The Washington Elm was a tree on Cambridge Common in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that lived approximately 210 years and died in 1923.
The Washington Elm was a tree on Cambridge Common in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that lived approximately 210 years and died in 1923.
Beginning as early as the 1830s, it became popular legend that "under this tree Washington first took command of the American Army" (supposedly the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). The publication of the fictional "eye-witness" journal The Diary of Dorothy Dudley in 1876 furthered the legend. Although George Washington did take command of the army on 3 July 1775, there is no official documentation stating that this event took place under the tree.
Another legend has it that preacher George Whitefield gave a speech under the tree in 1746, decades before George Washington arrived. [1]
The tree became a "gravitational center" of Cambridge civic life. [1] On April 27, 1861, a crowd gathered under the tree to hold an impromptu meeting about the looming Civil War. [1] The Cambridge Chronicle reported that during the war, “The venerable elm was decorated with ancient regimental standards, and a shield of liberty, and draped with flags.” [1] Baseball practices, parades, and speeches were held under the tree. The tree became a stop for dignitaries visiting Harvard University. [1]
By 1923, the tree was very fragile and diseased. Located in the middle of Garden Street, the tree was exposed to car exhaust and the ever-present threat of a traffic accident. An Arnold Arboretum newsletter claimed the tree was "for a long time a menace to the public." [1] The exact age of the tree at this time was estimated to have been between 204 and 210 years old. [1]
Workers from the parks department of Cambridge tried attempted to keep the tree from toppling by pruning dead wood from the top of the tree. [1] Upon cutting the second limb, the entire tree fell over onto its iron fence and brought the Boston Elevated Railway cable to within 15 feet (4.57 m) of the ground. The exact date of the tree's demise is uncertain. Harvard lists the date as October 26, 1923, while the New York Times reported it as August 13. [1]
A sapling of the elm was planted in the Cambridge Common on April 19, 1925, by Vice President Charles Dawes. [1] On July 3, 1925, president Calvin Coolidge gave a speech not far from the tree, in honor of the 150th anniversary of Washington taking command. [1]
The tree was divided up into approximately 1000 pieces, and these were distributed to all states and their legislatures. The cross-section of the tree was sent to Mount Vernon. About 150 pieces were given over-the-counter, a few hundred were mailed throughout the country, and some fraternal organizations received pieces as well. Root shoots were sent to locations throughout the nation, and some of them still thrive, nearly a century later.
Pieces of the elm are held by the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan, Yale University, the Harvard University Library, and Cambridge City Hall. [1] Harvard's Houghton Library has a book whose cover was carved from the elm. [1] A group of disabled Boston veterans presented a gavel made out of the Elm to President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960. [1]
In 1925, the legend was openly discredited at the Cambridge Historical Society (CHS), when Samuel F. Batchelder read a paper [2] he later reprinted as The Washington Elm Tradition: "Under This Tree Washington First Took Command of the American Army" Is It True?. Batchelder revealed the forgeries in the tales told about Washington and the tree, in short calling the myth altogether not realistic, but the beliefs persist today. Many websites are outdated in stating that the tree still exists and that it is indeed where Washington first took command.
Today, a plaque embedded in the pavement of Garden Street (at its Mason St. intersection) marks where the tree used to stand. The Cambridge Historical Commission (CHC) has called the association of Washington and the elm a "myth" and stated that "the image of the tree remains a symbol of patriotism in Cambridge." [3]
Grafts, scions, saplings, and clones of the Washington Elm were planted across the United States in the early twentieth century. Many were planted in 1932 to mark Washington’s 200th birthday. [1]
Lydia Sigourney's poem "The Washington Elm" was published in her volume Scenes in my Native Land in 1845. In her accompanying notes she accepts the legend regarding George Washington but is more impressed by the tree's closeness to the seat of learning and the benefits to the nation derived therefrom. [10]
Ulmus americana, generally known as the American elm or, less commonly, as the white elm or water elm, is a species of elm native to eastern North America. The trees can live for several hundred years. It is a very hardy species that can withstand low winter temperatures, but it is affected by Dutch elm disease.
The Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii', commonly known as the Camperdown Elm, was discovered about 1835–1840 as a young contorted elm growing in the forest at Camperdown House, in Dundee, Scotland, by the Earl of Camperdown's head forester, David Taylor. The young tree was lifted and replanted within the gardens of Camperdown House where it remains to this day. The original tree, which grows on its own roots, is less than 3 m tall, with a weeping habit and contorted branch structure. The earl's gardener is said to have produced the first of what are commonly recognised as Camperdown elms by grafting a cutting to the trunk of a wych elm.
The Charter Oak was an enormous white oak tree growing on Wyllys Hill in Hartford, Connecticut, from around the 12th or 13th century until it fell during a storm in 1856. Connecticut colonists hid Connecticut's Royal Charter of 1662 within the tree's hollow to thwart its confiscation by the English governor-general. The oak symbolized American independence and was commemorated on the Connecticut State Quarter. It was also depicted on a commemorative half dollar and a postage stamp in 1935, Connecticut's tercentennial.
George Bush was an American pioneer and one of the first African-American non-Amerindian settlers of the Pacific Northwest.
Cambridge Common is a public park and National Historic Landmark in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is located near Harvard Square and borders on several parts of Harvard University. The north end of the park has a large playground. The park is maintained by the Cambridge Department of Public Works.
Ulmus davidiana, also known as the David elm, or Father David elm, is a small deciduous tree widely distributed across China, Mongolia, Korea, Siberia, and Japan, where it is found in wetlands along streams at elevations of 2000–2300 m (6,500–7,500 ft). The tree was first described in 1873 from the hills north of Beijing, China.
The field elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Plotii', commonly known as Lock elm or Lock's elm, Plot's elm or Plot elm, and first classified as Ulmus sativaMill. var. Lockii and later as Ulmus plotii by Druce in 1907-11, is endemic mainly to the East Midlands of England, notably around the River Witham in Lincolnshire, in the Trent Valley around Newark-on-Trent, and around the village of Laxton, Northamptonshire. Ronald Melville suggested that the tree's distribution may be related to river valley systems, in particular those of the Trent, Witham, Welland, and Nene. Two further populations existed in Gloucestershire. It has been described as Britain's rarest native elm, and recorded by The Wildlife Trust as a nationally scarce species.
The hybrid cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Cicestria', commonly known as the 'Chichester Elm', was cloned at the beginning of the 18th century from a tree growing at Chichester Hall, Rawreth, near Danbury, Essex, England, then the home of Thomas Holt White FRS, brother of the naturalist Gilbert White. The tree was first recorded by country parson and botanist Adam Buddle in south-east Essex in 1711, and appeared as U. cicestria in an 1801 catalogue. 'Cicestria' is the original Ulmus × hollandica 'Vegeta', but suffered confusion with the later Huntingdon Elm cultivar by John Claudius Loudon who, without consulting Lindley, accorded the epithet 'Vegeta' to Huntingdon Elm in 1838, as he found the two indistinguishable. J. E. Little in The Journal of Botany (1923) agreed that Buddle's leaves-specimen of Chichester Elm in the Sloane Herbarium seemed to be the same cultivar as Huntingdon Elm: "If so, this elm [Chichester] was in existence and mature some years before the reputed raising of the Huntingdon Elm by Wood of Huntingdon 'about 1746'."
Ulmus 'Wanoux' is a Dutch hybrid cultivar raised at the Dorschkamp Research Institute for Forestry & Landscape Planning, Wageningen, from an open pollination of 'Plantyn'. Originally identified as clone No. 762, it was selected for assessment by the French Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), which patented it as 'Wanoux' in 2006.
The American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Augustine', originally called 'Augustine Ascending', was cloned by Archie M. Augustine of the Augustine Nursery of Bloomington, Illinois, from a nursery seedling planted in 1927 in Normal, Illinois, and found to be columnar in habit.
