FAMOUS TREES 33 



between the Iroquois and Sir William Johnson were also held under 

 this tree. These conferences led to the opening of the Ohio Territory. 



Elm of Italy Hollow (71, pp. U~¥; 85, pp. 9-12). Old Indian 

 council tree, near the border of the towns of Potter and Middlesex. 

 Standing at the junction of several Indian trails, it furnished an 

 accessible meeting place for the various tribes. 



Fort Stanwix Elm Sapling, in the city of Rome, near which the 

 Iroquois Indians and the United States made the treaty by which 

 the Indians signed over a vast portion of their lands in the West to 

 the United States in 1788. This tree is one of the claimants to hav- 

 ing flown the first American flag — one was flown from it on August 

 6, 1776. 



Markham Elm, on the Markham estate, 2 miles north of Avon. 

 The Indians of western NeAY York held this tree in great veneration 

 and made a favorite camping ground of the spot. It also served as 

 a resting place for early missionaries, scouts, and traders. 



Pioneer Elm, Ballston Lake, near which stood the log cabin of 

 Michael and Patrick McDonald, first white settlers in Saratoga 

 County, 1763. 



Another "birthplace" of the Republican Party (see Republican 

 Party Oaks, p. 30) is the claim of an elm at the corner of South 

 Avenue and West Onondaga Street, Syracuse. There, in the early 

 sixties, in what was then the garden of Vivus W. Smith, editor and 

 abolitionist, assembled a noteworthy gathering, consisting of Smith 

 himself, Horace Greeley, Thurlow Weed, and William H. Seward ; 

 afterward Lincoln's Secretary of State. These men are said there 

 to have drawn up and subscribed their names to a set of principles 

 that governed the beginnings of the party. 



Seneca Council Elm, near Kanandesaga (now Geneva). Besides 

 sheltering the conclaves of the Seneca Indians, this old elm marked 

 otherAvise historic ground. Kanandesaga figured in the French and 

 Indian Wars and the Revolution. During the Revolution the Seneca 

 chief was Big Tree. 



Council Maple, on the old Hutchinson estate, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga, 

 under which Indians held their conferences. 



Council Oak of Penn Yan, Yates County. Under this tree the 

 Seneca braves built their council fires and smoked the pipe of peace 

 while they deliberated on the affairs of the Six Nations. 



Red Oak at Lloyds Neck, on the north shore of Long Island, facing 

 Halesite, where Nathan Hale, hero of the American Revolution, was 

 finally captured by the British on September 21, 1776, and hanged 

 the next day. He it was who said that he truly regretted that he 

 had but one life to give for his country. 



Whipping tree at Peekskill. This tree, an oak, is still flourishing 

 in a field adjoining the grounds of the Van Cortland Manor house, 

 Washington's headquarters when he was in Peekskill. Here La- 

 fayette, Rochambeau, Von Steuben, and other famous soldiers, were 

 entertained. Beneath this tree strenuous correction was adminis- 

 tered to deserters from the American cause in Revolutionary times, 

 whence its name. 



47782°— 38 3 



