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Curios and Relics

Plants

Trees

Associated with Lincoln

Excerpts from newspapers and other sources

From the files of the
Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection

ORIGINALS IN THE ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY

ISHAM,LINCOLN & BEALE, COUNSELORS

Edward S. I sham
Robert T. Lincoln

William G. Beale March JO, 1888

Charles P. Mills, Esq.,

Secretary, State Board of Agriculture,
Springfield, Ills.

Dear Sir:-

In reply to your favor of yesterday, I remember having
heard my father speak more specially of the hard maple as a tree
which gratified him by its beauty.

Yours very truly,

Robert T. Lincoln

A Historic Tree.

The oak tree under whose branches
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A.
Douglas held a political debate in 1S5S,
is still standing in Blooiningtou, 111., in
the yard of E. M. Bowen. It appears
to be centuries old. In 1S5S the tree
marked an inclosure then known as
Hinshaw's pasture, a former public
meeting place. George Hinshaw, the
owner, was a Democrat. He arranged
to have the debate there, being an ad-
mirer of Douglas. The two candidates
for United States Senator had engaged
in a series of debates, and the one held
in Bloomington attracted voters from
far and near. A platform for the can-
didates was constructed directly under
the boughs of this old oak. Its
shade protected the audience as well
as the speakers. Only three men aro
now living in Bloomington who beard,
the famous orators. They are John.
Dawson, a.dam Guthrie and W. S. De-i

pew.

_

First Monument to Lincoln

The first monument in honor of Abraham
Lincoln was a little cedar tree planted in
his memory by a boyhood companion who
mourned the removal of the Lincolns from
the backwoods of southern Indiana to the
State of Illinois.

L

Discoverer of the Big Trees

By REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY;

November 20, 1841.

J OHN BIDWELLi did not discover
America, or the planet Jupiter,
or the X-Rays, but he discov-
ered the "Big Trees" of California,
and the great find was made on or
about this day seventy-two years
ago — November 20, 1841. '

The mighty Sequoia of Calaveras
County are among the "wonders" of
the world, and are easily the most
remarkable of trees in age and size,
being from two to four hundred feet
in height and from fifteen to forty
feet in diameter. A fallen trunk is
said to have measured 18 feet in
diameter 300 feet from the base.
The "Keystone State," the tallest of
the Sequoia now standing, measures
325 feet in height and 94 feet around
at the base.

As to the age of the big trees it
can only be said that it must be im-
mense. A high authority declares
that a tree has no limit set by
nature to the term of its existence,
its decay being the result of acci-
dent rather than of any law inher-
ent in its nature.

There are several trees that are
known to be very ancient — the Lom-
l bardy Cypress, for whose sake the

great .Napoleon bent one of his mili-
tary roads out of the straight line,
is known to be as old as the time of
Caesar. The Cedars of Lebanon
date back to the time of Solomon.
The Saintes Oak/is 2,000 years old.
The Mount Etna Chestnut is known
to have stood since the foundation of
Rome. The Yew of Braburne is
2,500 years old; and the Cypress of
Santa Maria del Tale is declared by
no less an authority than the late
Professor Asa Gray to be over 4,000
years old. j '

But it is claimed that the big trees
of California are much older than
any of^ those just mentioned. They
were probably standing on the noble
plateau, 5,000 feet above the Paciflc:
at the time old King Cheops began
the building of his great pyramid by ]
the Nile. It is possible, and prob- j
able, that the giant conifers of the
Sierras are more ancient than apy
monument erected by thei-hands of
man, yes,, older than civilization it-'
self.

At any rate, the big trees are
among the most interesting things
on the planet, appealing to us with
their hoary age as scarcely anything
does in all the world.

COGGER

hr/to /?' #*f 7**'l Z> C , THE

Woman's Relief Corps Has
Charge of Exercises at
Monument Site.

PLAN CALLS FOR AVENUE
OF ELMS TO MONUMENT

Memorial Well Under Way, But Will
Not Be Completed for
Three Years.

With simple but Impressive ceremony,
the Woman's Relief Corps today dedi-
cated the ground upon which will stand
the two trees nearest the Lincoln me-
morial In Potomac Park in the avenue
of trees which will make a vista from
the. memorial to the Washington Monu-
ment.

David J. Palmer, commander-in-chief
of the Grand Army of the Republic,
turned the first spadeful of earth, and
he was succeeded in turning the soil
by Mrs. W. E. Andrews, chairman of
the committee 'in charge of the tree
planting; Mrs. Sarah E. PultOn, na-
tional president of the W. R. C; Mrs.
Mary E> Jameson, national presidept of
the Ladies of the G. A. R.; Mrs. Isabel
Worrell Ball and others.

Trees Must Be Replanted.

Two English elm trees were planted
by the W. R. C. today, the ceremony
beginning at 1:30 o'clock. Owing to
the fact that the terrace around the
Lincoln memorial must be graded, the
trees put in place today are only tem-
porarily planted. As soon as the grad-
ing has been completed they will be
planted permanently in the locations
corresponding to those selected today.
Later markers of bronze will be placed
on the trees by the W. R. C.

Miss Rutji Ayder, a graduate of George
Washington University and the organizer
of the glee club at the unlvers ty last

| year, sang "The Star Spangled Banner"
and "Our Country's Flag." The words

I and music of the latter song were writ-
ten by Mrs. Mary Litz-Parker. who re-
cently organized G. A. R. Logan Circle.
No. 4, W. R. C. The veterans and mem-
bers of. the Relief Corps joined In the
chorus.

Thousands of the members of the
;G. A. R. and the W. R. C. attended the
tree planting, and when the ceremonies
.were completed they went immediately
to the polo field in Potomac Park to
i witness a cavalry drill. The visiting
members of the G. A. R. and the W.
R. C. viewed with much Interest the
progress of the work on the erection
of the $2,000,000 Lincoln memorial.
While the work on this memorial is
well up to time set in all contracts, It
was said today by former Senator
Joseph C. S. Blackburn of Kentucky,
the resident commissioner in charge of
the Lincoln memorial, that not for an-
other three years would the memorial
be completed. He explained that the
act of Congress providing for the erec-
tion of the memorial specified that the
work must be completed within four
years from the time ground was broken
at the start. Ground was broken
February 12, 1914.

Foundations Are Massive.

Senator Blackburn said that the
foundation upon which the massive
structure will stand- had been, so
constructed that it could bear the
weight not only of the memorial, but
aTsnrthat or^the WasfilngforiTBRTnument
and the Capitol combined.

"One hundred and twenty-two steel
tubes four feet in diameter were sunk
from forty to fifty feet to bed rock
and then two feet into the bed rock
itself," said Mr, Blackburn. "These
tubes were then filled with concrete.
This constitutes the subfoundation, arid
the' actual foundation rests upon ' It.
A* great amount of work remains to be
done in the matter of terracing the
ground \around the memorial. There
Is to be a big circular -terrace, in the
middle of which the memorial stands,
and this terrace will be 1,000 feet in
diameter. The terracingr will force
Potomac drive 200* feet from where it
now runs and will necessitate the fill-
ing In of a strip of what is now the
river."

Mr. Washburn explained that begin
nlng tomorrow the trees which will
form the avenue from the memorial to
the Washington Monument will be set
out. This avenue will form a contin-
uation of the trees planted today by
the W. R. c:

Agitated for Years. w

For years the question of building a
great national memorial to Abraham
Lincoln in the capital was agitated in
Congress, and many different plans for
such a memorial were discussed. But
lit was not until February 9, 1911, that
an act of Congress was finally ap-
proved by President Taft providing
for the appointment of the Lincoln
.memorial commission to select a memo-
rial to Lincoln and authorizing the
expenditure of $2,000,000. This was but
the first step, however, and after the
commission had selected a site and
picked out the design for the memor
rial Con g-ress had to place its approval
upon the commission's action. The Lin-
coln memorial commission was aided
in Its work by the national commis-
sion of fine arts.

The approval of Congress for the
erection of the memorial was not
gained without many heated debates
In which other proposed memorials
were advocated, among them a Lin-
coln Highway from Washington to the
battlefield of Gettysburg, Pa.: an arch
on Meridian Hill. 16th street; Fort
Stevens, five miles north of the city
of Washington; a memorial bridge
connecting Potomac Park and Arling-
ton, and a memorial In Soldiers' Home
grounds.

... Members of Commission.

; The Lincoln memorial commission-
consists of former President Taft.J
chairman; Representative Joseph G.'i
Cannon, former Senator George P. Wet-;
more, former Representative S. W. Mc-
Call, Speaker Clark, Senator Thomas
8. Martin Vnd Special Resident Com-
missioner Joseph C. S. Blackburn.

To aid the commission in the selec-
tion of a site and design for the me-
morial, Henry Bacon of New York and
John Russell Pope, also of New York,
architects, were selected to prepare de-
signs. Mr. Bacon was requested to pre-
pare a design for the site In Potomac
Park, which was originally selected
by the park commission more than a
decade ago and approved by the na-
tional fine arts commission. Mr. Pope
was requested to prepare designs for
sites in the Soldiers' Home grounds
md.on Meridian Hill 'n 16th street.
These designs were submitted to the
commission in 1911, and after careful
consideration and. consultation with the
fine arts commission, the Potomac Park
site and design were selected. Mr. Ba-
con's design was adopted, and he is
the architect In charge of the work.

The Potomac Park site was selected
originally because it Is on the axis of
the Capitol and the Washington Monu-
ment, and therefore has an Importance
which no other site selected in the Dis-
trict would have. By means of terraces
the ground at the site of the memorial

is to be raised until, the floor o£ the i
memorial is forty-five feet higher than
the present grade. In the center of the
plateau of raised ground will stand
the marble memorial hall.

Features of Memorial.

The memorial as designed by Mr. Ba-
con will consist of four main' features,
a statue of Lincoln, a memorial of h'#
Gettysburg speech, a memorial of his
second Inaugural speech and a symbol
of the union of the United States. Mr.
Bacon said in regard to these features:

"The most important object is the
statue of Lincoln, which la-' placed In
the~ center of ""the nrerriorTair" TnTs~ppr,
tion of the memorial where the statue
is placed will be unoccupied by any
other object that would detract from
its effectiveness, and the visitor will be-
alone with it.

"The smaller halls at each side of the
central space will each contain a me-
morial— one of the second inaugural
and the other of the Gettysburg ad-
dress. These speeches will be shown
by bronze letters arranged on a monu-
ment tablet, and adjacent low reliefs
or decoration will relate in allegory
Lincoln's great qualities evident in
those speeches.

."Surrounding the walls inclosing
these memorials of the man is planned .
a colonnade forming a symbol oV the
Union, each column representing a
state — thirty-six in all — for each state
existing at the time of Lincoln's death,
and on the walls appearing above the
colonnade and supported at intervals
by eagles are forty-eight memorial
festoons, one for each state existing
at the present time."

wi :

May Open Hall of Fame to Tree
Planted as Lincoln Memorial

rflo -

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21. — The only " " ' ' '

tree known to have been planted in
memory of Abraham Lincoln right aft-
er his assassination has been nomi-
nated for a place in the Hall of Fame '
for "trees with a history" which the
American Forestry Association is com-
piling. A. S. Bailey of Decorah, la.,
where the tree now stands, informed
the association that the tr£e was
planted by one John Finn, whois still
| living.

When Abraham Lincoln was assas-

[sinared Mr. Finn was in Chicago and

, he returned home much depressed. A

I few days later, on April 21, 18U5, Gov-
ernor Stone of Iowa declared a day of
mourning for Lincoln. Finn went into
the woods and dug up a small hack-;
berry shoot which he transplanted on I
the street in front of his home. The!
shoot took root and today is one of the
most magnificent trees in Iowa. It is
110 feet high and nearly twelve feet in
circumference to which facts the Amer-
ican Forestry Association points as a
great lesson in what can be done iiii
tree planting. •>

VING, AUGUST 15, 19ZP. ^u^C

L

TE IN 101 TOWN

Hackberry af Decorah is Nom-
inated for Hail of
Fame.

Washington, Aug. 12. — The only
tree known to have been planted in
memory of Abraham Lincoln right
after his assassination aha been nom-
inated for a place in the Hall of Fame
for "fcrees with a history" which the
American Forestry Association is
compiling. A. S. Bailey of Decorah,
Iowa, where the tree now stands, in-
formed the association that the tree
was planted by one John Finn, who is
still living.

When Abraham Lincoln was assass-
inated Mr. Finn was in Chicago and
he returned honre much depressed. A
few days later, on April 27,1865 Gov-
ernor Stone of Iowa declared a day of
mourning 'for Lincoln. Finn went into
the woods and dug up a small hack-
berry shoot which he transplanted on
the street in front of his home. The
shoot took root and today is one of
the most magnificent trees in Iowa. It
is 110 feet high and nearly 12 feet
in circumference to which facts, the
American Forestry Association points
as a great lesson in what can be done
in tree planting.

Other Famous Trees.

The Daughters of the American
Revolution, the Grand Army of the
Republic and historical societies of
the country are said to be reporting
many other trees with a history to
the American Forestry Association.

Other nominations for the Hall of
Fame are:

The first algaroba tree in the Ha-
waiian Islands by M. J. Riordan of
Flagstaff, Arz. This tree seed was
taken to Honolulu by Father Bachelot
from California. There are now
thousands, of them in the Islands.

The General Johnston Oak on the
Shiloh Battlefleld~by the Chamber of
Commerce of Corinth, Miss. Under this
tree General Albert Sidney Johnston
was killed while leading his troops.
The tree, now 300 years old, is cared
for by the National government.

The Washington Oak near Santee,
S. C, nominated by J. Danforth Bush
of Wilmington, Del. The tree was
spared from the ax when George
Washington urged that it be not cut
down. The tree is on the estate of
Colonel Henry Rutledge.

Live Oak in California.

The largest canyon lire oak in Cali-
fornia is believed to have been found
by L. A. Barrett of the United States
Forest Service near the Baddison
Ranch in Bouquet Canyon on the
Santa Barbara Forest.

The San Diego Mission Palm, nom-
inated by T. P. Getz. This is the only
one remaining of the four planted if.
176 ». Two were sent to the Chicago
World's Fair in 1892<«.nd a third was
blown down in 1*13.

