Evening star., 1938-11-27

leveling the center of the Avenue
until q pretty good road had been
made of it.. Shortly after this Il
believe in 180D [should be 18O3] the
planting Of trees was commenced
along the Avenue. The manner of
planting them was rather singular
A row was planted on each side of
the street, near where the curb
stones were to be set, and in addi-
ton to this there were two more
rows, of equal distance from the
curbstone, and much nearer the CEN
ter Of the Avenue, which left the
center of the Avenue quite narrow.
The trees were Lombardy poplars,
and were planted by an old man
named Buntin.
II and my younger brothers fire.
tin plant the trees, and I several
times saw Mr.. Jefferson (the Presi-
dent) there. He was always fond
of being where improvements were
being made"
Again the same author speaks of
1SA1 OCh ca cOll AL SOllllCIllOIl WILL tilC
great Tiber freshet in the summer
of 1902 or 1904" as he puts it, when
some of the workmen engaged in
building the Capital were marooned
in some trees in the middle of the
swollen stream and could not be
reached. Says Mr.. Hines:
"Mr. Jefferson felt such anxiety
for these unfortunate men that he
offered fifteen dollars for each per-
son saved, and the use of his horse
to anyone who would make the ven-
ture to rescue them, but no one at
tempted it, and they had to remain
in their unenviable positions all
night. They could be heard at
times Calling to each other to know
if they were still living, and en-
couraging each other to hold on un-
til day. Among the men thus sit
uated were two that we were we'll
acquainted with, viz: Jenny Ford,
9 bricklayer, and Mr.. Blewer, car
penter and an elderly man. Mr..
Ford was stout, athletic man, in
the prime of life. He, suppose,
escaped without much injury, but
Mr.. Blewer was rather weakly, and
did not come off so we'll as some of
the others.
Finding we could not get home
that night. we remained at Mr..
Phillips until morning. I believe
that neither nor my brothers slept
any during the whole night, for
there was continual hustle about
the house, people watching an op-
! portunity when the waters would
subside to rescue those who were in
the swamp.
Toward morning while we were
preparing to return home, young
man brought Mr.. Blewer out of the
swamp into Mr. Phillips house, al
most exhausted. His pantaloons
were torn nearly from his limbs,
the skin rubbed off in attempting
to climb a tree or reach limb, he
being so much fatigued that he
would slide down again. AS soon as
he had sufficiently recovered eve all
being anxious to get home), he was
placed as comfortably as possible
in our cart, and my brothers and
myself started toward home with
him. We proceeded very cautionus-
ly indeed, the flood having washed
numerous holes in the street, and
the condition of Mr.. Blewer caus-
ing him to groan and complain all
the way home.
"At length we reached his house,
and delivered him to his daughters,
Mary and Ellen, who were very
much rejoiced to meet their father
| alive. His house, tWo-story brick,
stood, I think, on Eighteenth street
not far from where Mr.. Moriarty
lived, and near where the late Ra-
phael Jones, Esq, kept grocery
store. My brothers and myself soon
arrived at home, on F street between
Tenth and Eleventh streets, glad
enough to find ourselves once more
safely with our family.
Shortly after this the young man
who rescued Mr.. Blewer from the
swamp and carried him to the house
of Mr.. Phillips, called at our house
with paper, to certify that he was
the person who saved Mr.. Blewer,
which we signed; and he, suppose,
carried 1t to Mr.. Jefferson to claim
the SIS. It must be recollected that
this was many years before the
little island was formed at the
mouth of the Tiber."
The history of the early trees of
the city of Washington-or what we
might call the forest primeval-is
peculiarly interesting from the time
the original proprietors decided their
lands to the Federal Government,
when 1t was expressly reserved to
the property holders to have the
right to the growing wood, except
such as the Commissioners might
select and pay for. And so, In 1796,
we find Comfort e. Sands adver-
Using for sale "all the wood stand
Ing on $50 acres of land in the
city of Washington near the Little
Hotel" And this hotel was in the
vicinity of the White House, or to
be more specific, on the north side
of F street, rs feet east Of Fifteenth
street.
Indeed, the Commissioners seem
to have been satisfied with the bar
gain they had made in purchasing
for public reservations 551 acres at
$66.50 an acre, and since there was
so much wood in the city at that
time, failed to preserve substantially
any Of it for the future. What was
saved was due to private rather than
public forethought. Accordingly, we
are told that of the trees still stand
ing about 1900, there was a beautiful
grove in the block where now meets
the Association of Oldest Inhabi-
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