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Show & "Hints' h 3 -1 ,-1 -'11 T $g"'m I if ' 7 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON fjj RESIDENT COOLIDGE'S J? proclamation, setting W aside the week of April M 22 to 28 as American W Forest Week and urging ' that "where practicable i and not in conflict : with law or custom, Arbor Day be observed during the course of the week." should make all Americans Amer-icans "iree-minded," in that they should "give thought to the preservation and wise use of our forests." It might be well also to give thought to some of the famous trees which have stood or are still standing on the soil of the United States and which have played their part in the history making of this nation. In fact, so important has been the role of trees in American history that the American Tree association a few years ago established a hall of fame for trees and immediately citizens in all parts of the country, proud of the historic trees in their communities, nominated them for places in this gallery gal-lery of honor. Although nearly every state boasts of one or more trees which is .well known locally or throughout the state, there are comparatively few which are or have been objects of national veneration. There are three, however, which are probably known to every American. First of these perhaps, is the Washington Elm in Cambridge, Mass., under which George Washington took command of the Continental army on July 3, 1775 The long and honored career of this tree, then more than 350 years old came to an end in August. 1923, when the whole trunk cracked and fell while workmen were pulling a dead branch from it. Another famous tree of the same species was the Treaty Elm on the banks of the Delaware river under un-der whose branches William Penn and the Indians made "the only treaty between these people and the Christians that was not ratified by oath and that was never broken," an agreement that gave the famous Quaker title to the land which later became the great state of Pennsylvania. Pennsyl-vania. The Treaty Elm was blown down in 1S10 and its age at that time was estimated to have been 2S3 years. The third in the trilogy of "most famous trees" was not an elm, but what schoolboy does not know the thrilling history of the Charter Oak which once stood in Hartford, Conn. In its hollow trunk it once held the charter of the colony of Connecticut where Capt. Joseph Wadsworth placed It -when the lights were suddenly sud-denly extinguished on that historic occasion in 13S7 when Sir Edmund Andros who had been appointed royai governor of New England, demanded that the assembly surrender to him I this symbot of their liberties as Eng-I Eng-I lish citizens. And when the Charter I Oak was uprooted by a storm in 1S5G I the whole state of Connecticut went into mourning, church bells were tolled nnd this great oak, which was believed to be between 700 and 1,000 years old, Is the only tree on record for which "funerai services" were ever held. Although the following Is by no 1 means a complete list of all the historic his-toric trees in the United States which have been registered in the tree hall of fame or otherwise honored by the American people, (some of them still had ever been held in the capital. "Tree That Owns Itself," an oak in Athens, Ga., which owns the land on which it stands through a deed made by Dr. W. H. Jackson, a member mem-ber of the faculty of the University of Georgia, when the opening of a street through that land threatened its destruction. Scythe Tree, in Waterloo, N. Y. When Wyburn Johnson enlisted in the Union army in 1801, he hung his scythe in a crotch of a small tree, to be left there until his return.. He was killed in battle and the tree in its growth enveloped the scythe until un-til now it is firmly embedded in the trunk with only the point showing. Wesley Oak on St. Simon's island, Ga. Under this tree both John and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodist church in America, preached their first sermons on this, continent. Webster Tree near Franklin, N. H. On this tree Daniel Webster hung his scythe when he decided to go to Dartmouth college and "the path from this tree led Webster to congress and to the office of the secretary of state. He never reached the Presidency, bu' he twice refused the nomination for vice president and in both cases the head of the ticket on which he would have been elected died in office." Council Oak in Sioux City, Iowa, beneath which Lewis and Clark camped and held one of their first councils with the Indians after leaving leav-ing St. Louis. Battle Ground Oak at Guilford Court House, N. C, also called the Liberty Tree. It stands on the battle bat-tle ground of Guilford Court House, fought March 15. 17S1, "the battle that won the revolution," since Cornwallis, costly victory there led directly to Yorktown and his surrender. General Gener-al Greene is said to have tied his horse to this tree during the bartle. Kentucky Coffee Tree in front of the Ver Planck mansion at Fishkill-on-Hudson, occupied by Baron Steuben Steu-ben during the revolution. The first meeting of the Society of the Cincinnati Cin-cinnati was held under this tree. Live Oak at Pomona, Calif., marking mark-ing the spot where in 1S37 the first white settlers camped in the Ptnnnna valley. ' Abraham Lincoln Tree in Decon.h. Iowa, a hackberry planted by Holm Finn in memory of t'ie martyred President on April 27, 1SG5, the day which the governor of Iowa nad designated as a day of mourning for Lincoln. The tree is now 110 feet high and ne:irly 12 feet around. I standing and some long since passed away) it will give an idea of the intimate association of some monarch of the forest with some history-making event : Washington Elm near Palmer. Mass., on the Springfield-Boston highway, high-way, of which it is recorded that "beneath this tree Washington rested and refreshed himself and delivered a short address only three days previous previ-ous to taking command of the army at 'ambridge." Liberty Tree, an elm which stood m Boston Common and under which meetings to protest against the Stamp Act- and other oppressions by England Eng-land were held by the patriots. It was cut down in 1775 while the British Brit-ish army occupied Boston, for firewood fire-wood and for revenge upon the "rebels." Lafayette Tree, In front of Lafayette's La-fayette's headquarters at Yorktown. Va. The house still contains imbedded in its walls cannon balls fired during the siege of Yorktown and previous to the surrender of Cornwallis. Treaty Tree, near Vincennes. Ind.. sole survivor of a walnut grove in which Gen. William Henry Harrison held a council with the great Indian chief, Tecumseh, August 12-16, 1810. Boone's "Bar" Tree, on Boone's creek, a small tributary of the Wau-tauga Wau-tauga in eastern Tennessee, which while still standing bore the inscription, inscrip-tion, carved by the noted pioneer, "D. Boon cilled A BAR on this tree year 17G0." Daniel Boone Judgment Tree, an elm at Femme Osage, about fifty-five fifty-five miles west of St. Louis on a farm which was part of the land tilled by Boone during his Missouri residence in 1S20. It is ,so named from the fact that Boone held court under it during dur-ing the hot days of summer. John Brown's Tree, a white oak near Barkhamsted, Conn., under whose brandies John Brown of Osawatonfie and Harper's Ferry fame played as a child, calling it "my tree" and revisiting re-visiting It every time he returned to the ancestral home jn Connecticut. It is also called the Council Tree, because of its use for that purpose by Indians of that vicinity. Morse Elm in Washington, D. C, named for Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor in-ventor of the telegraph, who often sat beneath it and related to interested interest-ed listeners the wonders of the telegraph. tele-graph. Standing at the corner of Pennsylvania avenue and Fourteenth street, this elm had looked down upon every Inaugural parade that The Meadow Brook club, In Long Island, has obtained 54 additional acres, on which three new polo fields will be laid out. making a total of eight fields suitable for championship play. Prominent among members of the boxing team at the United States Naval Na-val academy, at Annapolis, Md., Is George M. Moffet;, son of Rear Admiral Ad-miral Moffet, head of the naval bu reau of aeronautics. He is a featb erwelght. |