The Blunsjon Oak, just over the
Philadelphia 'line in Darby, nominated
by Miss Ethel Austin Shrigley of Lans-
down, Pa. This tree waa mentioned
in a deed in 1S83 and from beneath
it in 1777 Gen. Washington watched
his army march from Philadelphia
to Chadd's Ford. 1

The old Sassafras Tree at Harris-
burg, now 2Q8. years old, nominated
by J. & lilick. It waa 15 years old
when John Harris, Jr., son of the man
who found the Pennsylvania capital
was born. The tree is 13 feet in cir-
cumference and 56 feet high.

c

N 0

^ 1

MEMORIAL TREE.
PLANTED BY.
JOHN FINN.
A P R.2 7th» 18 6 5.
THE DAY SET ASIDE
B Y.

GOV. STONE OP IOWA
IT IS 110 ft. HIGH.

AND 12FT AT BASE
JOHN ST. DECORAH
I I Off 4 |

*3S. WAEK3S ©. HARTENG PLANTS TRSS

W of the Lincoln JfSSoS^ 0n
planting trowel used by Mrs S^- 8 -;:.ee
this eerernony/fxoQ C^ntnn waj -et^d

sand, IM, where it w?s ^ ?' °hl° enl Bottth
,;-^£Bg at the'tonb'ol 5ft* Mcli^
?* ilG0ofn highway. I^e^a^lyCSter->f
, , trowei was sent to Chicago whe?e IL ! °«*«n«i3i
-a«5ioa will plant several miles S ^ 5£9 ^«caa
^embraces" on Armistice 5av H(mc oi>

CUnedinst from Keystone View Go.) c

LINCOLN MEMORIAL TREE

This maple tree, planted in his memory
on the day Abraham Lincoln died,
has been given a place in the hall I
of fame for trees with a history
that the American Forestry associa-
tion is compiling. The nomination
is made by Mrs. Allen Partridge
of Augusta, Maine, before whoso
home the tree stands. The tree

i was planted on April 15, 1865, by

' Mrs. Ruben Partridge.

ABE B3N0OLN TREE

Towers Above Fellows

'Abe Lincoln' Rivals
'Sherman1 Fame

GIANT FOREST, June 24.— Gen-
eral Sherman tree, on account of
Its great girth and belghth,. has
received the greatest publicity
about teh monster Sequoia trees in
the Sequoia National park, but
there is another tree in the forest
that is worthy of mention and pic-
ture, and that is the Abe Lincoln
tree on the Alta Meadow trail,
about two miles from Giant Forest.
As will be seen by the -picture, the
Abe Lincoln tree is rugged and
a homely tree like Its Illustrious
prototype. It is a tree that com-
mands attention and holds it. It
Is not a pretty tree, as trees go,
but it evidences all the homely
virtues possessed by the Great
Emancipator. 1

The tree Is 31 feet in diameter
and 270 feet high, only 9.9 feet less
than General Sherman tree,

Abe Lincoln tree In Giant Forest on the Alta Meadow trail
which rises 270 feet high and is 31 feet in diameter, only 9.9 feet
shorter than the famous General Sherman giant.

fE FRESNO MORNING REPUBLICAN, SUNDAY, JUNE 25, 1922.

ILICAN, AUGUST 5, 1922
i 7

■ •

FAMOUS AMERICAN TREES

XVI.-^THE ABE LINCOLN TREE.

The Abe Lincoln tree in the Sequoia Na- j
tional Park, California, is one of the largest
and most beautiful trees in that famous
playground. It is 270 feet high and 31 feet
in diameter.

Washington - Mass Society niant Memorial urees in liu^giu ncFtrvauioa

GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS

AND 39 MAYORS FROM STATE
TO WITNESS CEREMONIAL HERE

Local Society to Plant
Memorial Trees in Lin-
coln Reservation.

3-DAY EXERCISES

MANAGERS9 PLAN

Elaborate Program Map*
ped Out for Next May
3, 4 and 5.

Massachusetts, represented by Gov.
Channing H. Cox, mayors of thirty-
nine cities of the Bay State and hun-
dreds of its citizens, will be in Wash-
ington May 3„ 4, and 5 to witness the
consummation, of a plan 'long con-
templated by the Massachusetts So-
ciety of Washington, D. C, the plant-
ing of a ' row of forty trees on the
Lincoln Memorial reservation, which
will, from that time, be known as the
Massachusetts Avenue of Memorial
trees.

The eoeiety is a pioneer in the move-
ment of having state societies here
sponsor the idea of creating tree his-
tory on the Lincoln Memorial reserva-
tion, through its state officials. Al-
though 'he season will be too far ad-
vanced for other states to follow the
plan laid dow n by the Bay Staters, the
coming spring next year ie expected
to witness several states preparing to
establish similar avenues of memorial
trees.

Inaugurated Fifteen Months Ago.

About fifteen months ago, George
L. Cain, vice president of the society
and chairman of the general enter-
tainment committee, which is arrang-
ing the historic event, broached the
plan of having Massachusetts repre-
sented on the reservation by trees
from that state. Mrs. Warren G. Hard-
ing previously had planted what is
known as the "Armistice Elm" and
locations had been assigned to for-
eign governments who will plant trees
over a stretch of ground to be known
as the "Allied Governments Avenue of
Memorial Trees."

Action on the plan, which was
unanimously indorsed, was deferred
at that time, however, because the
Lincoln Memorial had not been com-
pleted and had yet to be dedicated.
So the matter was allowed to stand
Until a more opportune time.

At the meting of the society, No-
vember 21, 1922, a committee was ap-
pointed to be known as the "enter-
tainment committee," and powers
were given its chairman, Mr. Cain, to
enlarge it and if necessary change
the name. It soon became necessary
to take both steps and at the Febru-
ary 8 meeting in the New Wlllard
Hotel, authorization wjts given for
the formation of a ladies' committee.

These two committees were com-
pleted and work was begun at once.
At the present time virtually all plaits
have been completed and what has been
characterized as a tentative program
probably will stand in its entirety.

Col. C O. Sherrill, officer in charge
•f public buildings and grounds, has
set aside the land to be devoted to
,tbe memorial trees. The line of trees

Upper left— George L. Cain, vice president of the Massachusetts Society
and chairman of the entertainment committee, which is bringing to Wash-
ington more than l.OOO persons, including the governor and mayors of
thirty-nine cities of Massachusetts, for n memorial tree planting May ,4. . .

Upper right — George A. Hernan, secretary of the society and a member
of the general entertainment, committee. j'

Lower left — Representative Frederick W. Dalllnger, president of (the
Massachusetts Society. i

Lower right — Mrs. Laura M. Wight, chairman of the ladies' entertain-
ment committee.

will run from the Memorial shrike
toward the golf course to the south
and will be at an angle of 45 degrees
with the axis of the reflecting pool.
The trees, all to be brought from
Massachusettes, will conform with
the regulations requiring the trunks
to be between six and eight feet high;
the diameter between one and one-half
and two inches and that the trees be
straight and uniform in every re-
spect.

Invitations have been sent out by
the entertainment committee to Gov.
Cox, speaker of the Massachusetts
lower house; Benjamin Lorlng
Young, the president of the senate;
Frank G. Allen, and the following
mayors: George A. Sweeney, Attle-
boro; George H. Whittemore, Bev-
erly; James M. Curley, Boston; Frank

A. Manning, Brockton; Edward W.
Quinn, Cambridge; Lawrence F.
Qulgley, Chelsea; Joseph Grise, Chiic-
opee; Lester D, Chisholm, Everett;
Edmund P. Talbot"; Fall River; John

B. Fellows, Fitchburg; Chester P.
Pearson, Gardner; William J. Mclnnis,
Gloucester; William D. McFee, Haver-
hill; John F. Cronin, Holyoke; Daniel
W. Mahoney, Lawrence; Henry F.
Sawtelle, Leominster; John J. Dono-
van, Lowell; Harland A. McPhetres,
Lynn; John V. Kimball, Maiden; Ed-
ward G. Simoneau, Marlborough;
Richard B. Coolldge, . Medford; Paul
H. Provandie, Melrose; W. H. B.
Remington, New Bedford; Michael
Cashman. Newburyport; Edwin O.
Childs, Newton; William K. Greer,
North Adams; Harry E. Blcknell,
Northampton; William A, Shea, Pea-

body; Charles W. Power, Pittsficld;
Gustave B. Bates, Quinc> ; Thomas A.
Noone, Revere; Dennis J. Sullivan,
Salem; John M Webster, Somervllle;
Edwin F. Leonard, Springfield; Leo
H. Coughlln, Taunton; Henry F.
Beal, Waltham; Louis L Keefe,
Westfleld; Stephen S. Bean, Woburn,
and Peter F. Sullivan, Worcester. ,
Nearly All Invitations ' Accepted.
Acceptances have been received
from all but the mayora of Fall River,
Gloucester and Waltham, but they are
expected momentarily by Mr. Cain. It
is believed that the heads of the two
branches of the Massachusetts, legis-
lature will appoint delegations to
come with the governor and mayors
to the tree planting.

In all 1,200 invitations have been
dispatched from Washington for the
dedicatory ceremonial. The "official
party" will comprise the' governor and
the thirty-nine mayors, but they will
be accompanied by their wlveB, fami-
lies and friends. Delegations from
each city which will be represented
on the memorial reservation will be
present also.

A large number of Bay staters will
arrive in Washington before the day'
aet for the tree planting, but the offi-
cial party -and the remainder of those
to visit the city will reach Washing-
ton on the Federal 1 express about 8
o'clock Friday morning, May 4. The
party will be met and received by the
I District Commissioners, a number of
1 Massachusetts senators and repre-
sentatives and officials of the society
here. Escorted by a sixty-piece band,
all will proceed to the New Willard
Hotel, official headquarters, where
those not members of the official
party will register on the books of
the society.

Trees to Arrive Same Date.

The forty trees, which will arrive at
the same time, also will be In. the pro-
cession. They will be carried in
trucks, bearing banners of the cities
from which they come, and will leave
the official party at 14th and Penn-
sylvania avenue for the Lincoln Me-
morial. Holes will have been dug and
the trees will be placed" In them, ready
for the final planting.

At noon the party will be trans-
ported in automobiles to the Lincoln
Memorial. The dedicatory exercises
then will be held and an address will
be made by a prominent official, whose
| name has not yet been announced.
Motion pictures will be taken of the
mayors standing beside the trees they
have planted and dedicated. All the
trees will bear markers of the stand-
ard type, the name of the mayor,,
the city he represents and other suit-*
able information in order that, in
later years, they may be easily iden-
tified With the state of Massachu-
setts. There also will be commu-
nity singing by a chorus of 100 voices
and the state song will be sung.

At 2 o'clock the official party will
be entertained at luncheon in the
cabinet room of the Willard, by the
business association of the city, and
at 8:15 o'clock, the stellar social
event of the three-day visit — a re-
ception, entertainment and ball— (-will
be held in the ballroom of the Wil-
lard.

Forecast of Magnitude.

Plans for this affair have not yet
been completed, but the magnitude
of the evening can be imagined from
the following: Two huge electric
signs, six and one-half feet in diam-
eter, each containing 360 red, white
and blue bulbs, are to be located at
each end of the ballroom, one bear-

ing the words "Massachusetts, My
Home Land," and the other "Massa-
chusetts Society of Washington, D.
C"; elaborate floral and electrical
decorations and a subdivision of the
ballroom floor into fourteen sections,
each representing a county of the
state. In these sections will be the
mayors of those cities which are in
the counties represented, who will
receive members of the society and
party - hailing from those communi-
ties. The names of the mayors and
cities will appear on banners at
these sections and the' seal of each
city will be on other flags and bunt-
ing placed about the hall.

Saturday morning will pe left to
the visitors to dispose of in the way
they choose, but at 1 o'clock they
will be received by President Hard-
ing at the White House. An hour
later they will appear at F°rt Myer,
where, through the courtesy of Sec-
retary of War Weeks, an exhibition
cavalry drill by Troop F will be held.
At 6 o'clock the official party will
be guests at dinner and in the even-
ing the ballroom once more will be
thrown open to entertainment. it
had been planned to have the visi-
tors attend a" theater, but this was
later changed and the-Jocal and pro-
fessional talent will be brought to
them at the headquarters.

A private view of motion pictures
of the many activities of the mayors'
from the time they left Boston on
the Federal Express will be afforded
the guests Sunday morning at a
place yet to be designated. A*tour
of the city and the suburbs will be
made in the afternoon and Sunday
night will find many of the general
party returning or preparing to re-
turn to their homes.

Entertainment Committees.

The general entertainment com-
mittee, of which Mr. Cain is chairman,
is composed of: Samuel M. Chase,
treasurer of Newburyport, Mass. ; Miss
Margaret Jane McGurn, secretary of
Braintree; Frederick W. Carpenter of
West Medford; Albert Michaud, Wor-
cester; Henry W. Syfrig, Boston;
Miss Alice M. Murphy, Boston ; Miss Har-
riet M. Cheney, Cambridge, and
George A. Hernan, West Medford.

The ladies' committee, which was
formed in the office of Representative
Frank W. DUlinger, president of the
society, after the meeting February
8,' follows: Mrs. Laura -M. Wight,
chairman; Mrs. M. Henrietta Smith,
vice chairman; Mrs.' Little M. Poss,
secretary-treasurer; Mrs. John L.
Hyde, Mrs. Sarah E. Beard, Mrs.
Clarence W. Elliot, Mrs. P. H. Hunter,
Mrs. J. D. Woodcock, Mrs. Mildred
W. Syfrig, Mrs. M. Snow, Miss Grace
G. Roper, Miss Mildred C. Woodcock,
Miss Mary Goodyear, Miss Gladys
Woodcock, Miss Harriet M. Cheney,
Miss Marian Kendall and Mr. Cain.

To the ladies committee has been
assigned the special duty of enter-
taining the women members of the
large group expected here and they
now, as in the past several weeks,
have been hard at work arranging a
program of amusement. In order to
afford the visiting women everything
of the best In the way of entertain-
ment, the committee needs funds, so
it has set about to get this money
through the promotion, of dances, card
parties and other social affairs. A
card party was given at Wardman
Park Hotel Tuesday evening. There
were seventy-five tables and a large
number of persons present. The deco-
rations consisted of electric emblems
of the state of Massachusetts and the
Massachusetts society. In addition to |
the card party, Miss Beva Fish gave
an exhibition of fancy dancing and as

as encore, she gave an interpretation]
of Pavlowa's "Dance of the Dying.
Swan."

Dance at Arcade April 13.

April 13, the ladies' committee will
give a dance at the Arcade private
ballroom from 8 until 12 o'clock. They
also have under consideration another
card party and dance at the Roosevelt
Hotel, April 27. The proceeds from
these affairs go into one general enter-
tainment fund.

