FAMOUS TREES 17 



The elm was nearly 300 years old when felled by a storm in 1810. It 

 is perpetuated to the fourth generation, there being seven of its 

 descendants growing in one place, the campus of Haverford College, 

 Haverford, Montgomery Co., Pa. 



The Charter Oak, Hartford, Conn., which stood in front of Gov- 

 ernor Wyllys' mansion, built in 1638. The charter of the Connecti- 

 cut Colony, granted by King Charles II in 1662, is 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 constitution from 1662 to 1816 

 and conveyed to the colony all the land "from the said Narragansett 

 Bay on the east to the South Sea on the west." The tree blew down 

 in a light gale on August 21, 1856. The hole which concealed the 

 charter had been enlarged enough to hold 25 men. Pieces of the 

 wood were made into gavels, picture frames, and even chairs, one of 

 which stands in the senate chamber of the State capitol. 



A seedling of the Charter Oak stands in the Israel Putnam 

 Memorial Camp Ground, Redding, Conn. A marker near it reads: 



Charter Oak. "A chip off the old block." This tree sprang from an acorn 

 of the famous Charter Oak of Hartford in which the charter of Connecticut 

 was hidden when Sir Edmund Andros, the royal governor, threatened the 

 liberties of the people. 



There is another descendant of the Charter Oak, in Bushnell Park, 

 Hartford, and numerous other descendents may be found in Con- 

 necticut. One was planted near the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, 

 D. C, by a president of the Kiwanis International. 



The Cambridge Elm, under whose branches General Washington 

 took command of the Continental Army on July 3, 1775. One 

 writer says of it : 



This tree, probably the most famous of American elms, was undoubtedly 

 of the original forest growth, and was in its maximum glory when the American 

 Revolutionary leaders met under its branches. 



October 27, 1923 (by coincidence the birthday anniversary of 

 Theodore Roosevelt), witnessed the fall of this great American tree, 

 estimated to be 204 years old at the time. Many of its descendants 

 have been planted throughout the country to perpetuate its fame. 

 (See Washington Elm Grandchild, and other descendants of Wash- 

 ington (Cambridge) Elm, Trees associated with notable people, 

 pp. 2 and 3.) 



In addition to these well-known tree veterans, which have gone 

 their way but whose descendants perpetuate the name, there are 

 others in the same class that should be better known than they are. 

 Among these are the following: 



ARKANSAS 



The Arkansas Council Oak, at Dardanella, under which an im- 

 portant treaty between the Indians and the whites was negotiated, 

 relative to the adjustment of territorial boundaries (fig. 10). 



Liberty Tree, a memorial maple planted at Arkadelphia, by the 

 Daughters of the American Revolution, in soil brought from many 

 parts of the world. 



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