One cannot help echoing, regretfully the words of Mrs. J. J. 

 Wilder, President of the Georgia Society of the Colonial Dames of 

 America, "If our patriotic societies had been founded earlier, how 

 much might have been saved. . . ." 



The late Professor Lucien M. Underwood, a director of the New 

 York Botanical Garden, in a lecture delivered in 1902, told of the 

 amusing misstatements made about the sweet gum trees by a number 

 of newspapers and magazines, which described them variously, as 

 oaks, maples and elms; one of Hamilton's grandsons insisting that 

 they were lime trees, brought from Washington's home at Mt. 

 Vernon. 



As Professor Underwood states, however, the trees were "not 

 oaks and not maples and not elms and not limes (or lindens) but plain 

 straightforward examples of sweet gum (Liquid Amber) a tree not 

 uncommon in the native forests about New York, and yet one whose 

 corky-winged twigs are sometimes sold on the city streets as 'rare 

 alligator-wood from the tropics'." 



The Treaty Tree of Grosse Ile 



The magnificient old basswood or linden tree of Grosse Ile, 

 Mich., the largest of the group of islands at the mouth of the Detroit 

 River, was witness of an important transaction, two days after the 

 signing of the Declaration of Independence. 



The island had long been a place of historic note. It was the 

 home of the Potawatamie nation, and while Chief Pontiac besieged 

 Detroit, afforded a camping ground for the Hurons. Other Indians, 

 also made it their headquarters when attacking the boats that came 

 from Niagara to relieve the garrison in a state of siege nearby. Grosse 

 Ile was situated on the trade route connecting Albany, Detriot and 

 Macinac and frequented by white fur-traders and Indians. Cadillac 

 considered it as the site of the city of Detroit, Mich., but abandoned 

 the idea, fearing there was not sufficient timber. Inl707, he deeded 

 the island to his daughter. 



The old linden had flung its shade over many a negotiation be- 

 tween the whites and the red men. Under its branches, on July 6, 

 1776, a treaty was signed, conveying the island to two merchants of 

 Detroit, Alexander and William Macomb, who purchased it for a 

 little money, blankets and tobacco. It was of great importance that 

 the island should pass into American ownership, otherwise, "division 

 of the waters of the great Detroit River might have been changed." 



Several Indian tribes were represented on this solemn occasion, 

 the Fox and Sacs tribes, the Kikapoos and Potawatamies all being 

 mentioned. The chiefs signed the agreement by drawing their totems 

 on the deed, a fish, bear, wild cat, doe, deer, fawn with one leg, etc. 

 One of these totems is the first sketch of the American eagle known to 

 exist anywhere. The chief's eldest sons, not yet warriors, signed by 

 making their thumb-prints. Tecumseh, "the torch of the North 

 West" was one of the chiefs who signed the document. 



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