Co-operating with these committees
in entertaining the visitors will be
nine civic organizations, including
Rotary and Kiwanis clubs. Mr. Cain
said yesterday that a valued worker
for the celebration out of the city Is
James P. Gorman, who won a prize'
recently offered by the Boston Post
for the most appropriate tribute to
Massachusetts. Mr. Gorman's contri-.
button, which took first honors, fol-
lows: "Massachusetts, respected for
righteousness, esteemed for education,,
honored for humanity, lover of lib-
erty, learned In law, leader in legis-
lation, pioneer in philanthropy — that
is Massachusetts."

The entertainment committee now
is working on material to be pub-
lished in the form of a souvenir pro*
gram, and Mr. Cain welcomes any
suggestions or contributions pertain-
ing to Massachusetts,' whether his-
torical matter, poems or "jests and
jingles." He said there were many
things about Massachusetts of in-
terest which had not crept into his-
tory. For example, he said that Mas-
sachusetts avenue was the longest
thoroughfare in Washington and that!
over the main entrance of the Lin- j
coin Memorial was Inscribed the name .
of his state. t ;

State Represented in Government.

Mr. Cain also said that Massachus-
etts Is well and ably represented in
the government ana administrative
activities of Washington, her sons
occupying many positions of promi-
nence here. Some of them are: Cal-
vin Coolidge, vice president of the
United States; Frederick H. Gillett,
Speaker of the House of Representa-
tive!}:; Oliver Wendell Holmes and
Louis Demhitz, Bran\deis, associate
justices of the United States Supreme
Court; John W. Weeks, Secretary of
War; William Phillips, undersecre-
tary of state; Eliot Wadsworth, as-
sistant secretary of the Treasury;
Charles S. Hamlin, member of the
Federal Reserve Board; Robert Put- I
nam, Librarian of Congress; Thomas
O. Marvin, chairman of the United.
States Tariff Commission; George "W.
Hess, director of Botanla Garden;
Charles P. Smith, deputy commis-
sioner of internal ' revenue; John
Greene, deputy public printer; Ed-
ward G. Whall, foreman > of plate-
making division, government print-
ing office; Irving F. Wixon, assistant!
commissioner of immigration; Robert I
Watson, director of bureau of in-
dustrial housing and. transporta-
tion; Joseph H Sheedy, vice chair-
man Emergency Fleet Corporation;
Capt. Waldo E. Chapman, secretary)
of the District Rent Commission, and i
Dr. Frank W. Ballou, superintendent
of public schools:.

All contributions toward the souve- ;
nlr book should be sent to Mr. Cain
at 3232 19th street northwest. Tele-'
phope Columbia 4067-J.

Ut "i:™"5 mayors flam

B^eUncohi Shrine

ieulenant Governor Stari^Z^^m
. hundreds Stand About. R

The
Was gi

*ch through fv^!| J , ' ,*'v*'Tli<!> architect* v^toTj
«d mavorailNYMi I ; ; ■''•,1*»t:o.'n Memorial in ■»•!

t

of It a. th
life of him

reds ^f persons f

L <?'. <*ift on a
Vhfch bore the '

nbolie or*t\aVr tftra,«fht and
Ihls Ma £ 'nari 'II honor

structure has bee£ !

Major Curie, »BeBK».

!" Of the oeonlA ^r8^"'.^''10- on hcl)a':f
- < tre* marked «<K« Bc"i'0I'' abdicated a'
15 it- Curley, Mayor." °' B<*t0»V J*nies '

*yT*>£hre1tt th«*$??y. *'as reformed

£tf name 0/0^,* °{ *«apln» the 1

T^A vhirh j CIlV and mayor, end

Q awJai'b "idi&f Stward the «»*

■ way'1?' Tned th0 - "miffnir wit? 1
I IVa iiit IJeP^f *ntat1ve l>«nk \v

I -Mr Home land"*" Massachusetts,. J
Army nLa Rev »M£?.an,fd by tW

and

s

rnvai

: to emulate ti«n ». >*>♦•,, if?I'^rMit'or
S3 noble QiialitJe, v-hfeh hav S j
^* ."'^ ".a" inspiration to mankind
N*;i;*sS Ealogrbces Lincoln.

■*f ' coin dseiar'n'cr ''tlI!e,V euj08ii:ed JC*ii5-
M • ' hifitt - ' ' °'1,f;f si&n in our
<VJ >t,ho DeoDTe arK»8*'' f}*M5* • jrepreaefrts
j / a* do? ^ i^ncoln *' * <SprI ■ of America

9 Pftaal&e ftArwT-t!!?'* lle1Sal1'. "to (rt-

/ • '«■ oln. -Tn doint i«r;^a^* ove 'M"U«-
| : ifor. to pav homo ftMlPX our state,
i American -h to rBMtiu* ♦kit , fe"reat
| ^otnmontvealth whX • V ' our 1
f trees 'trill " grow ntit ** •Th«**'<

■ and vp1» i,.See- So ffrotru daily '
T-.inco'iri'« t»*1 y~ar {h« bonder of
*!onT an<j so m v t »« a na- V

,??« state, grow In unri/^S!i-I,1.usetts ¥
»aoata *nd" come -5?il2? f 9

. <**«* nation and the fa th o* * ^ !'"
men everywhere." , Syod g

Arrival of I>ele#M«on. I

''fflci.7ly'v^e*^nt'?r the T3!etr ct

l^r^S Frocks

much your city ae ft ? ntfton ls as f fwt-»»

■ cSfe^ ^nl^^f fm? that is

Board |f^Wffl?Sr^ It IS Of

;:oadcl6fh that

'ffldenf'- n?«r'?S!ft?tttt,v'! 1>«J- I'Cttnnir
t and •* Ciln, vice i ^

im»i?f man of the (reneral '* S60!?

Society, aj.

Pong-ee

ATI ON A L REPUBLIC

NATIONAt REPUBLIC

31

their long flights north or south, "chat-
ting" and "broadcasting" songs while
they stay. And how much more beau-
tiful is this stately elm, which in co-
pperation with sun and moon weaves
Welicate and intricate shade patterns,
•than is any skeleton tower of steel!
Fancy? Yes; hut has the world no
need for fairies and fancies such as
played in trees and groves of old?
Even now, sympathy and understand-
ing, as reflected in love of leaf and
treasure of tree, disclose in forest
depths, and even in lone .trees,, naiads,
nymphs and queens unknown to the
peoples whose lives are cast -in tree*
less spaces. rK

"Education, introduces modern health
methods, increases physical well-being
and gives a religion of faith and hope,
good works and personal morality in
exchange for one largely hased on
superstition which exhibits itself in

- deadening ceremonies.

HP HE former Japanese ambassador
1 to the United States, the Hon. H,
Hanihara, said in America before his
return to Japan: "Already the Y. M. C.
A. in Japan has established its great
value to. the nation. Many Japanese
of whom I am one, would certainly re-
gard it a calamity if the work were
compelled to stop. I earnestly hope
that this generous and beneficent
work may he carried on even more
comprehensively in the future than in
the past."

In the Philippines the American gov-
ernment has done some marvelous
work. The association in the Islands
has met with an enthusiastic response
from all classes. I had a personal in-
terview with Governor Wood who said:
"There are some things the govern-
ment cannot do. We need the Young
Men's Christian Association extended
through the islands as a greater char-
acter building institution."

The Hon. Manuel L. Quezon, presi-
dent of the Senate of the Philippines,
is also a firm believer in the associa-
tion. He says: "The establishment of
the Y. M. C. A. in the islands is one of
the great blessings which America has
brought to the Filipino people. I hope
to see the steady growth of the associ-
ation in the Philippines year after

Sixteen Nationalities Represented
nt an International Boys' Camp
In Switzerland

ial I'ho.to

Tree Planted In the Botanic Gardens by Abraham Lincoln

Chinese and winning their confidence
is shown by results. Tactful, judicious,
ahle and free from indirection, the Y.
M. C. A., manned first by Americans
and now cooperatively with the Chi-
nese, is the most influential fore--— la
China today, except the military which
it silently combats."

/"^OOD will is the essence of sports-
VJlmanship, and America in recent
years , has been ahle, through its sys-
tem of sports and play-for-all," to con-
tribute to the development of a new
spirit of friendliness among the youug
men o"f many nations. The association
has been the pioneer of sports in many
countries. It introduced athletic meets
into China. Its physical directors not
only organized inter-association meets,*
year' i'behOTelthat'mueh lot the prog- it started nation-wide campaigns of and established programs of play-for-
ress achieved by the Filipino people evangelism; it introduced work for all, but worked out international com-
during all these years of American ad- laborers; it originated city-wide health petitions which, for the first time in
ministration has been made possible campaigns against cholera and other history, brought together contestants
through the influence of this institu- diseases, . from many Far Eastern countries,

tion." As a result of the introduction of the Planned on the Olympic model, they

Twenty-five years ago a leading mass education movement into China have awakened interest in young men
-Chinese statesman said: "The Young by the Y. M. C. A., there are at the of the Orient who look hopefully to

time more than 500,- the Olympics as a goal.
000 men and boys The outreach of the American asso-.
learning to read and ciations, as well as the recognized effi-
write. These numbers ciency of their trained physical diree-
will increase con- tors, is evident in the fact that wher-
stantly. These thous- ever a national or international ath-
ands would remain in letic meet is held, they usually have a
ignorance were it not part in it as organizers or technical
that some organiza- advisers. The heads of provincial gov-
tion cared and is ernments in India are today calling
willing to help. upon the association for physical di-

Forty-two key cities rectors to supervise the physical edu-
like Peking, Shanghai, cation in the schools within their do-
Hankow, Canton, Nan- mains and are helping to provide
king, Hongkong and funds.

Clmngsha, now have In physical education the last year
associations. Twenty in Europe stands preeminently,
havo modern build- Twelve of the nations which com-
ings. A staff of peted in the late Olympic games had
Chinese three times us their official or advisory coaches or
as large as the Ameri- managers (Continued on page GO)

Then*' lt»»K<- 1 »>:<! I Champions of Kant China lie pro
MhnnKhnl Y. !H. C. A.

LINCOLN NATIONAL gfia£ FOREST; N. MEXICO

Again, communities have been featuring

in 1983 not more than 30,000 people visited
tins forest; hut in 1927 there were 108 000
^ ,n 1928, 130,000. All of these activS

pull w Twd «■» ™ S

SS,ngpeop,etothissect-

Lincoln
Memorials

Bp

LOUIS A. WARREN, Director

Lincoln Historical Research Foundation
Lincoln National Life Insurance Company
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Copyrighted Reprint from
AMERICAN FORESTS AND FOREST LIFE

February 1929

Living Lincoln Memorial

By Louis A. Warren

A CEDAR tree planted on the
Lincoln farm in Spencer
County, Indiana, is said to
have been the first memorial to Abra-
ham Lincoln. The great number
of tourists who visited .the spot
stripped it of its branches years ago,
however, and it was cut down and
made into souvenirs. Trees are ap-
propriate memorials of Lincoln as
the formative years of his life were
spent in the woods. His companion-
ship with the trees is attested by the
fact that it was his title, "The Rail-
splitter," which helped to carry him
to the White House in the campaign
of 1860.

Lincoln, while President, told a
visitor to Washington that he could
remember but two landmarks in
Kentucky, the state of his birth, when
he left there at seven years of age.
One was an old stone house, and the
other "a great tree somewhere on
Nolin River." There are a few resi-
dents of that region today who re-
member hearing of a famous old tree
on Nolin River near Buf-
falo, but it has been down
so long its location has been
forgotten. Just recently,
however, some authentic in-
formation about this tree
has come to light. Dennis
Hanks, the boyhood asso-
ciate of Lincoln, wrote to
one of his relatives in Ken-
tucky on March 25, 1866,
and among his many inqui-
ries was this one : "Istheold
Lunderner poplar a-stand-

The stone marking the peaceful spot at Lincoln
City, Indiana, where Nancy Hanks Lincoln, great
mother of a great son, rests.

ing yet? I was born within
thirty steps of that tree in
the old peach orchard."
This is undoubtedly the tree
which Lincoln remembered
and it has not been difficult
to locate the place where it
stood. It was near the old
mill site at Buffalo, on one
of the branches of Nolin

More than a hundred years ago Abraham Lincoln,
then a young boy, wept as his mother, J^ancy Han\s
Lincoln, was buried beneath the great boughs of age-old
trees on the top of a small \noll.

The little \noll has been in possession of the State of
Indiana for years, and the grounds and trees surround'
ing the grave have been adequately cared for. Today,
however, an appreciative American public is planning
for the restoration and perpetuation of the entire tract
of seventy acres, including the log cabin site, that once
provided for the boy Lincoln and his parents. Under
the auspices of the Indiana Lincoln Union plans are
well under way toward the restoration of the native
forest and plant life that once surrounded this historic
log cabin home, and its presentation to the public as a
state par\.

While Indiana is going forward with its noteworthy
plan, a bill has been introduced in Congress by Sena-
tor Sac\ett and Representative Thatcher, of Kentucky,
seeding $100,000 for improvement and preservation of
the land and buildings of the Abraham Lincoln Js[a-
tional Par\, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, where the
Civil War President was born. — Editor.

River. It is difficult to imagine the
enormous growth which these old
trees achieved. In a copy of the
Western Sun, published at Vincen-
nes, Indiana, on July 28, 1828, a
news item described one of these
monsters : "Opposite the mouth of
Salt River, in Harrison County, and
on the land of Mr. Brasier, stands
a sycamore tree which I measured on
May 28, 1828. Present at measure-
ment were Thanslay Rucker, James
S. Prather and S. E. Crutchfield,
gentlemen of intelligence and citi-
zens of Louisville. The circumfer-
ence one foot above base was sixty-
five feet, with a hollow eighteen feet
in diameter at the base. It was fifty
feet high with top blown out." This
article was signed by James Pickett.
At this time Abraham Lincoln was
working on the Ohio River, at the
mouth of Anderson Creek, down the
river a few miles from the mouth of
Salt River. He probably saw this
immense old sycamore which ri-
valed the Lunderner Poplar.

The old Lincoln Oak on
the Rock Spring Farm, Lin-
coln's birthplace in Ken-
tucky, is the only tree now
living which looked down
upon the nativity of the
Civil War President. It is
our most treasured living
memorial of him. The tree
is in a perfect state of pres-
ervation and one seldom sees
a finer specimen of this age.
The trunk has a circumfer-
ence of nearly sixteen feet at
a point six feet above the
ground. The branches form
a perfect canopy with a
spread of more than one
hundred feet. With proper
protection this memorial
should be good for at least
another century.