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Atropurpurea' [:dark purple] was raised from seed at the Späth nursery in Berlin, Germany, circa 1881, as Ulmus montana atropurpurea, and was marketed there till the 1930s, being later classed as a cultivar by Boom. Henry (1913) included it under Ulmus montana cultivars but noted that it was "very similar to and perhaps identical with" Ulmus purpureaHort. At Kew it was renamed U. glabraHuds. 'Atropurpurea', but Späth used U. montana both for wych elm and for some U. × hollandica hybrids, so his name does not necessarily imply a wych elm cultivar. The Hesse Nursery of Weener, Germany, however, which marketed 'Atropurpurea' in the 1950s, listed it in later years as a form of U. glabraHuds..
The Mercer Oak was a large white oak tree that stood in Princeton Battlefield State Park in Princeton, New Jersey. The tree was about 300 years old when it was torn by strong winds in March 2000. It was the emblem of Princeton Township and appeared on the seal of the township. The tree is also the key element of the seal of Mercer County, New Jersey.
The American Elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Lake City' is a semi-fastigiate form cloned in the early 1920s from a ten-year old seedling found growing outside the Lutheran parsonage, Lake City, Minnesota, and released by the Lake City Nurseries there in 1931. The Nurseries published a nine-page booklet on it in 1932, 'The Lake City Elm', with full description, a photograph of the original tree, and commendatory letters. It was later described by Wyman in Trees Magazine 3 (4): 13, 1940.
Ulmus minor 'Rueppellii' is a Field Elm cultivar said to have been introduced to Europe from Tashkent by the Späth nursery, Berlin. Noted in 1881 as a 'new elm', it was listed in Späth Catalogue 73, p. 124, 1888–89, and in subsequent catalogues, as Ulmus campestris Rueppelli, and later by Krüssmann as a cultivar.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Sowerbyi', commonly known as the Sowerby Elm, was described by Moss in The Cambridge British Flora (1914). The tree, once referred to as the 'Norfolk Elm' by Smith, was commonly found in the hedgerows and woods of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire in the early 20th century before the advent of Dutch elm disease. Melville considered it a hybrid of 'Coritana'.
The South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C., is directly south of the house and is bordered on the east by East Executive Drive and the Treasury Building, on the west by West Executive Drive and the Old Executive Office Building, and along its curved southern perimeter by South Executive Drive and a large circular public lawn called The Ellipse.
The field elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Viminalis' (:'willow-like'), occasionally referred to as the twiggy field elm, was raised by Masters in 1817, and listed in 1831 as U. campestris viminalis, without description. Loudon added a general description in 1838, and the Cambridge University Herbarium acquired a leaf specimen of the tree in 1866. Moss, writing in 1912, said that the Ulmus campestris viminalis from Cambridge University Herbarium was the only elm he thought agreed with the original Plot's elm as illustrated by Dr. Plot in 1677 from specimens growing in an avenue and coppice at Hanwell near Banbury. Elwes and Henry (1913) also considered Loudon's Ulmus campestris viminalis to be Dr Plot's elm. Its 19th-century name, U. campestris var. viminalis, led the cultivar to be classified for a time as a variety of English Elm. On the Continent, 'Viminalis' was the Ulmus antarcticaHort., 'zierliche Ulme' [:'dainty elm'] of Kirchner's Arboretum Muscaviense (1864).
John Nutting was the Master Builder and Surveyor of Lumber for the King in New Ireland and later Nova Scotia. He fought for the British in the French and Indian War and worked as a Loyalist throughout the American Revolution. He contributed to the successful defence of New Ireland from a 21 day siege by the Penobscot Expedition.
A Witness Tree is a tree that was present during a grand historical or cultural event of America. The trees got their name from being able to "witness" a historically significant event. Witness trees are centuries old and are known to be of great importance to the U.S. Nation's history. It is unclear how many witness trees there are, but the ones documented are archived in the Library of Congress through the Witness Tree Protection Program.
Works related to Washington Elm at Wikisource
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