ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
382 
Specimen Programs. —Port Henry, N. V. — Continued. 
[From Benson J. Lossing, an American Historian.] 
The Ridge, Dover Plains, N. Y., April 22, 1889. 
My Dear Sir — Impressing on the minds of the young the importance of performing 
certain duties is sure to bear abundant fruit in the future. 
Among the duties which every generation owes to posterity, that of tree-planting, 
whether for the production of fruit, or for shade, or for timber, is very conspicuous. It 
is a beneficent and patriotic service, for it redounds to the comfort of man and the good 
of one’s country. 
Bryant wrote, long ago : 
“ The groves were God’s first temples. Ere m; 
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave. 
And spread the roof above them — ere he frar 
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood. 
Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down. 
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
And supplication. For his simple heart 
in learned Might not resist the sacred influences 
Which, from the stilly twilight of the place, 
“ J ' the gray old trunks that high in heave 
Thus were trees spontaneously dedicated to the worship of the Almighty. 
Trees have stood for generations, living witnesses of notable deeds of men. Many in 
our own country have been so made memorable. I will allude to a few of them. 
On the banks of the Genesee river stood an oak believed to have been a thousand 
years old, called “ The Big Tree.” Under it the Seneca Nation of Indians held coun¬ 
cils ; and it gave the title, “ Big Tree,” to one of the eminent chiefs of that nation, at the 
period of our Revolution. I measured it in the summer of 1857. It was twenty-six feet 
in circumference. It was swept away by a flood in the autumn of that year. 
The Elm tree at Philadelphia, under which William Penn made a treaty with the 
Indians in 1682, stood until March, 1810, when it was prostrated by a gale. 
A pear-tree that stood on the cprncr of Thirteenth street and Third avenue, in New 
York city, bore fruit until i860, when it perished. It was planted in his garden by Peter 
Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Governor of New Netherlands (now New York), in 1667. 
In Cambridge, Mass., near Boston, there yet stands, though in a decaying condition, 
the huge Elm tree under which Washington {00k command of the Continental Army in 
July, 1775. The holder of the pen with which this letter is written is a piece of that tree. 
There stood, until 1840, near Charleston, S. C., a magnificent magnolia tree, under 
which Gen. Lincoln signed the capitulation of that city in 1789. I saw it lying prostrate, 
Jelled by an axe. 
The Charter Oak, in Hartford, Ct., which was prostrated by a September gale in 1848, 
when it measured twenty-five feet in circumference, was estimated to be six hundred 
3'ears old, when the first emigrants, under Hooker, from Boston to the Connecticut Valley, 
looked upon it with wonder. 
The “ Fox Oak,” at Flushing, Long Island, under which George Fox, the founder of 
the Society of Friends, or Quakers, preached in 1676, perished only a few years ago. It, 
and another like it, stood near the house of John Browne, who had espoused the religious 
tenets of Fox, and who entertained him on the occasion of his visit. 
This list might be greatly enlarged. My letter is already too long, and I will close by 
expressing a hope that the young people under your charge who may engage in tree¬ 
planting on Arbor Day will appreciate the importance and value of their pleasant task. 
Please present to the young workers my kindest salutations, and accept the same for 
yourself. Yours very truly, 
Benson J. Lossing. 
[From Will Carleton, an American Poet.] 
420 Green Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y., April 26, 1889 
Dear Sir — Yours of the 6th is received. I appreciate deeply the honor conferred by 
you and your school, in dedicating a tree to me, and hope to stand, sometime, with you 
and them, beneath its shade. 
Trees are silent sentinels, that never desert their post, till death or violence calls or 
drives them away. They are friends, protectors and teachers ; they lead us naturally by 
their innocent, lofty beauty, to “ look through Nature up to Nature’s God.” 
With kind regards to all, I remain Yours sincerely, 
Will Carleton. 