As early as 1805 the tree
had been marked as the be-

2

AMERICAH FORESTS

ginning corner of the three hundred
acre tract which David Vance bought
from Richard Mather. This was the
piece of land which came into the
possession of Thomas Lincoln, father
of the President, on December 12,
1808. This tree was made the begin-
ning corner of four other farm sur-
veys, and it bore the two initials "D.
V." In 1827 the tree was set apart
from its contemporaries as described
in a survey of that year: "To begin
at a noted white oak D. V. Vance's
Corner." Although the parents of
Lincoln moved away from this farm
when Abraham was but two years
of age, it was under the shade of this
tree, close by the cabin, where Abra-
ham spent his first play days.

When Thomas Lincoln went to
Indiana for the purpose of locating a
claim, he gathered a pile of brush at
the foot of another oak tree there,

The old Corner Oak on the Lincoln Farm
in Spencer County, Indiana.

Lincolns for fourteen years. Thomas
Lincoln built his cabin facing this
tree and the old corner oak in Ken-
tucky must have been brought to
mind many times while looking upon
this new land mark. If it were not
for other trees in Spencer County
more closely associated with Lincoln,
this old oak would rival the corner
oak in Kentucky. The beauty of the
tree is much marred, however, by the
undergrowth which surrounds it.

Not far from the cabin site, and
much more significant than the me-
morial cedar, which once stood close
by it, is a magnificent elm. If the
trees were "God's first temples,"
they were also God's first school-
houses. Under the shade of this old
tree Lincoln could have been seen on
many occasions, reading Aesop's
Fables or working out a problem in
arithmetic, on the smooth surface of

which was to show possession. It stands today at the south- wood which he had prepared for the purpose. The Indiana
west corner of section thirty-two, in township four, and Lincoln Union, which is sponsoring a plan to reclaim the
range five, marking the piece of ground occupied by the President's Hoosier home and transform it into a state park,

consider this tree one of the
most historic of the living Lin-
coln memorials.

Mr. Frederick Law Olm-
sted of Brookline, Massachu-
setts, has done much prelimi-
nary work in planning the re-
creation of the native forest and
underbrush that surrounded the
Indiana home of the Lincolns.
The beautiful grove, which cov-
ers the hill where the Presi-
dent's mother is buried, is in-

Upper — A grove on the farm at
Hodgenville, Kentucky, near the
site of the Lincoln Cab in.

Lower — This magnificent oak,
our most treasured living me-
morial of Lincoln, still stands on
the Rock Spring Farm at Hod-
genville, where he was born.

AMERICAN FORESTS

eluded in the park project. It will
not be difficult to ascertain the kind
of timber which flourished in Spencer
County, Indiana, as early as 1816,
for the report of a committee sent
into the Lincoln country in South-
ern Indiana in 1814, states in part:

"The property is covered with
heavy timber comprising oaks,
beeches, ash, three kinds of nut trees
three to four feet in diameter, with
trunks fifty to sixty feet high — splen-
did material for all kinds of cabinet
work — gum trees, hackberry, syca-
more, persimmons, wild cherries,
apples, and plums ; also wild grapes
of enormous diameter and height, all
of which later bear fruit. There
are also a large number of maple
and sugar trees, from which great
quantities of brown sugar can
be made ; sassafras trees from two
to three feet in diameter and a

The Ced ars at Jonesboro, intimately associated
vJith Lincoln's early life.

original holdings consisted of one
hundred and eighty acres. He relin-
quished one-half of this tract after
several years possession, so that the
present plans for acquiring seventy
acres will give an area very much like
the Lincoln farm. A beautiful me-
morial shrine will be erected near
the burial spot of Lincoln's mother.

There is a group of old cedars in
Spencer County which also should be
classed as living memorials of Abra-
ham Lincoln. They mark the site of
one of the early communities which
greatly influenced Lincoln. Here at
Jonesboro, Abraham Lincoln not only
attended school but also clerked in a
store. The cedars served as a pro-
tection for the school house and are
about a century and a quarter old.
Here, as a small lad, Lincoln played
with the other children of the com-
munity. Later on, as a six foot-four

kind of poplar. These have a very solid wood, good clerk, the future Civil War President weighed pork and
for boards, while in the lowlands one finds very talked politics with the customers in the store, that stood just
large cypresses good for articles made by the cooper." opposite the school on the old trail leading to Boonville.

When the objective of the
group now sponsoring the Lin-
coln memorial is attained, sev-
enty acres of land will be avail-
able for development. The
tract extends from the knoll
where the cabin stood near the
contemplated northern bound-
ary to the knoll near the south-
ern boundary, which contains the
remains of Nancy Hanks Lin-
coln, and already in possession
of the state. Thomas Lincoln's

Upper — At this spot near Buffalo,
Kentucky, stood the old Lunder-
ner Poplar, which Lincoln, as Pres-
ident remembered.

Lower — One of the most beautiful
of the gre,en memorials to Lincoln
is the great elm on the farm in
Spencer County, Indiana, in the
shade of which the boy Lincoln
studied and played.

4

TREES THAT LINCOLN
LOVED AND RECALLED

Cedar on Farm in Indiana Is
Said to Have Been First
Memorial to President,

A cedar tree planted on the Lin-
coln farm in Spencer County, Indi-
ana, is said to have been the first
memorial to Abraham Lincoln. The
great number of tourists who visited
the spot stripped It of itB branches
years ago, however, and it was cut-
down and made into souvenirs.
These Incidents are recounted by
Louis A. Warren in a recent issue
of The American Forests and For-
est Life Magazine.

Lincoln, while President, told a
visitor to Washington that he could
remember only two landmarks in
Kentucky, the State of his birth,
when he left there at 7 years of age.
One was an old stone house and the j
other "a great tree somewhere on
Nolin River." 3
There are a few residents of that
region today who remember hearing
of a famous old tree on Nolin River
near Buffalo, says Mr. Warren, but
it has been down so long its loca- '
tion has been forgotten. Just re-
cently, however, some authentic in- :
formation about this tree has come
to light. Dennis Hanks, the boyhood
associate of Lincoln, wrote to one
of his relatives in Kentucky on
March '25, 1886, and among his in-
quiries was this one: j
"Is the old Lunderner poplar a-
standing yet? I was born within
thirty steps of that tree In the old
peach orchard."

This, Mr. Warren says, is un-
doubtedly the tree which Lincoln re-
membered. It was near the old mill
site at Buffalo, on one of the
branches of Nolin River.

<s ' Tne ™ld Llnc°ln oak on the Rock
Spring Farm, Lincoln's birthplace, in
Kentucky," continues Mr. Warren -

is the one tree now living which
J?.ok.ed down upon the nativity of the
WaJ £r?sident. It is our most
treasured living memorial of him.
l he tree is In a perfect state of,
preservation and one seldom sees a
finer specimen of this age. The
trunk has a circumference of nearly
sixteen feet at a point six feet above
ground. The branches form a
?uerfec,t^an°Py rtth a spread of mora
%T $P feet" WSth Pr°Per Protect
tion this memorial should be good
for at least another century

"As early as 1805 the tree had been
Sark£d as ^e beginning corner of
the 300-acre tract which D.avid Vance
bought from Richard Mather. This
was the piece of land which came
into the possession of Thomas Lin-
coln, father of the President, on

Rec\12\ 1808- Thls tree was made
the beginning corner of four other "
farm surveys, and it bore the two
initials 'D. V.' In 1827 the tree
was set apart from its contempo-
raries as described in a survey of

"Fr° be^n at a noted white
oak D. V. Vance's corner.'

'Although the parents of Lincoln
moved away from this farm when
Abraham was but 2 years of age it'
was under the shade of this tree,
close by the cabin, where Abraham
spent his first play days.
_ "When Thomas Lincoln went to
Indiana for the purpose of locating
a claim he gathered a pile of brusfi ,
at the foot of another oak tree there.

which was to show possession.. It ^
stands today at the southwest corner ,
of Section 32, Township 4, Range 5,:
marking the piece of ground occu-
pied by the Lincolns for fourteen
years. Thomas Lincoln built hi*
cabin facing this tree, and the old
corner oak in Kentucky must have
been brought to mind many time*
while looking upon this new land- ;
mark. If it were not for other trees
In Spencer County more closely asso- i
ciated with Lincoln, this old oak
would rival the corner in Kentucky.

"Not far from the cabin site, and
much more significant than the me- &
morial cedar, which once stood close
by it, is a magnificent elm. If the
trees v/ere 'God's first temples,'
they were also God's first school-,
houses. Under the shade of this old
tree Lincoln could have been seen
on many occasions reading Aesop's
Fables or working out a problem in
arithmetic on the smooth surface of '
wood which he had prepared for the
purpose. The Indiana Lincoln
Union, which is sponsoring a plan ■'■
to reclaim the President's Hoosier
home and transform it into a State
park, consider this tree one of the
most historic of the living Lincoln
ynemprials.'' ^ —

KJEED

HUGH T$EE IN LINCOLN WOODS

PATFTUCXET tWM TTMF5

MoacUy. July 22. IUjy

Huge "SeeStands
in Lincaljj^oods

;■ - Just in front of the Benjamin -
nold farmhouse, which was built in
1747, stands one of the most beautiful
i trees in the Lincoln, reservation, a
j huge black walnut, measuring more
than 13 feet in circumference, with a
diameter of approximately four feet.
The tree was probably planted for a
shade tree soon after the house was
built. Towering majestically skyward
for- more than a century and a half it
commands the admiration of all who
visit the Fireside House near-by and,
,;as it is in excellent condition, it will
( probably continue, t^furnish shade
(and beauty for many years to come.

It nearly lost its life during the
World war when black walnut for gun
stocks was at a premium. The early
signing of the armistice prevented the
massacre, however, and it is hoped-
that no future war will make tin
sacrifice necessary. 1
\ -

h fche resolution to be presenrwf"u>
thJ West Texas Chamber of Com-
mefce * asking endorsement of the
Cafeh^d Caverns and &e Lincoln
National Forest may be only a ges-
;"t", ■linr f*i aaama to us that it is
yather ah imporant one. True, the
West Texas organization already in
Hct if not officially, has 'endorsed
these two great natural wonders, but
an official endorsement would call
renewed a^ention to them.

A glahC€L-at the monthly statements
of visitors^ the Carlsbad Cavern
shows that Texans predominate, out-^
number even the visitors from our
own state ot New Mexico. Going
through the Lincoln National Forest
pne '.meets many cars with Texas
licenses. During the susmmer season
it- is a, ftu«tion if these do not out-
number the New Mexico licenses.
>J^i-om • these, two' lacts alone we,,
^.trst dxa^w* the conclusion that both i
tl^^3« natural wonders, so close to ■
West . Texas, are the playgrounds of J
tjhat rflgion,' as well as of our own
Kt&of ><>w Mexico. < .

^oudeirdft is overrun by people j1
from El* faso ' ahd vicinity. The '
£ime thing; is true to a 'lesser extent
df the Rmdoso section. There are
tfibue&nds of visitors in both these re-
ports each summer whp own alleg-
iance to- Texas.

" feastern New Mexico, with its
mountains and forest, it is canyons and ,
caverns, so close to the broad plain3 .
df ' -Western Texas, necessarily must
he "the 3ummer resort of those sec- 1
Hons,- at' least their nearest summer !
playgrounds. The heated plains will
continue to send the"- . residents to j
the copl mountains in increasing i
numbers "each year. • , j

It would be a graceful compliment i
and £6 doubt productive of muchj
good Jf the West Texas Chamber of)
Comtftrce would officially l-ecog-'
nize what is already an accomplish-!
ed fajjjt. i

INCOLN NAT. PSHR ru-C^t "sT

"he West^Teras Chamber of Com-
,m*jcjB^|ias "endorsed " the Carlsbad
Cavern audi thr Iiinawln N/itirrrnilj
Forest, as recreational centers and
pledged to both the support of this
greet organization. This pledge is j
more than mere figure of speech, 1
i f|r already .'the Texans have been j
flocking to Wh these 'great summer '
i playgrounds in increasing numbers
each year, ahd we have np doubt but]
that this increase will continue at *
still greater katio as the result of the '
| resolution or endorsement.

This resoMttion, which* has been
printed in lithe Record several ^times',
was the Woj& of Ross TU Malone of
Roswell and" was introduced in the
i West Texas -jfjonvention at Abilene ,by
Robert Kellahin of Roswell. It is j
needless to {J^y that Roswell is \vork- '
ing for the growth of the attendance \
at both the v Cavern and the Forest.
This achievement speaks fpr itself.'
It is nothing new that Roswell is '
working for these two government!
charges, Roswell has been doing it
for years-. 1 . . \

, .There is n^ore than a selfish inter-'
e^t1 in the vrbrk of Roswell men for
the* recreational centers of eastern
Ifyf MeirtcqgC It is true that Ros-
well benefit^ both by reason of the
travel through Roswell ahd by reason
of the development of facilities in the.
Lincoln National Forest, But Ros-
well ajsp. refttizes that the growth of
all of eastern 'New Mexico is good for
the state as|h whole, and is good for
Roswell. Tie interests of Roswell
are interwo-?tn with those, of Carls-
bad, Portales, Clovis and other parts
of eastern r|ew Mexico.

The thanl^ of all eastern New
Mexico and £f western Texas are due
to Messrs. Malone and Kellahin and
to "those otl|(jr unnamed men who
aided in thfg movement of endorse-
ment. $$ ;,<

the support of this great organization. TnTapledge
is more than a mere figure of speech, for already
the Texans have been flocking to both these great
summer playgrounds In Increasing numbers each
year, and we have no doubt but that this Increase
will continue at a still greater ratio as the result of
the resolution of endorsement.

This resolution, which has been printed In The j
Record several times, was the work of Ross L. Ma-
lone of Roswell and was introduced in the west
Texas convention at Abilene by Robert Kellahin of
Roswell. It Is needless to say that Roswell Is work-
ing for the growth of the attendance at both the
cavern and the forest. This achievement speaks for
itself. It Is nothing new that Roswell Is working for
these two gqvernment charges. Roswell has been
doing it for years.

There is more than a selfish interest in the work
of Roswell men for the recreational centers of east-
ern New Mexico. It is true that Roswell benefits,
both by reason of the travel through Roswell and
by reason of the development of facilities in the
Lincoln National forest. But Roswell also realizes
that the growth of all of eastern New Mexico is good
for the state as a. whole, and is good for Roswell.
The Interests of Roswell are Interwoven with those
of Carlsbad, Portales, Clovls and other parts of east-
ern New Mexico.

