The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1949-08-25
True Tales About Ohio

4
evening in the late 1780's, Their lay
down to dream of the beautiful land
he had discovered" and believed
was to be his own. The Indians
tomahawked Peter before daybreak
but his initials remained on the huge
tree for generations-"P P" That
is how the creek got its name, "Pee
Pee creek"
There was another tall tree-the
100-foot sheer stone precipices in
Licking County. There, on the way
with his Indian captors to the
savages' burning ground" on Pick
away Plains, unidentified pioneer had
carved with his hunting knife: "This
is the road to hell-1T82." The
great tree stood for decades, then
rotted and fell.
Ohio's Biggest Tree
The biggest tree ever in Ohio, it is
believed was the "Tree of Fifteen
Horsemen," great sycamore on the
once Abram Miller's farm, in Valley
Township, Scioto County. 1t was a
forked, hollow sycamore measuring
q feet in diameter at its base and az
| feet in circumference five feet up.
The opening at its cavity was 10
feet wide at the bottom and nine and
| one-half feet high, with an inside
diameter of IA feet. The fork was
eight feet from tn ground.
In June, 1903, party of 13 per-
sons on horseback rode into the hol-
low and stated there was ample
room for two more, had they beer
there. William Headley, Frederick
| County, Virginia, was one of the
horsemen. Next November Major
William Reynolds, GAINESVILLE, inspect,
ed the tree and gave it the first
wide publicity.
The tree still stood when the land
was sold and turned into q stock
farm by Thomas Dugan. Dugar
turned some blooded bulls into the
field where the tree was and they
got to fighting within the hollow
The vanquished were driven to the
wall and gored to death. They
could not find the opening. Dugan
then ordered the huge tree cut down.
The stump stood for several years
| and some hogs, turned into the field,
got the cholera. Dugan believed that
so many hogs of all sizes and kinds
crowded together in one old stump,
caused the malady.
The land owner then tore out the
stump, and with it went all memory
of "Ohio's biggest tree"
Logan Elm
The Logan Elm" still stands six
miles south of Circleville and two
and one-half miles east of the Scioto
River, almost "on the bank of Congo
creek" The trees girth was 20 feet
and its height, 10 feet. Spread of
it's branches was 120 feet in dia-
meter when measured few years
ago.
| 1t was under the Logan Elm that
the Mingo chief is said to have made
his famous speech. A log cabin
built there in 1898 was the home of
the James Boggs family but was
torn down in 1882 after it long had
been used as tool house. 1t per-
haps, is the most famous Ohio tree
still standing.
Another great tree was the broken
| sycamore on the Muskingum River
| bank near Marietta. 1t was a
stump, Is feet tall but 13 feet in
diameter. The tree was hollow, the
inside burned almost to q shell. If
| cut off about two feet from the
| ground the hollow would hold Ga
men, allowing IS inches to the man
But the hollow sloped narrower to-
wards the top of the stump. Six
| horsemen could ride into the tree
abreast at the same time. Though
wide at the bottom the sycamore
was only six feet through ,16 feet
| above the ground.
Big Walnut Tree
Another big Muskingum River
bank tree was black walnut whose
circumference was % feet five inches
above the ground. 1t and the broken
sycamore were measured in 1888.
A huge elm, near the Children's
Home, in the Muskingum valley,
| near Marietta, was "a feet in girth
| two feet above the ground. Five
feet above the ground the girth was
Is feet The length of it's branches
"from north to south" was 127 feet