CHAPTER XIV 



The Jane McCrea Pine — Abolition Grove — Holmes and Whittier 

 Pines — The Kit Carson Tree— The McKinley Tree — The 

 Sequoias, Big Trees and Redwoods. 



The Jane McCeea Pine 



A pine tree, that witnessed the tragic death of Jane McCrea, 

 stood at Sandy Hill, in New York State. The young girl, who was 

 engaged to marry David Jones, an officer in Peters' Regiment of 

 Loyalists, set out to meet her lover at his brother's home, in the neigh- 

 borhood of General Frazer's camp, escorted by two Indians, one of 

 whom was the Huron Chief, Wyandotte Panther. 



A keg of rum had been promised the two savages if she were 

 delivered in safety at her destination, but on the way, they began 

 quarreling over the reward, and in order to prevent his companion 

 from enjoying any of it, Wyandotte Panther scalped the maiden 

 imder the pine tree. The crime was committed on June 27th, the day 

 before Burgoyne broke camp at Fort Edward. The massacre filled 

 the countryside with horror. 



Aboution Grove 



The white pine, with its smooth bark and soft, bluish-green tas- 

 sels, is the most beautiful of its family, and also invested with much 

 historic interest. The splendid group of white pines at Abington, 

 Mass., known as Island Grove, or more frequently as Abolition Grove, 

 has been called "the place where the Civil War began." Here, noted 

 men and women frequently made eloquent speeches advocating the 

 abolition of slavery. Webster and Garrison were both among the 

 many speakers, adding their efforts to prove "that slavery can only 

 be overthroAvn by adherence to principle." Meetings of the aboli- 

 tionists were held in the grove, annually, from 1846 to 1865. A great 

 boulder, bearing a copper plate with a long inscription, designates the 

 spot where the speakers stood. 



Holmes and Whittier Pines 



Two white pines, one in Massachusetts, the other in New Hamp- 

 shire, were ardently venerated and loved by two of our best known 

 American poets. The splendid specimen at Pittsfield, Mass., noted as 

 the Oliver Wendell Holmes Pines, is ninety-seven feet in height, and 

 its branches cast their shade over an area of almost ninety feet. 



"Whittier's Pine Tree," which the Quaker poet dedicated in 

 1886, as the "Wood Giant," stands on the Sturtevant Farm, near 

 Sunset Hill, Centre Harbor, N. H. 



77 