The thanks of all eastern New Mexico and of
western Texas are due to Messrs. Malone and Kel-

4:

,.-vTV YEARS AGO TODAY.
^> . vews-rTha Lincoln. i^4_^_-

rT^r'v^nUa Js*raovia! "haii hauSilig

formally ^£r;
aiJ^:::cWUutnt"Kc--ard Tafr acUv-
r';1 i>-«- principal address. Former
O^XepHTW. Folk, oi Missouri.
%den* of the L5-co.a F^tr - -

A3 c:
3

ike entrusting due farm to

- .- iho and Gov.

h^ ^entuc^ Others ^on the

•~ W E. Borah, oi latino; ^aj. (Jen. ,
Toha C Slack, of Washing top., a.i-
£ John B. CasHenau. ct L*uis-
"hi" Tflree thousand persons .re—
* * *, li^'or miTi feU during u~e

■present.. A USf« ra — .e-. -i =
|*s»ccisas, which were held ou.c- ..—
"rSSS J. Coiiler pi Hew i«V, ■
leading mover in the P^vaton at
Lincoln's birthplace^ ana C^ifnce H
vrsckay of Hew York, treasurer o.
► S Lincoln Farm Association, m»
3m=n3 those in attenaar.ce Tne ;
isociation, organized by Mr.
'raised about S333.0C0 to a«o<r. ;
1 its rjurpose. and of ecus sura S^p-'"
i rXs' set aside as an endowment
■ the memorial.

rlrsss rrorn Lincoln s
; Birthplace Ars Planted
i On Whits House Ground

S Washington. Dec. 31. (INS)— Two
Iwhite oaks^JTrom the birthplace of;
' Abr:?n?.m Lincoln a« Hod?envlile, Ky..i
were -jkarued La the /south grounds of J
the^.vhiie House today-jvith. President!
Hoover wielcani EjL\« sptrdej . Another |
was Dllntea/iii^tlfe Sapyrol/grounds. -'

Representative Thatcher. Republic-} ;
an, of' Louisville, and' Mrs. • Thatcher |
Presented the trees and witnessed theirL

President Plants ^Oaks .
From Lincoln Bir;ihn] ace

HaT-ri.i-'Eninz 1'holo

NOW GEO ¥/!—

President Hoover plants a
tree taken from the birth-
place of Abraham Lincoln, at
La Sue, ~Ky., in the Whits
House grounds. Representa-
tive and Mrs. Maurice
Thatcher, of Kentucky, donor
of the tree, are watching.

6C

Acq

One Put iS'ear Tv'Iiiie House Of-
fice, Other fit Grodnds

WASHINGTON', -. Dec. 21 .{/?).— Two
slim young white oaks from the birth-
place of Abraham Lincoln near Hodg-
enville, Sy.,-. --ore planted in the White
House ; grounds today by President
Hoovs ". He shoveled" several spades
full cf earth about the base on one
tree on the South lawn in full sight of
i the • wir.dc's behind his office desk.
The. other tree wai. planted mere than
100 yards away in the southeast corner
■ of the White Hot;s2 grounds.
[ Several of the trees from the -Lincoln
| birthplace were brought to the capital by
"Representative Maurice H. Thatcher, of
Kentucky. With him today were' Mrs.
Thatcher. Representative Sail Vinson,
of Georgia; ifiss Adelaide Borah, ccusln
of William 2. 3orah, the Idaho Senator,
representing the American Forestry As-
sociation, and James G. Taden, a former

Hoover Plants
2 LincofelOaks'-
At W|iit#il^k'

1 V S \ 4 v i

TWO ^E OAKS I

rom

yssterclajs wika President
Hoover gelding the spade.
Another 'was planted in the
Capitol grounds.

Representative Thatcher
(R,), of that Kentucky dis-
trict, and Mrs. Thatcher,
presented the trees and wit-
nessed their planting.

aMM'

KENTU CKY TREES TO
B'E#L|MTEO HERE

ifts frok'Tarm Where Lincoln
j , Was Born Will Save Three
; I ; I Promines t locations^

^Kf at th3 White H^eCaPlt01

m?. tV ln- La R'J2 County is r».
Three or four of th« trep<s ariii t,«

Sh Vlce President Curtis plan tin -a
jad oak -and Representat'r= k-rf mv«
Thatcher planting other trees'4 2£

-> At ,11:30 o'clock, one white oak and
one dm tree will be planted on che £n-
Wemnal -rounds and then a*

«lv a^fV?ent-r?Mver and Represent:
Sl??s' Thatcher set out oaks on
t-ie Wnj.e house grounds.

dwe?£!f Thatcher said yester-

ca/ uhac Lieut. Col. U. S. Grant 3d
SSf" r °i P^Iic butt4ings ana public
Parksr, and his staff; David hyvn arch
tact or the caoitol. and his sS'ff ^
Wrute House authorities pre co-cr^-
»? la the tree-planting pro-ram

MpUtD CI TO

her hi mm

Taken From Lincoln Farm!
At Hoclganviile. I

3y LORENZO MASTI.V. ?
(Thj Times WaihiniSon Cirraipoii,?eatJ

Washington. Dec. 21.— Oak and elmi
trees from the -Lissom Birthplace I
iarm near Hpdgenviite, Ky., V/erej
planted here today in the grounds of
,tne Capitol, the White House and the!
I Lincoln Memorial. I
With ■ simple bat imores^ve '•pr-3-.
fmony the first tret- a 'sturdy young !
jred car:, was planted on the north or
j Senate side of the Capito! by Vice j
j * j.eaaens Curtis, after which a'num-j
j aar ai other trees from the birth- !
iP:ace o: Lincoln were pIa"tM els»- 1

» Representative At H. Thatcher j?Vtri
; Kentucky District, and Airs. Thatch-r I
.. Aoouc an hour hter. additional j
; ,\ iron? th* Lincoln farm vvere'
L&»?--2^ ^8 3tounda o£ the)

,„ c "• r-'r. -"d snort y before

:noon the party proceeded to
| a mcs House, where Pendens Hc'overl
|P-irt!ci?aced in the third series of tre>j
j -;J~---^,r->. Alter the Prr.-sidenc had -
i^iantod one of the trees a" short dis-f
:^rice trom trie couth portico of chei
Z1"1* ,aouse, ifr. and Mrs. Thatch '

1*

t^een the States ciant-=u"*V- 7:* k !3 \
the tree, on the 'SoVv^- S
.pounds, others tress nijV^'7^««
! by the ^Ite.Coaire^aran^i

WrlH! PU/IT TREES

. WASHWGT.O.V, Bee. ^Sfk"0Bll
elm trees from the Lincoln birthp^.-
tarni near . ;HodSenviller Ky Wt.-.
Planted here in the grounds 'of th-»
Cartel, the White House and tt3
Lincoln Memorial.

With.- simple but impressive cer-
n^ny -tlte first tree, a sturdy youa-

™d°a : Ts pIauted on the «

^ate side of the Capitol by Vic
Present Cutis, after which a „„,,
ot other trees from the birthplace
°T L;ncoIn- ^ra planted elsevvhece
wo* the Capitol grounds by Rep,v-

s ;-e,'L H- Thatchei- Fi"h K,n-

UlC;^ fIl;itn^ ^d .Mrs. Thatcher.

About an hour later, additional
«■ oes trom the Lincoln farm w,r<;
vanned about .the grounds of the Lin-
coln Memorial near the banks of th,
Potomac river, and shortly before
"Ooa the party proceeded to th*
Jiie House, where President Hoover
Palpated in the third series of tr,,
' A£ter ^e President hui

Redone of the trees a short dh.
ta, e rom the south portico of th,
^ in e ilouse, Mr. and Mrs. Thatcher
P ante a £,,,- mo,e ,a va^0ttS

t.<ie U lute- House grounds.

r1-

NOW G R O W!—

T'c-iri*:'. F~cvr- plitlls * "
irrr. takfn item me niriii-
v\:.tr of 4UraHara Lincoln, at
La But, K".. in the White
Hnu.w cr «-»— Kcr-m-cnta-
tjva and Mrs. Maurice
Catcher, oi Kefctacky, donoT
of lhft ires, r.rc v.tt chirp.

PRESIDENT PLANTS LINCOLN BIRTHPLACE OAKS

I

i'v
V2

/ sr

Two slim white oak trees from fcincoflfs birthplace near H odgenvitte, Jvy., were planted on the
White House Grounds yesterday by President Hoover. The persons in the picture, in addition to
the President, are, left to right — Mrs. Maurice Thatcher and Representative Thatcher, of Ken-
tucky; Representative Carl Vinson, of Kentucky; James

Associated Press Pho:o

G. 1'aden and Lieut. Col. U. S. Grant Rd

■Dim

us

Put iii Soil al\

i

NousGl

While TJ-

' Trees brought from the birthplace ,
of Lincoln near Hodgenville, Ky.. j

ere planted yesterday by President •
Hoover and Vice President Curtis.

Two white cak saplings were, spaded
into the soil of the White House
grounds by President Hoover. Ke
shoveled several spadefuls of earth
about the roots of one on the south
lawn in view of the windows oehind
his office desk. .

The Vice President shoveled soil
i round the base of a red oak which
was planted on the Capitol grounds.
The "trees were brought from the
Lincoln birthplace by Representative
Maurice H. Thatcher, of Kentucky.
Ke and Mrs. Thatcher planted an
elm tree beside the Lincoln Memorial.

With the Thatchers yesterday were
Representative Carl Vinson, of Ken-
tucky; Miss Adelaide Borah, cousin
of the Idaho senator, representing
the American Forestry Association;
James G. Yaden, civic leader In Dis-
trict citizens activities, and Lieut.
Col. TJ. S. Grant 3d, director cf Pub-
lic Buildings and Parks.

-5 * J

-

J !

n 1

V

ri

t/7
<0

THE PRESIDENT PLANTS A TREE FROM LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE: PRESIDENT HOOVER
Plants a White Oak Tree Sent From La Rue County,Ky., and Presented by Representative Maurice H.
Thatcher. .- (Times Wide World Photos, Washington Bureau.)

Woover Plants Oaks to Lincoln

young white oaks from the. birthplace
- Abraham Lincoln near Hodgenville, Ken-
• -> . w«e recently planted on the White
» " 7 grounds by President Hoover. He
several spadesful of earth about the
->i one tree on the south lawn in full
.-■t *>i ine wmdows behind his office desk.

•?* "r r wPl nted near the southeast
the White House grounds These
- ■ wrre bwujht from the Lincoln fethpYace
Krin^nuwe Thatcher, of Kentucky.

VISITORS AT LINCOLN FARM,
To the Editor of the Courier-Journal '
<■ r, i^fc ,th2 Lincoln' Day celebration at
Lincoln Farm this moraine we had
seventy-six cars and three trucks
ormginjr over 500 people. This re-
mmas me of some of the attendance
Tri«,,-^as lsn siven in the Point cf
It c'^Z he^™th oi Au^st last
at pimbsdand Falls and other places
r£\ ' CLl1 fi^e month I had the at-'

tt pv £ t?"-sn. at Lincoln ^rm for
iv.eas days., Tne average during the
week was over 800. The average on

and t5r^SMlh0^ / Part of August
and lncluriad/tw^ rairry djiysr^Our to-

38 snr ttefe^/f0lW- Au^3t ^ over
?«' 5000-,lfTh7atSend3hce.on ESbor Day
was 2 441 and 4.132 the,, day cr'ecediS
According to the reports I "have re-
ceived this was three times the num-
ber present on these days at other
peat points of attraction in Ken-
GUCJey. More and more the peoo'= are
coming to see the Lincoln Country of
.Kentucky: his birthplace, Hodgen's

\KnLSr%P h| °'d St0ne House'." ".e
Knob Creek home site, the old swim-
'muijr hole, the situation of the first

which hS atte,ndea' the landing from
Which his father started for Indiana
-nd the wonderful scenery of Knob
czryt. Slncerelv yours

W. LEROV BAKER

Ni-S'.gcnville, Kv.

.'birthplace Abr? .am.' Lincoln. it»
. jientuclty, will bp; planted tilose to
ibe Lincoln Merac Lr.l at n:;W o'clock
"tomorrow by fiep .sjncrUve Maurice
K. Th3tcher,' ol Louisville, according
.-• rr.i;ouicer.-.vrt by, Lieut, V: ."■>. But*
Ur, assistant-director o; ptiblic. toitild-
'ints nmJ pubho parfo. T&e. trees »w

rlTH the Lincoln Memorial in the background, an elm tree and a White
oak, secured from near the site where the cabin in v/hic*: Abraham
Lincoln was torn stood, were planted this morning to honor his men- ;
cfry. Representative .Maurice-' H. Thatcher, Republican, oi Kentucky, -
presented the trees, which are from the Lincoln Farm, near Kodgen-
Li La Rue -County This picture shows the elm tree being planted by
ative Thatcher, with Lieut. Col. U. S. Grant, 3d. director ot public
buildings and. public parks; his assistant, First Lieut. F. 3. Butler, ant" Mrs--
Thatcher standing by witnessing the brief ceremony, which tepk plac» at :
11:30 o^clock. ■;, *'( V. ' ' ,-

!••' .Vice Prep: lent Curtis planted a red 62k. on the Capitol Grounds sua v»i.-

WAv.. jonn L. De Witt; <juartenna
c.'eAon the Lincchi Farm now fali
Tr-.^ch:^ urrilcipated in planting
Wbieh the Representative said is";
Washington assumed command of
: --y.- .r by Mrs. -De Witt and Mrs

Ler general 01 the
s; Mi's; De Witt and
the trees on the Ci
1 descendant of the

whose jr
ntr.v :e an., j

planted at

104

AMERICAN FORESTS

February, 1932

East Capitol Street were destroyed a few months ago when
the steam tunnel was put through between the new Supreme
Court building and the Library of Congress. It reminds one
of the fate of (he Signal Oak, which stood on the elevation
at Wisconsin Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue. When the
latter street was cut across Wisconsin Avenue, the tree was
cut down and the
"bump" removed.
The tree was
probably the
largest in Wash-
ington, and from
it during the Civil
War the Union
Armv- signal
corps wigwagged
to the fleet in the
river, or the
troops on the
Virginia shore.
Also many peo-
ple stood around
the tree and
watched the
buildings of
Washington burn
to the touch of
British torches in

1814. Pilots in the days of Georgetown's flourishing river
commerce were wont to use it as a range mark in steering
their course up the river from Alexandria.

