FAMOUS TREES 51 



CONNECTICUT 



Beecher Elm, Litchfield. This elm stands near the site of the 

 Lyman Beecher House. Lyman Beecher was the Congregational 

 minister in Litchfield from 1810 to 1824 and was the father of Harriet 

 Beecher Stowe and seven Congregational ministers. 



Oldest Inhabitant (an oak), Fairfield. (See Trees associated with 

 the building of the Nation, p. 20.) 



The Great Elm, Wethersfield. (See Trees notable for unusual size 

 or age, p. 73.) 



The 1812 White Oak, East Glastonbury. (See Trees associated with 

 the building of the Nation, p. 20.) 



Great White Oak, Hebron. In 1829 a bell for the new edifice of 

 First Congregational Church was sent to Middle Haddam Landing 

 from Boston. Hebron men with yokes of oxen brought the bell from 

 the landing, and, unable to restrain their eagerness to hear the bell, 

 they hung it over a branch of this oak. The church burned in 1882 

 and the bell with it, but the tree is still^in vigorous condition showing 

 no signs of decay. 



Glebe House Sycamore, Woodbury. This very large old sycamore 

 is identified with the Glebe House, in which Samuel Seabury was 

 selected as the first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 

 America in 1783. 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 



Twin copper beeches, on front lawn of Georgetown Convent. These 

 magnificent specimens of one of our most beautiful trees must have 

 been in their prime during Civil War days. 



Magnolia grandiflora planted by Mrs. WoodroAv Wilson, second 

 wife of President Wilson, near the famous wall of the Bishop's Gar- 

 den, National Cathedral Close, Washington. Mrs. Wilson used a 

 shovel which had been handled on similar occasions at the cathedral 

 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Prince of Wales, the Arch- 

 bishop of York, the Dean of Chester, and other distinguished visitors. 



Glebe Oak, beside the chapel in Rock Creek Cemetery, is a white 

 oak only 14 feet in circumference but with limbs so tremendous that 

 three of them hang from the height of 10 feet to the roadside. The 

 original glebe was a gift of "1,000 pounds of tobacco and 100 acres 

 of land for the then minister and his successors, and with that in- 

 tent forever." The gift was made in 1719 by "John Bradford, Gen- 

 tleman," of Prince Georges County, Md. A chapel was built beside 

 the tree and, in 1726, became the parish church of Prince Georges 

 parish, replaced later by the present edifice. The tree's roots have 

 been cut back to accommodate burials under the tree until the life of 

 the tree is now endangered (fig 25.) 



Wesley Live Oak, St. Simon Island, off the coast of Georgia, 

 under which preached both John and Charles Wesley, pioneers of 

 Methodism in this country. It stands at the gate of the churchyard 

 of Christ Church, on whose parish register are the names of some 

 of the earliest settlers on the island. 



