tree has withstood a number of severe storms, and every spring it 

 breaks into leaf with renewed vigor. 



It bears the following inscription: "This tablet placed upon the 

 Liberty Tree by the Peggy Stewart Tea Party Chapter Daughters of 

 the American Revolution, of Annapolis, Maryland, October 19, 1907, 

 to commemorate the first treaty made here with the Susquehannocks 

 in 1652, and that George Washington in 1791, and General Lafayette 

 in 1824, visited St. John's College. Through the munificence of 

 James T. Woodward, of New York City, this tree, estimated to be 

 over six hundred years old, has been preserved from decay." 



THE BALMVILLE TREE 



A short trolley-ride northward from Newburgh-on-the-Hudson, 

 N. Y., carries one to the village of Balmville, named after the old 

 balsam poplar, of immense size, that stands in the centre of the 

 little town. The surrounding country is as full of historic associations 

 as of natural beauty. 



During the Revolution, the town of Newburgh, where Wash- 

 ington occupied headquarters, and Balmville, situated on a much 

 traveled route known as the King's Highway, were frequented by the 

 American troops. The huge poplar or Balm of Gilead Tree, so-called 

 on account of the gum secreted by the leaf -buds and young shoots, 

 and supposed to possess healing properties stood on the Highway. 

 John Cosman, who before the Revolution was apprenticed to a black- 

 smith in the neighborhood, is quoted as stating that he often shod 

 horses under the tree which even then was good sized. 



But little is known of its early history. According to one account 

 it grew from a riding-switch that was stuck in the ground; it is also 

 said to have been brought as a small branch, broken from a tree in the 

 mountains of New Jersey. Another tradition says that it sprang up, 

 naturally, in the place where it now stands. 



Whatever may be the truth concerning the origin of the huge 

 tree, however, it is noteworthy both by reason of its probable useful- 

 ness to the travelers of early days, and also its remarkable proportions, 

 the diameter of a poplar ordinarily averaging about seven feet. The 

 Balmville Tree has been measured several times, and the results 

 recorded 1 . In Rutenber's History of Orange County and Newburgh, 

 it is said that a Mr. James Donnelly who first saw the tree about 1782, 

 stated that it was then six or eight inches around, with a spreading 

 top. In 1832, the trunk was measured by a Mr. Williams, who found 

 that at two feet above the ground, its diameter was fifteen feet, two 

 inches; in 1868, it had increased to nineteen feet, five inches. Today 

 it has reached a circumference of twenty-one feet, eight inches, at two 

 feet above ground level, indicating that it may be much older than is 

 estimated. 



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