The Botanic Garden has two smaller elms which were
planted by Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois, and Sena-
tor Foraker. of Ohio. These trees were seedlings of the
Washington Elm at Cambridge. Massachusetts, under which
General Washington took command of the Continental
Army in 1775. Two wahoo or winged elms near the west
gate were planted by two men of the name of Morrill, one.
Lot M. Morrill, of Maine, Secretary of the Treasury under
Presidents Grant
and Hayes, and
the other. Justin
S. Morrill, of
Vermont, who
served forty-three
years as con-
gressman and
senator.

An oriental
plane tree, plant-
ed in 1862 by the
Honorable Thad-
deus Stevens, of
Pennsylvania,
was removed to
the center of
what in 1872 be-
came Lincoln
Park. The re-
moval was neces-
sary by reason of
the overflowing
of the Garden by the Potomac Rher in 1870. The tree at-
tained a height of seventy feet in the park, but has since died.

Six of the trees in the oak line at the Garden are reminis-
cent of a by-gone day. A rcrl oak stands as a memorial to
Senator Steward, of Michigan; a European oak to Secretary
of Stat** Bayard; a swamp oak to James IE Pierce; a Spanish
oak to Senator Conger; anil to Congressman Hayes a rare
Bpei ics. a Querents aliena.

One of the avenues of trees leading to the Lincoln
Memorial, planted in honor of the Great American.

The one tree Mr. Smith is said to have cherished above
all others in the Garden, and next to the Washington elm,
is the Confucius tree, on the south side close to the conserva-
tory. It is said that the acorn was given him by Charles A.
Dana, editor of the New York Sun from about 1871 to 1899.
It is known that Mr. Dana received it from a friend who,
, while traveling in

China, had picked
up a number of
acorns from be-
neath an old tree
over the tomb of
Confucius. The
old tree was gro-
tesquely bent
after the manner
of those minia-
ture crystal and
jade trees seen in
the shops. The
branches of the
tree in the Bo-
tanic Garden are
also bent, reflect-
ing a culture
practiced by the
Chinese for thou-
sands of years.

The tragedian, Edwin Forrest, and his friend, Colonel
J. W. Forney, are memorialized in the two unusually fine
specimens of bald cypress flanking the main walk south of
the lily pool. On the south side on the walk from east to
west, was a splendid European hornbeam, erroneously ac-
credited to President Lincoln, but in reality planted by John
A. Bingham. Three years ago, it was killed by gases from the
swampy ground beneath the soil of the Garden. The famous
Sumner Tree was also a hornbeam. Older residents still
speak of it as a magnificent tree that used to stand on the
hillock east of the Senate portico. Workmen graded too near

its roots several
years ago and it
also came to grief.

Two cedars of
Lebanon were
sponsored and
planted by Sena-
tors Hoar and
Evarts, but only
one survived. A
species of Cedrus
atlantica was
planted in honor
of the eminent
French botanist,
M. Vilmorin.
Two acacias at
one time grew by
each side of the
south door to the
greenhouse, and
one remains.
They were plant-
ed at about the same period. One grew from the branch
that was taken from the lid of the coffin of the martyred Gar-
field, and the other was a memorial tree planted in honor of
that Masonic ritualist and poet, statesman and patriot, Gen-
eral Albert J. Pike.

Many other memorial trees were planted at the Garden,
among them a Crimean fir for Congressman Holuian, of In-
diana; an Oriental plane tree for Congressman Voorhcs,

Memorial trees on Sixteenth Street planted in honor of the men of
the District of Columbia who gave their lives during the World War.

Lincoln Debate
Relics Sought

QUINCY (111.) March 19. OP)—
When they cut down the old linden
tree under which Abraham Lincoln
and Stephen Douglas debated many
years ago they started something.

Requests poured in from many
sections of the country for frag-
ments of the tree to be preserved
in historic collections. And there's
plenty of wood to meet the de-
mands. The tree wap so large it
took wood choppers four days to
complete its destruction. Their ob-
ject was to provide fuel for the un-
employed.

February 12, 1941

La ^rosse, Wis.

ribun

Monument To Lincoln Death
Stands In McGregor— A Tree

McGregor, la. — (Special) — Mc-
Gregor has a tree commemorative
of the "saddest day in American
history."

It rears its great trunk and
spreads its branches on Main street
besides one of the oldest houses in
the town.

In Civil war days, John Jarrett,
a prominent young dry goods mer-
chant of McGregor lived in the
house with his wife. April 9,
1865. had come and gone, making
the world glad with its great tid-
ings of the end of the war. Mr.
and Mrs. Jarrett, to give expres-
sion to their joy, decided to plant a
peace tree beside their home. An
elm sappling was brought down
from the hills and on April 15 Mr.
Jarrett set to work with his spade.

The steamboat ferryboat "Alla-
makee" which ran on the Missis-
sippi between McGregor and
Prairie du Chien, Wis. was seen
coming around the island in the
river with her flag at half mast.

There was no telegraph up the west
side of the Mississippi in northern
Iowa and Minnesota, and the ferry
always brought the first news. A
crowd gathered on the McGregor
levee.

When within hailing distance the
captain shouted that President
Lincoln had been shot the night
before and was dead. "A groan
of horror went up from the crowd,
and then too stunned to talk," as
one of the number told the story
afterwards, "we slowly separated
to realize the awfulness of the
calamity."

The word spread up Maih street
and reached John Jarrett just as
he was tapping down the last dirt
about his tree.

So the elm intended to have
commemorated peace and joy, be-
came a living monument to a great
tragedy instead. It has grown to
be a great, beautiful, wide-spread-
ing tree.

McGregor people call it the "Lin-
coln tree."

One of Historic "Lincoln Oaks"
Victim of Storm at Equality

- - , .— • i \ m' ... _ 1 5« Cut *Vi ui'tl

EQUALITY, 111., Aug. 16. — (Special) — Time ant
Illinois is reminded that Abraham Lincoln traveled its
ways and figured in the political life of its people

,ain. Southern
roads and by-

It is a matter of history that lie visited
rears of law practice and that he i
if one time, was owner of a farm
in (Iallatin county. |
Lincoln history was revived a
short time ago at Equality when
one of the historical so-called "Lin-
coln Oaks" fell here, a victim of
windstorm.

The two oaks, standing side by
side for many decades on what was
formerly known as the Robinson
Hill, now property of L. S. Bon-
nell.

K><> Years (Mil

Hie tree was 36 inches in
diameter with a 30 foot spread.
Rings shown in the stump, reveal
the fact that it was at least 150
years old.

The trees were made famous and
called the "Lincoln Oaks" after the
year 1840. One hundred and seven
years ago, Abraham Lincoln made
political speeches during a three-
day debate from a platform erected
between and supported by the
oaks.

In connection with the fore-
going, the following excerpt, was
taken from local recorded history:

" The salt springs around Equal-
ity had furnished the source of that
essential in good housekeeping for
many years.

".Much capital has been invested
in the industry, and hundreds of
workers were finding employment
in the various forms of labor con-
nected with the industry.

".Men Of means and ability were
identified with the salt works.
.Many Of these men were also in-
terested in politics.

•It was therefore the most
natural thing to arrange political
speakings at Equality.

Made Voting' Easy

"The constitution of ISIS made
it easy for residents to vote in
the elections. It was therefore de-
villed to nive the voters of fiqual-

p.liawneetown during his

ity a three-day debate on the doc-
trines of- the Whigs and the Demo-
crats, and on the personal merits
of 'Little Van' and 'Tippecanoe'
Harrison.

"The Whigs were supported by
Abraham Lincoln, who at that time
was comparatively unknown in the
South. Hut he was to have the
help of young lawer, Samuel 1>.
.Marshall, son of Shawneetown fin-
ancier, a graduate of Yale univer-
sity, and a candidate for presi-
dential elector of the Whig ticket.

"It will help to clear up party
interests in (Iallatin county to
know that in 1824, in the slavery
contest, Gallatin was the third
most populous county in the state
being surpassed only by .Madison
and St. ( lair.

"As in other and later cam- j
paigns, the 'personal contact plan' !
was considered good in Gallatin
county., It was therefore thought
the Whigs allowed Lincoln to have1
the advantages of a 'three day de-
bate' in Equality.

"While there were addresses j
made from the public platform.!
there was also much time given to
introductions, handshakings, slory
telling and private interviews.
Equality was a labor center and

THE SUNDAY COURIER AND PRE SS — EVAN S YILLE , TNDTANA-

— - SUNDAY, AUGUST 17,, 1941

Bulletin of the Lincoln National Life Foundation Dr. Louis A. Warren, Editor

Published each week by The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Number 680

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA

April 20, 1942

MEMORIAL TREES

Arbor Day has called to mind many trees which have
come to be considered Lincoln memorials. Not all of them
were set out by Mr. Lincoln, some were giant trees before
he was born, others by some peculiar growth in root,
branch or leaf have called attention to the familiar profile
of the President, while still others note some day, or mark
some spot significant in Lincoln history. Inasmuch as Lin-
coln was known as "The Railsplitter" it seems as if trees
do make appropriate Lincoln memorials.

The Birthplace Oak

The old Lincoln Oak on the Rock Spring Farm, Lin-
coln's birthplace in Kentucky, is the only tree now left
which looked down upon the nativity of the Civil War
President. It is our most treasured living memorial of him.
The tree is in a perfect state of preservation. The trunk
has a circumference of sixteen feet at a point six feet above
the ground. The branches form a perfect canopy with a
spread of more than one hundred feet.

As early as 1805 the tree had been marked as the begin-
ning corner of the three hundred acre tract which David
Vance bought from Richard Mather. This was the piece
of land which came into the possession of Thomas Lincoln,
father of the President, on December 12, 1808. This tree
was made the beginning corner of four other farm surveys,
and it bore the two initials "D. V." in 1827 the tree was
set apart from its contemporaries as described in a survey
of that year : "To begin at a noted white oak D. V. Vance's
Corner."

The Lunderner Poplar
Lincoln, while President, told a visitor to Washington
that he could remember but two landmarks in Kentucky,
the state of his birth, when he left there at seven years
of age. One was an old stone house, and the other "a great
tree somewhere on Nolin River." Dennis Hanks, who lived
in the community, wrote to one of his relatives in Ken-
tucky on March 25, 1866, and among his many in-
quiries was this one : "Is the old Lunderner poplar a-stand-
ing yet?" This is undoubtedly the tree which Lincoln re-
membered. It stood near the old mill site at Buffalo, on
one of the branches of Nolin River.

Spencer County Elm
Not far from the Lincoln cabin site, in Spencer County,
Indiana, there is a magnificent elm. If the trees were
"God's first temples," they were also God's first school-
houses. Under the shade of this old tree Lincoln and his
sister undoubtedly read Aesop's Fables or worked out
some problems in arithmetic. This tree is one of the most
historic of the living Lincoln memorials, and is being
carefully protected from insects and the elements.

The Indiana Cedars
When Abraham Lincoln was a young man in Indiana
he is said to have planted three cedar trees at his home.
During the centennial year of Lincoln's birth in 1909 one
of these trees blew down and Albert P. Fenn of Tell City,
secured the tree from A. P. Rhodes. Mr. Fenn, who was a
furniture manufacturer, had the trees made into canes
and the following men were said to have received souvenirs
made from the tree: William Howard Taft, Theodore
Roosevelt, Henry Watterson, Robert Lincoln, Governor
Marshall and Senators Beveridge and Shively.

Springfield Elm
While it is often stated that Lincoln planted the elm tree
at his home on the day he left for Washington to be
inaugurated, this statement cannot be true because it is
shown in a picture he had taken with his sons in front of
the house, in the summer of 1860. On Friday night, Aug-
ust 17, 1906, a severe storm struck Springfield and the
famous elm was blown over. There is a cross section of

the tree in the museum of the Lincoln National Life
Foundation, authenticated by A. S. Edwards, then the
caretaker of the Lincoln home.

Beech Broadside

One of the most interesting memorials noting the elec-
tion of Abraham Lincoln was discovered some years ago
by Vincent Bobbins, Jr., near Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
Out in the woods one day he observed some strange mark-
ings on a beech tree. It was not difficult to make out the
original inscription, although it had been made there over
seventy-five years previous to its discovery. The tree had
increased in growth four times its size in 1860, but the
expanding letters and figures could be easily read. This
is the unique announcement:

"1860 Nov. 9— Lincoln is elected— Great God."

White House Maple
In October 1896, a severe storm swept over Washington
causing great devastation among the shade trees. One tree
which was blown down was known as the "Lincoln Tree,"
planted by the President shortly after he entered the White
House. It was at the end of a row of trees nearly all of
which were planted by Presidents. The tree was a maple
and grew much more rapidly than the other trees and its
great size was largely responsible for its destruction, as
there was none higher to protect it. A part of the tree
was made into souvenir canes and the stump was allowed
to remain, in hopes that it would branch out again.

Assassination Trees
Governor Stone of Iowa declared April 27, 1865, a day
of mourning for Abraham Lincoln. John Finn, a citizen of
Decorah, Iowa, went to the woods on that day and dug
up a hackberry shoot and set it out in memory of the mar-
tyred President. In 1920 the tree had attained a height of
110 feet and was nearly 12 feet in circumference. On the
very day of Lincoln's death, April 15, 1865, there was set
out in Augusta, Maine, under the direction of Mrs. Ruben
Partridge, a tree memorial to the martyred President.

A Portrait Tree
For many years one of the most publicized natural me-
morials of Abraham Lincoln has been an oak tree near Al-
bany, Georgia. It stands on the east side of the Dixie High-
way, two miles south of Albany, near Radium Springs. This
tree is seventy feet high and nearly seventy years old. When
in full leaf its foliage makes a very definite profile of
Lincoln. It has never been trimmed to accentuate the
likeness.

Roots in Profile
At Lawrence, Kansas, almost within a stone's throw of
the University of Kansas, there stands a tree whose roots
contribute to the memorialization of Lincoln. The roots
extending some distance above the ground are so formed
that when an arc street lamp is lighted in the evening the
roots cast a shadow upon the lawn which makes a vivid
portrait of the Emancipator, with all of his peculiar fea-
tures correctly visualized.

Giant Sequoia
About the same time that John Bidwell discovered the
"Big Trees" of California on November 20, 1841, Abra-
ham Lincoln was beginning to impress those with whom
he was associated at Springfield, with the magnitude of
his own place in the political arena of Illinois. He would
have thought it strange, however, if he had been advised
that one of the giant Sequoias was to be named for him. On
the Alta Meadow Trail in Giant Forest there stands the
"Abe Lincoln" tree which is 270 feet high and is 31 feet
in diameter. Abraham Lincoln towered above other men
of his day as the giant Sequoia caps the other trees of the
forest.

