The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-08-08
TREES WITH A HISTORY
Elms Associated With New
England'S Colonial Days.
THEIR ULTIMATE FATE

Famous Treaties Concluded Under
Trees--Landmarks That Tell of the
9ioneers-The Crazy Man Who Gave
apples to the West--Bis Trees of
This Nation.
lhe first Protestant church service
= America was under the trees at
Imestown and the first church bell
rung in the West was the one that
Father Junipero Sierra tied to an arch
ing oak bough at San Diego. The first
agricultural fair in America was held
under giant elm at Pittsfeld, Mass.
the same tree under which the men Of
that neighborhood formed when they
marched away for the War of 1912.
When Connecticut's charter was in
danger Of seizure 1t was hidden in a
hollow oak.
Because the Scotland "dool trees"
or grief trees" on which they hung
their enemies in reality or in efigy,
early colonists here must needs have
something Of the sort. So they chose
to set up liberty trees in New England.
The Scotch had sycamores, the New
England colonists chose elms, which
were made to serve many purposes.
Under them meetings were held, from
their boughs the bodies OF offenders
dangled, and in their shade drunkards,
liars and thieves sat in the stocks.
One tree on Boston Common had
a dark history. 1t stood near the
long path that DR.. Holmes immortal
lied in his "Autocrat of the Breakfast
Table" and on it were hanged Mar
garet Jones and Anne Hlpbons, two
witches of early days, and Mary Dyer,
the Quakeress. Under it Mrs. Oliver
was hogged for 'reproaching magis-
trates."
In 1876 this old tree fell in wind
storm, and detachment of police had
to be called to keep the souvenir col
lectors from cutting it to pieces. An
offspring of this tree, about forty
years old, is to take its place.
The dean of Americas historic trees
is the Washington elm Of Cambridge.
Under this tree Washington first took
command Of the American Army, July
1775," reads the inscription compiled
Longfellow and engraved on a tab
:. Some say that the first evangelist
America, George Whitefield, preacn-
under this same tree. Twice has
lightning struck it-both times in
.as same place-and no doubt its days
are now numbered.
One Of the famous peace oaks that
stood in front of John Eliot's old
meeting house at Natick is said to be
still in existence. 1t was brought to
the missionary by the Indians he had
taught and planted by them as an ex-
preston of peace. At Dedham another
oak is pointed out as the pulpit once
used by George Fox the Quaker, when
a meeting house was denied him.
Penn's famous treaty tree fell in a
gale nearly hundred years ago. It's
prominence was so marked in its early
days that the English soldiers placed
special guard around it during the
Revolution. After 1t was felled by a
gale in 1910, a great part of the tree
was sent to the old Penn family seat
at Stoke, near Windsor, England,
where it is still preserved.
Jane McCrea, 1777," is an inscrip-
tion that was seen for a long while
on a large pine tree near Fort Edward
on the Hudson. This tree was the sill
ent witness of the death of the girl
whose scalp was taken by an Indian
to Burgoyne's camp and sold, whereat
her lover, who recognized II, deserted
the army that would allow such prac-
uces.
For many long years mulberry
tree stood to mark the place where the
Calverts and the Indians made the
treaty that gave Maryland to the Cath
olics but it fell fifty years ago. Church
furniture was made Of it for use in
the ancient town of st. Mary's and the
Bishop of Maryland has a gavel made
from bit Of it.
The strength Of the tree Is almost
Incredible. At jamestown a sycamore
tree grew up between the graves OF
Commissary Blair and his wife. 1t
carried one-third of Mrs Blair's tomb
three feet above the surface, holding
1t fast In crotch, while the roots
and the body of the tree shattered
into tiny bits the stone slab that
marked the commissary's tomb.
A once noted tree Of the Middle
West was the Miami apple tree that
stood at the junction OF the st. Mary
and ST. Joseph rivers. 1t must have
Sprung from seed dropped by French
priest or trader long ago. In wig
wan under this tree the Miami chief
Wild Cat was born.
Other apple trees were found down
the valleys by the first settlers, though