest In a beautiful grove
Of her own planting. Around her grave
the wild cypress grew i'm rank yellow pro-
fusion. Above 1t the red cinnamon rosa
bloomed all through the summer months,
and over these the rare honey locusts
swayed their fragrant blossoms. until eY-
cry dallylng wind stole away deeply laden
with sweetness. Surely, If there were
ever place where death was robbed CT
It's terrors this was the spot.
New tenants came to the little four
acre cemetery as the years went on. The
Harrimans. noted for their strength; the
Harpins, famous in finance; the Bakers,
with their handsome children, and sew
eral other were laid away for long,
sweet rest among the flowers.
The people died. but the honey locusts
lived They not only lived, but took such
JOY in living that by 1850 the sexton
complained bitterly ABOUT the tough roots
of the locust trees which he was forced
to cut off in order to dig new grave. In
former years, with a spade and a pickax
he could dig good grave in about -four
hours. Now he had to take an ak and a
crOwbar along, and when he had dug a
grave he found the whole day was used
up Several owners of burial plots that
were inclosed with expensive fences, as
well as those who had erected stones OF
monuments, complained about the preVa.
| lence of locust trees, saying the tangled
growth concealed the graves. The lots
were thickets Of brushwood, and even the
cemetery paths grew up so that men had
| to swamp new roads whenever a body
was Inferred on the further side of the
| Enclosure.
About the time the war closed the resi-
dents woke up to the fact that their beau
| tifu cemetery had been transformed into
a wilderness, filed with brambles and
noxious thorns. Some made onslaughtf
upon the trees, clearing individual lots
| here and there which at once grew up tc
| young locust trees from roots on the I'M
| reclaimed lots. Meetings of lot owners were
| held but no definite plan of action was
| adopted. Meanwhile the locusts grew and
| entrance 10 the cemetery became more
| difficult every year. Shortly after It was
| learned that the locusts could not be
eradicated, the survivors began to take
| up their dead and move them to other Gem.
| eteries. Some went to Mil Creek, Other
| to OrringtOn village, and still others tC
| the hillside yard at Shows Corner Before
| 1870 nearly every body was up and away
| Then the town voted to pay for the re.
moval of those whose friends had all died
! or moved away, and the grave diggers
went all over the yard.
| The work was done well-mueh better
| that the average of such Jobs. Still 1t is
said that some five or six bodies were new.
err found. The rank trees grew so rapidly
and were such greedy feeders that the
ashes Of the dead were taken up to form
wood and blossoms. Chaplin cemetery has
been abandoned for more than twenty
years The locusts are forty feet high and
stand as thickly as troops in review. They
so thoroughly occupy the lands that there
is no room for the living or the dead.