Forest History Society,

Inc. j6o Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 065 1 1

Affiliated with

YALE UNIVERSITY

Marsh Hall

Telephone: jjj-1109

May 3, 1968

Mr. Bert Sheldon

3315 Wisconsin Avenue #302

Washington, D. C. 20016

c

In reply to your letter of April 23, we do not have very much information
about ceremonial tree planting here. In American Forests (February 1932,
p. 128) it says that President Hoover "recently planted" two young white
oaks brought from the Lincoln birthplace farm by Representative Thatcher
of Kentucky. We could not find any information about the Boy Scouts
planting a tree in honor of Nancy Hanks, or the tree at the Lincoln Memorial.

We would be pleased to have you share any data with us that you find.

Sincerely,

Joseph A. Miller
Associate Director

JAM:tgb

J

Mai Gfn u S Grant, 3rd (Ret.)

till till I CUC HI Ilk pit? A p
CLINTON. NEW YORK 183*3

May 8, 1968

Mr. Bert Sheldon
3315 Wisconsin Avenue
Washington, D. C. 20016

My dear Sheldont

You do think of the most difficult
questions for me to answer, as by your
letter of April 23, 1968. This Inquiry re-
lates to my having 3? years ago planted a
tree, a white oak, and as to its exact
location. During the eight years I was
Director of Public Buildings and Parks and
then the years immediately following and
immediately before my holding that office,
I had many trees moved and replanted, a
great many (probably a hundred or more) wer®
planted by members of various patriotic
societies. Perhaps half of the trees out-
lining the drives in the Lincoln Memorial
grounds were replanted because it was de-
sirable to have all the trees immediately
around the Lincoln Memorial of approximately
the same size, and the only way to achieve
that was to plant the trees that outlined
the roads east of the Memorial with intervals
between them only half the length that we
wanted ultimately. It was possible then,
when the roads had all been graded and im-
proved, to move half of the trees, that is
every other one, out of the intervals of
the trees east of the Memorial and replant them
west at double the Interval that they had
been before being moved. This gave a very
satisfactorily even size for all of the
trees in the Lincoln Memorial grounds and

with the same interval between them a refine.

ment which probably nobody ever noticed butr
it worked and avoided having trees of various
sizes around the Lincoln Memorial which would
have looked confused and as though they were
just planted without a plan.

Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant, 3rd (Ret.)

lOI COLLEGE HILL ROAD
CLINTON, NEW YORK 13323

B. Sheldon - 2 - 5/8/68

As I remember it the trees planted In
the Mall were put In very much the same time
and, while I do not remember how many went Into
the Lincoln Memorial grounds and the Mall, there
were many more than I have kept the identification
through the Intervening years. The man wh© Is now
in immediate charge of the Lincoln Memorial grounds
was not in any position at that time, he may even
not have been an employee of the Park Service at
the time, but I believe that Mr. Sutton Jett was
probably in the section of the Park Service con-
nected with the care and planning of the Lincoln
Memorial grounds. While he has since retired if
you can catch him in Washington he may some
recollection of what was done exactly and of where
the records of the planting of that day are now
kept. Of course the office organization is all
different but there should be some record of
any Memorial trees planted and where they were
located. Too many entirely different projects
have drifted through my poor head since then for
me to have any definite memories adequate to
answer your question. I do not even remember
whether those trees around the Lincoln Memorial
are white oaks but you might be able to find the
whereabouts of the tree you are trying to locate
by getting Mr. Jett's help in locating where
white oaks were planted.

I was probably aware of wha*e President
Hoover planted his tree from the Lincoln Birthp&acce
Farm, but do not remember the location. Again,
Jett may know who was in the Park Service at that
time or may be able to locate a person in the right
position from the payrolls of the Park Service.
Likewise, there may be a photograph or picture in
the Columbia Historical Society's files of the
planting by President Hoover. I suggest that you
consult Mrs. Billings, the Librarian at the
Historical Society. In those years the Star almost
invariably published a picture of every event of
that sort.

Maj G e.n U.S. Grant, 3rd (Ret.)

IOI COI I FOR HILL ROAD
CLINTON, NtW YORK 13323

B. Sheldon - 3 - 5/8/68

I believe that you know Mrs. Billings
and she is a wonderful reservoir of information
about such things or events, having fallen heir
to Mr. Proctor's files and articles.

Many thanks for your offer of service.
It is very likely that now you are retired and
may have a little time to do such research for
us that you can become a very valuable and
helpful assistant for the Historical Society,
as I know how thorough you are in your research.
I shall take this subject up with you when I
return to Washington towards the end of this
month or the middle of next month, and maybe
we can locate the historic white oaks.

With all best wishes,

Very sincerely yours,

^U. S. Grant 3rd

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May 14, 1968

Mr. Bert Sheldon

3315 Wisconsin Avenue, #302

Washington, D. C. 20016

Dear Bert:

I have your two letters and the letters of Joseph A. Miller
and U. S. Grant, LI regarding the planting of historic Lincoln trees
in Washington. I have Xeroxed the Miller and Grant letters for our
files. Many thanks,

I have read your letters with interest and it looks as if
you will get ftt> the bottom of this problem. You mention elm trees.
Is it possible that any of those you mention have escaped the Dutch
ebn disease. Thousands die in Fort Wayne every spring.

Any information you send us on trees will be new, as Awe have
no material on the subject. However, did you know that Lincoln's
favorite tree was the hard maple. I once made a. speech on "Lincoln's
Interest in Trees." I send you a Xerox copy.

You had better let us do the Xeroxing. We have little petty
cash to pay Xeroxing charges and we can only pay bills when we re-
ceive an invoice.

Yours sincerely,

R. Gerald McMurtry

RGMrcmvr
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\,'37£- , - ^"""jHE State, off Mawac^tjsgtts. • pjaced; 'ipTfy'-;
; ! trees- on-, these, grounds, and? they- are; known;

illff^' . as - the ; Massachusetts, Avenue,;, off Memorial;

Trees- named' frqm citiev off that, state;,
-The Liberty, Tree., was; - plantedf ~ by-.
BJiode.. Islanders.- tq-j commemorate the_, 14 8 th j anniversary of;
that state's independence fromrGreat Britain,

Two Memorial Elms, one . for- the. Army, and j one^ forf
the Navy were planted ; by, the^Arnerican, ^QrestryyAssocia--
t^o.% as. a , beginning of f art- international ; ayenue*.

A giant Boxwood; Tree,; grewv i%'tfe8;> grounds) of} th<fe
Daniel Webster homer andj whe.nvthat-,: beautiful; old : placet;
was torn down, the.- tree was moved' to-, tb,ev- Lincoln;-, Me--.-
morlal . grounds. 'to- be. planted' ii\- "wrebst??'s - rnerr\ory,- for
beneath, its branches ^he, did- much > of y rereading.- 0$ ;wnt- .
:in2v ■ V^T" ;.'.''..-;f ■■- ' '-' :f"~ri '■ '!L*. "''.5.-; ■■ ;' - "'' "-■ ■ 5;.r 'r'i{? r "f"-"
. A White. Oak planted ky th^Bciy, Scout^of^the Dis-.
trie t of Columbia, in honor of Pr esident ,- Ii nccln's ,, mother,
■ Nancy.. Hanks is in the,, shadow;, of ; the? Memorial..;. The,
tree came . from the,, Lm^oln-, homest^ad^ near ". Eyansyaligj.,
Indiana.; f •■■ v:'-~At-'"'-'-'-i' ,f .f:-^"- /

Individual . memorial trees, may - be, placed ' in . West :
Potomac Park near the, Memorials by. relatiyes of ; ex -service,;
' men,1 with, the permission,-, of

Payi tv.

■ Condition, of English- chits along 'Lincoln. Memorial rcfl&athu/
basi.u — At a meeting of the Commission held on December 20, 1935,
the Secretary presented the following letter and report from Mr. C.
■■ Marshall Finnan, Superintendent of the National Capital Parks,
regarding the condition of the elm trees along the Lincoln Memorial
reflecting basin, together with photographs showing the condition of.,
these trees Q Cl^^^^X ^ , h %2^^S^

In accordance with your verbal request I am enclosing a/'report of the_ conjU^i
tion of the English elms at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. I am also
attaching the 11 photographs which depict the condition 'of these trees. These
photographs were made in 1029. It is requested that these photographs be
returned for. our files when the Commission has finished with them.

y^-. /, tq&4-~- a>.o, s/y J969 -<r : ' '

/ ENGLISH ELMS AT LINCOLN MEMOEIAL REFLECTING POOL .'

. Despite the excellent care and attention that has been given the approximately
250 English elm trees which form a border for the Lincoln Memorial reflecting
pool and which are, from both a landscaping and horticultural viewpoint, oiie^
of the most important groups of trees in the National Capital Parks, the trees
are apparently doomed to a comparatively short existence. ' This regrettable out-
look prevails after every known means of preserving the trees has been resorted
to by the park horticulturalists who have followed closely the advice of scien-
tists of the Forest Pathology Division, United States Department of Agriculture,
who. at the request of this office, have made frequent inspection of the trees and
careful studies of their condition.

The trees were planted in 1916, prior to the excavation for the reflecting pool.
The ground in which they were planted was in a moist soggy condition. This
circumstance has undoubtedly been responsible for the failure of the trees to
produce a substantial root growth, sufficient to provide necessary anchorage for
the mature trees. At the time of planting the trees were securely guyed.to pre~r
vent uprooting by severe winds, but as they grew larger- and -developed the
compact heavy heads which are typical of their species, this guying of the
trees, even with tk-ineh cable supporting the trees from four1 directions has been
insufficient to support them. The trees are so devoid of natural anchorage, that
they fall easy victims to the elements, 20 of them having been toppled in a single
vptorm. .c JV , ' - ■ } i\ ,-; Q.f "''^'v' />• . ' <

• Upon the advice.of the Forest Pathologists of the United States Department
of Agriculture, this office begarixin 1929, and has repeated at regular intervals
since that. time, a surface feeding of the English elms- in an attempt to encourage'
a root growth in the firm soil near the surface; .The method employed in this
; treatment is to apply, a quick acting fertilizer in the area immediately sur-
. rounding the trees, extending out to the limit of their foliage spread.-. This
fertilizer is placed G to 8 inches deep. The operation has been performed on all
of the trees from time to time, and while it has succeeded in providing nourish-
ment sufficient to afford the trees a satisfactory growth above the ground, it
has failed thus far to produce root growth strong enough to hold the trees in
place. Indeed, many of the trees which have been uprooted in recent storms
had hardly enough root growth to fill a bushel basket while the trunks of the
trees range from 10 to 15 inches in diameter. »

THE WHITE HOUSE

WAS H I NGTON

June 5, 1968

Dear Mr. Sheldon:

Following our conversation last week, I checked our re-
cords here at the "White House and find that the two oak
trees that we discussed definitely came from the Lincoln
birthplace in Kentucky during the Hoover Administration,
and were planted on the same day, December 21, 1931.

One of the trees was planted by President Hoover in an area
near the President's office and is very much in evidence
today as part of the lovely landscape enjoyed by the Presi-
dent and his family, Heads of States, and other important
people who come here.

The second tree, planted by Maurice H. Thatcher, is located
within the fenced area of the South grounds and viewed by the
many visitors that wait in line to tour the Executive Mansion
each day.

Trusting the above information will be helpful to you and with
all good wishes,

Sincerely,

Irvin M. Williams
Chief Horticulturist
Executive Mansion Grounds

Mr. Bert Sheldon
Apartment 302
3315 Wisconsin Avenue
Washington, D. C. 20016

Class gives citrus tree
in Abe Lincoln's honor

A tree for Abe Lincoln . . .

The 16th President of the United
States has been honored with a national
monument, speeches and parades, but
perhaps never before with a citrus tree.

Seventh graders at Grace Court
School, 800 W. Adams, thought a tree
for Lincoln would fit in nicely with the
city's new "Plant Citrus Trees for Me"
program through which it is hoped 10,-
000 orange and grapefruit trees will be
planted free of charge for residents in
the inner city.

When Lincoln's birthday came this
year, Mrs. Lucile Schoolland's class de-
cided to take up a collection and donate
a tree in his honor. The pupils chipped
in $2.50 for the tree and sent it along
with a letter of explanation to The Ari-
zona Republic.

"THE STUDENTS are always looking
for projects and they thought this would
be a good one," said Mrs. Schoolland.
"Many of these kids are from the
project area," she said. "We are trying
to make them feel they can make a
community contribution."

Mrs. Schoolland's pupils are pictured
above. In the bottom row from left are
Charlie Martinez, Hector Trujillo, secre-
tary, David Tapia, Stephen Armenta,
Jessie Rios and Tanya Kellum.

Middle row, from left are Janis Jones,
Charles Allen, treasurer, Mike Fergu-
son, president, Leonard Clayton, Phil
Mireles, Rosemary Jones, Charlene

Combs, Christy Wilkins, Fred Motten,
vice president, Grady Grandberry and
Mrs. Schoolland.

Top row, from left are Bennie Lean-
na, Paul Andrade, Tony Stuart, Sandra
Baca, Josephine Durand, Janet Johnson,
Debbie Amaya, Laura Oggs, Ronnie
Hinkle, Eddie Arvayo and James Carv-
er. Not pictured are Sylvia Amayisca
and Arleen Braxton.

Phoenicians who wish to donate
should make their checks payable to the
Civic Plaza Planting Committee, and ad-
junct of the Civic Plaza Business Asso-
ciation, and mailed to Trees, The Re-
public, Box 2406, Phoenix, 85002. Dona-
tions are tax deductible.

The trees will be planted in the area
bounded by Roosevelt, Roeser, 35th Ave-
nue and 48th Street for those persons
who promise to water and care for
them.

Instruction sheets on citrus tree care
will be furnished by the agricultural ex-
tension department of Arizona State
University. .

More than $4,000 has been donated
thus far to the fund, which was started
with a $2,000 check from Valley Nation-
al Bank. Harvard Hill, association presi-
dent, said the goal of 10,000 trees can be
reached "with help from church groups,
civic clubs, business firms, women's
clubs, fraternal organizaions, school
groups and individuals."

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LINCOLN LORE ffaCf >

/1 73

3

A section of a geological map of Larue County, Kentucky,
showing the location of the Lincoln Birthplace Farm, the
replica of the Lincoln Knob Creek cabin, the approximate,
original site of the Lincoln Knob Creek cabin and the Redmon
Family cemetery. Many of the roads and highways on this
map have been relocated.

coin National Bank at Hodgenville.
There it remained for many months.

