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James Buchanan near Lancaster, Pa., 

 the Grant Elm planted by President 

 Grant in 1870 on the lawn in front of 

 Woodstock Academy in Connecticut, 

 the six tall hickories flanking the tomb 

 of Andrew Jackson and his good wife, 

 Rachel, at the Hermitage near Nash- 

 ville, Tenn., and the Lincoln Oak at 

 Lincoln's birthplace at Hodgenville, 

 Ky., are examples of the many trees as- 

 sociated with Presidents of the Nation. 



Many other trees have been asso- 

 ciated with notable persons: The an- 

 cient oak at Crockett, Tex., under 

 which David Crockett was said to have 

 camped during his journey from the 

 States to help Texas in its struggle for 

 freedom from Mexican rule; the Buf- 

 falo Bill Elm, near Le Claire, Iowa, 

 under which William F. Cody played 

 when a boy; the giant hemlocks in 

 Germantown, Pa., which, according 

 to tradition, were planted by William 

 Penn ; and the horsechestnut at Strat- 

 ford-on-the-Potomac, Va., mentioned 

 in Gen. Robert E. Lee's diary as hav- 

 ing been planted by his mother, Anne 

 Carter Lee. 



The lovely Charter Oak, in Hart- 

 ford, Conn., was a famous historical 

 shrine in earlier days. The charter of 

 the Connecticut Colony, granted by 

 King Charles II in 1662, was supposed 

 to have been hidden in the oak by a 

 patriot when Sir Edmund Andros de- 

 manded its surrender in 1687, at the 

 command of King James II. The 

 charter served Connecticut as a con- 

 stitution from 1662 to 1816 and con- 

 veyed to the Colony all the land "from 

 the said Narragansett Bay on the east 

 to the South Sea on the west." When 

 the tree blew down in 1856, the hole 

 that concealed the charter had been 

 enlarged enough to hold 25 men, so it 

 was said. Pieces of the wood were made 

 into gavels, picture frames, and chairs; 

 one of the chairs stands in the senate 

 chamber of the State capitol. 



A number of Indian trail trees may 

 still be found at various places in the 

 Mississippi Valley. The trees were 

 bent over when they were small sap- 

 lings to mark an Indian trail, and for 



Yearboo\ of Agriculture 1949 



that reason often have several upright 

 branches growing from the horizontal 

 trunk. A good example of an Indian 

 trail tree has been preserved and 

 marked by the Daughters of the Amer- 

 ican Revolution in Evanston, 111. 



Many trees are famous in literature. 

 The Evangeline Oak at St. Martinville, 

 La., marks the place where the Aca- 

 dians, driven from Nova Scotia, landed 

 in 1 758. It was immortalized by Long- 

 fellow's famous poem. Under the 

 boughs of the Lanier Oak at Bruns- 

 wick, Ga., the southern poet, Sidney 

 Lanier, was inspired to write "The 

 Marshes of Glynn." A tree since 

 known as "Whittier's Pine Tree," near 

 Sunset Hill, N. H., was named the 

 "Wood Giant" by Whittier. The 

 "Great Elm of Concord" in Massachu- 

 setts was beloved of Emerson, Haw- 

 thorne, and Thoreau. A tree in Wise 

 County, Va., was made famous by John 

 Fox, Jr., in his novel, The Trail of the 

 Lonesome Pine. The tree in Tuo- 

 lumne County, Calif., under which 

 Mark Twain wrote The Jumping Frog 

 of Calaveras County, which made him 

 famous overnight, was known as the 

 "Mark Twain Oak" until it was felled 

 in 1929. Many other trees can be 

 found that are associated with Ameri- 

 can authors, or that have a place in 

 American literature. 



Many trees of historical or senti- 

 mental interest have been destroyed or 

 have suffered from neglect. Many 

 others have been preserved through the 

 efforts of civic organizations or inter- 

 ested local citizens. 



In Norfolk, Va., Memorial Oak, a 

 tree that is believed to antedate the 

 city itself, was purchased jointly by the 

 city and the Garden Club of Norfolk 

 in 1923 and dedicated as a memorial 

 to the sons of Norfolk who died in the 

 First World War. 



In McAlester, Okla., a lone pine 

 stands in the middle of a wide street, 

 protected by fence and concrete curb- 

 ing. It is an example of the many 

 favorite trees that a tree lover or civic- 

 minded group saved by changing road 

 locations or building plans. 