Soon this flurry of interest in Lin-
coln's brother's grave subsided, and
only a few historians and biographers
remembered the details of the dis-
covery. Next, the W. P. A. discon-
tinued its activities in providing re-
lief work, and the cemetery quickly
reverted to its wild, natural state with
a lush growth of weeds, sumac, and
sassafras. Also, the ownership of the
farm was changed. Fred De Spain,
who had received so much publicity
as the owner of the cemetery, sold
out and moved nearer to town. Also,
the stone marker bearing the initials
"T. L." was taken out of the bank
vault and placed in a meat house.
Little Tommy Lincoln's fame was
short lived.

During the summer of 1945, I spent
several weeks of my vacation in Ken-
tucky, and, growing tired of inac-
tivity, I decided to rediscover the
grave of Lincoln's brother. Fortun-
ately, I called at the law office of
Judge Mather, who immediately real-
ized that I could never locate the
grave due to the relocation of county
roads and the inaccessibility of the
pioneer cemetery. Very graciously, he
offered to be my guide, and, with my
seven-year-old son, Stephen, we set
out by car in quest of the grave,
which was located approximately six
or seven miles northeast of Hodgen-
ville. Traveling as far on wheels as
possible, we finally were forced to
abandon our car and follow our
course on foot. Even the Judge ex-
perienced some difficulty in keeping
his bearings in this isolated coun-
try, but, eventually, we found the
tobacco patch where R. Beauchamp

Brown, the present owner of the
farm and cemetery, was at work, and,
then, we knew that we had achieved
our objective.

Upon examination of the cemetery,
we found it a tangled mass of bram-
bles and weeds, and, after locating
the walnut tree which was our gen-
eral marker for the identification of
the historic spot, we sighted the crude
stone that had been placed over the
supposed grave. The original marker
was still locked in the meat house,
which we, unfortunately, did not see
on this visit, but which we had seen
earlier while the stone was being pre-
served in the bank vault.

Much to our disappointment, we
found, too, that the log home of
George Redmon, which had for sev-
eral years past been used for a tobac-
co barn, had just recently been dis-
mantled and the logs neatly stacked
in one corner of the field. It is of
interest to note that the original side-
wall logs of the Redmon cabin meas-
ured from eighteen to twenty-one
inches thick.

While trying to relive the historic
scene that was undoubtedly enacted
in this cemetery in 1811 or 1812, I
could not help but think how the
gods of chance had dealt so graciously
with Abraham and, at the same time,
had been so parsimonious with Thom-
as. At least, he made one contribution
to his more fortunate brother. The
mere fact that Lincoln had an elder
sister and a younger brother silences
the charges made by the President's
political enemies that he was ille-
gitimate. Then too, the earthly ex-
istence of the brother refutes the at-
tacks made against the father, in
regard to the President's paternity.

One conclusion we did reach, in our
fatigued condition, was that the world
will never beat a path to the grave
of Thomas Lincoln, Jr.

Lincoln Remembered A
Stone House In Kentucky

When Dr. Jesse Rodman of Hodg-
enville, Kentucky, called on President
Lincoln in Washington, D. C, in re-
gard to Larue County's 1863 quota
under the military draft, they con-
versed at some length about the area
around Knob Creek where the Presi-
dent had lived from 1811 to 1816.

Lincoln told Rodman that two ob-
jects in Larue County "which were
most impressed upon his memory
were a big tree that was somewhere
on South Fork and the 'Stone House.' "

Otis M. Mather in his book, Six
Generations of LaRues And Allied
Families: . . . , 1921, described the
"Stone House" as follows: "The
quaint dwelling, situated two miles
east of Hodgenville, which was erect-
ed about the year 1800, with limestone
walls so thick as to be suggestive of
a fortification, is yet well known to
the people of the locality by the same
name which had lingered in the mind
of President Lincoln. He probably
saw it often in his childhood as he
travelled between the Knob Creek
home and Hodgen's mill."

The "Stone House" still stands on
property once owned by Gustavus
Ovesen and later by Claude Williams.
The house is located two miles east
of Hodgenville on the Bardstown
Road (Route 31-E). While Otis M.
Mather referred to the building as
a dwelling, it might also have served
occasionally as a fortification, a school
house and a spring house.

A photograph of the Old Stone
House was first published as a frontis-
piece in J. Rogers Gore's book, The
Boyhood Of Abraham Lincoln, The
Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis,
Indiana, 1921.

Louis A. Warren in his article,
Living Lincoln Memorials, 1929, made
the following statement about the
"great tree somewhere on Nolin
River":

"There are a few residents of that
region today who remember hearing
of a famous old tree on Nolin River
near Buffalo, but it has been down
so long its location has been for-
gotten. Just recently, however, some
authentic information about this tree
has come to light. Dennis Hanks, the
boyhood associate of Lincoln, wrote to
one of his relatives in Kentucky on
March 25, 1866, and among his many
inquiries was this one: 'Is the old
Lunderner (?) poplar a-standing yet?
I was born within thirty steps of that
tree in the old peach orchard.' "

Warren continued: "This is un-
doubtedly the tree which Lincoln re-
membered and it has not been diffi-
cult to locate the place where it stood.
It was near the old mill site at Buffa-
lo, on one of the branches of Nolin
River. It is difficult to imagine the
enormous growth which these old
trees achieved."

"LINCOLN OAK" WOULD HAVE TAKEN
FIRST PRIZE IN TIMES-STAR CONTEST

At Least, That is Opinion of
Man Who Conducted Event.

By CHARLES LTJDWIG
II you drive 2,000 miles from Cin-
cinnati to New Orleans and back, yon
■will see many great and mighty trees
along the roadside— but you will find
the greatest and most beautiful of all
at Lincoln's birthplace at Hodgen-
ville, Kentucky.

* It is a colossal oak and one of rare
symmetry and beauty— and it would
no doubt have won the first prize in
the Armleder-LaBoiteaux oak contest,
recently conducted in the Times -Star,
if It could have been entered.

Having visited and written articles
about the great oaks of Hamilton
County, the subject of trees was fresh
in mind when the motor trip to New
Orleans was made a few weeks ago.

All the great trees— oaks, sycamores,
beeches and the rest— that were visible

from the road were carefully singled
out and admired on the 2,000-mile
trip. And, when you look for great
and beautiful trees in Kentucky and
the other States, you will be surprised
how many you will see. Every mile
or two brings some new treat for the
eye— some aged survivor of the
primeval forest that ithe farmers have
left standing near the road.

BETTER VIEW OF TREE
Ofter the car was stopped to permit
a better view of a great tree, but
when Lincoln's birthplace was reached,
there, in addition to the fine me-
morial building with its Lincoln log
cabin, Lincoln -spring and other points
bf interest, stood the greatest tree we
(had seen in the 2,000 miles.
I Lincoln's Oak, as we called it, is a
majestic tree standing about 300 feet
Sin front of and toward the right of
the Lincoln cabin.

There is a large, sloping lawn in
front of the Lincoln Memorial Build-
ing and a walk of a minute or two
over the lawn and beyond Lincoln's

cavelike spring leads to the giant
oak at the edge of the lawn. A creek
flows beside the tree and a stone wall
has been built to protect it from any
sudden great rush of water.

The oak was measured by spanning
both arms around it at/breast height.
It took three scannings of the arms
to encircle the tree, and its circum-
ference at this height was figured
roughly at about seventeen feet or
more. ' .

The greatest,' oak found In Hamil-
ton County in" the Armieder-La Boi-
teaux contest measured seventeen
feet one inch in diameter— the Ar-
nold oak, on Kilby road near Harri
son avenue, three, miles from Har
rison, O.

Lincoln's oak plainly had a much
greater spread than the Arnold oak
and reached to a towering height.

The Lincoln oak was symmetrical
and beautiful, and while it was im-
possible to measure its height, it
seemed to be a larger tree than any
found here. No other tree seen on
the ' Southern ' trip compared^ with it.
' AX^3ACKSOrr HEKMITAGE
Some great fc^e oaks were seen
at Andrew Jackson's Hermitage in
Tennessee, and at the battlefield at
New Orleans, the guide took us. to
the ruins of the ancient house where j
Gen Packingham died after his de- |
feat by Jackson. Here was seen what
is probably the greatest and most
beautiful double row of oak trees in
America.

But no . single tree seen on the
trip could compare with the mighty
and beautiful Lincoln oak.

We drank cold water at Lincoln s
spring, just below his log cabin— and
on arriving home saw an article by
an iconoclast who threw cold water
on the idea that Lincoln's log cabin
was inside the Lincoln Memorial
Building. He said that no one, not
even Lincoln, knew exactly where
Lincoln was born, and that Lincoln
himself had written in a brief biogra-
phy prepared wheri he was running
for office, that he did not know^where
he was born except that it was some-
where '""along Sugar Creek, near Hod-
genville, Ky. We were sorry to read
this, and . hoped it were not true— fos
we had become attached to the one-
room Lincoln cabin, and also to Lin-
coln's great tree, and liked to think
that its mighty arms sheltered him
as a child. .

LINCOLNSAW© TREES

People who love gardens, and the' friendliness of trees,
and the earth in spring, heavy with the odors of fruition,
sometimes look to Abraham Lincoln as one of those mortals who
shared with us, for a little while, the smack and tang of
elemental things.

While little can be found concerning Lincoln's interest

in flowers, he is said to have made this significant statement

"T have always plucked a thistle and planted a
flov/er where I thought a flower would grow."

On one occasion in his public career he mentioned in an

address; trees, and shrubs, and fruits and flowers. This was

on September 30, 1859 when he made the annual address before

the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society at Milwaukee. In

this speech, the only one he ever delivered on agriculture,

he revealed a deep and sincere incite into the realm of nature

and the field of science. He said among other things:

And how vast and how varied a field is agriculture

for

*

discovery! The mind, already trained to

thought in the country school, or higher school,
cannot fail to find there an exhaust less s/ource of

enjoyment .

Every blade of grass is a study; and to

produce two wnere there was but one is both a profit

and a pleasure. And not grass alone, but soils,

seeds ,

and seasons

--hedges, ditches, and fences--

draining, draughts, and irrigation — plowing, hoeing ,

and harrowing--reaping , mowing and threshing--

-2-

saving crops, pests of crops, diseases of crops,
and what will prevent or cure them — implements,
utensils, and machines, tneir relative merits, and how
to improve them — hogs, horses, and cattle, sheep j,
goats, and poultry— t-ees, shrubs, fruits, plants, and
flowers--the thousand things of which these are
specimens--eaeh a world of study within itself."
f^Abraham Lincoln loved trees.
Trees were friendly things.

As a youth, everywhere he went were the trees of the
primeval forest— tulips, sycamores, oaks, elms, maples, beeches
and walnuts.

Trees made the flat boats that gave him passage down the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Trees made the cabins that gave him shelter in bleak

weather.

Trees fed the fire that ^ave him warmth, and lighted the
pages of his books.

Trees made for him a bed of leaves.

Trees gave him the sugar of the maples, the brown nuts
of autumn.

Trees drove out the mosquitoes with their pungent

log-fire smoke.

Trees drove back the wolf and the panther with their

glowing pine knots.

-3-

Yes, and trees made for him crude chairs, tables, beds,
axe-helves, ox-yokes, cradles, coffins.

Trees gave him the rails of walnut and black locust.

His companionship with trees is attested by the fact
that it was his title, "The Railsplitter , " which helped to
carry him to the White House in the presidential campaign
of i860.

Lincoln, while president, told a visitor to Washington
that he could remember but two landmarks in Kentucky, the
state of his birth, when he left there at seven years of age.
One was an old stone house, and the other "a great tree
somewhere on Nolin River."'

It is believed the old tree that Lincoln remembered so
well was a Lunderner poplar, located near an old mill site
at Buffalo, Kentucky, on one of the branches of Nolin River.
There are still living a few old residents in this Kentucky
community who remember hearing of this famous giant tree, the
name being a local term used to designate the English black
poplar.

There is a friendliness of trees. We have lost something
in this age of brick and steel and concrete. When he was a
lad, it was primeval forest everywhere.

Have you ever been alone at night in primeval wilderness?
There are not many places now where virgin tintoer stands untouched
by axe and saw.

Lincoln as a boy knew of the patience of the stars, the
calmness of the sleeping earth, the massive strength of mighty
trees, the clean smell of the midnight air.

Little wonder that he remembered the Lunderner poplar
on the branch of Nolin River.

Another ancient tree, which is the only one left that
looked down upon the nativity of the Civil War President is
the Lincoln corner oak on the Rock Spring Birthplace Farm in
Kentuckv. It is still standing in a perfect state of growth,
and is one of the most treasured living memorials -e-f him. The
trunk has a circumference of over sixteen feet at a point
six feet above the ground. The branches form a perfect canopy
with a spread of more than one hundred feet. As early as
1805, this white oak tree was marked- as the beginning corner
of the land which Thomas Lincoln, the father of the President,
ourchased on December 12, 1808. Although the parents of Lincoln
moved away from this farm when Abraham Lincoln was but two
years of age, it was under the shade of this tree, close by
the cabin, where Abraham spent his first days of play.

Lincoln knew and could identify by structure, bark, and
leaf every tree that was indigenous to the region in which he
lived.

¥/hile he always .remembered the great Lunderner poplar
in Kentucky, the President's favorite tree was the hard maple.

*■

-5-

Oddly enough, the hard maple was also a favorite of
Stephen A. Douglas, the political opponent but personal
friend of Abraham Lincoln.

To Lincoln, the hard maple had a quality of beauty that
was always a gratification to his concept of what constituted
a triumph of nature.

Trees make appropriate Lincoln memorials. On the grounds
of the Vallev Forge Chapel, there is a "Lincoln Corner." It
was established in a remarkable way. Several years ago an
English troupe playing "Abraham Lincoln" in Philadelphia,
visited the chapel, and Dr. Burke held a service for them,
they themselves acting as choir. They took up a collection
which amounted to #13. This they turned over to Dr. Burke,
with the request that he use it as he saw fit. So he bought
some small trees and planted them in that corner of the chapel
ground where nothing else would grow. He named it "The Lincoln
Corner," and today, they must be all of 30 feet in height.

A few of these living Lincoln Memorials were set out by
Mr. Lincoln, some were giant trees before he was born, others
by some peculiar growth in root, branch or leaf have called
attention to the familiar profile of the President, while
still others note some day, or mark some spot significant in
Lincoln history. There are Birthplace Oaks

Spencer County Sims
Indiana Cedars
Springfield Elni3
White House Maples
Assassination Trees ■ I
Portrait Trees

I
I