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Title: Germantown old and new
Its rare and notable plants
Author: Edwin C. Jellett
Release date: April 6, 2026 [eBook #78370]
Language: English
Original publication: Germantown: Germantown Independent-Gazette, 1904
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78370
Credits: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERMANTOWN OLD AND NEW ***
Arranged and Printed
by the
Germantown Independent-Gazette
Germantown, Pa.
[Illustration: Oak Tree and Rabbit Lane]
GERMANTOWN
_OLD AND NEW_
Its Rare
and Notable
Plants
[Illustration]
_1904_
_BY EDWIN C. JELLETT_
_To
CLARA HELEN BAUMANN
a native of Germantown whose
ancestors beautified it in the
past as their successor honors
and enriches it in the present._
[Illustration]
_PREFACE_
This outline sketch of our “rare and notable plants” was prepared at
the direction of “The Germantown Horticultural Society” and was read
at its public meeting of May 9, 1904,--the same later appearing in the
columns of the “Germantown Independent-Gazette.”
At the time of writing, there was no thought of publishing the paper,
it being hurriedly assembled outside the time required for daily
positive duties within the limits of one week,--and was intended only
for a simple address.
This will partly explain, if it does not excuse obvious defects, and
since I have been urged by several members of the Society named to
present the paper in print, I have concluded to send it forth with all
its faults from the same types by which it first appeared, asking only
that the circumstances be remembered, for no one, I feel confident, is
able to satisfactorily present the plants of Germantown in an article
so brief,--or more definitely,--I am not able to do so. To the original
paper I have added an index, which I hope may not be found superfluous.
For the illustrations which grace our pages, I am indebted to S.
Mendelsohn Meehan,--who suggested this paper,--and to Horace F.
McCann--who printed it. The faces which familiarly greet us I have
added to dignify our work, for past and present they represent the
“stuff” which built our town,--preserved it,--and now keep it,--forever
famous. Last, but not least, I feel sure we all are pleased with the
appearance of our book, and to Erwin W. Moyer, whose skill and good
taste reared upon a sub-stratum apparently hopelessly unpromising a
structure so creditable, I wish to record my heartiest thanks.
E. C. J.
_ILLUSTRATIONS_
_FRONTISPIECE_
Oak tree on Rabbit Lane, near County Line Road. Photograph by Charles
Edward Pancoast.
_PAGE 23_
The “Morris-Littell” House, at southeast corner of Main and High
streets. The rear part of this house I believe to have once been the
residence of Dr. Christopher Witt.--(E. C. J.) Photo by J. H. Russ.
_PAGE 30_
George Redles. A remarkable botanist, whose knowledge of our native
and cultivated plants is unsurpassed, and whose modesty is equal to
his acquirements. Photograph by Mrs. George Redles.
_PAGE 33_
Wakefield, a notable historic mansion, whose surrounding grounds
exhibit many of our finest plants. Etching by Joseph Pennell. Penna.
Magazine.
_PAGE 44_
Naglee Houses. Original houses, exhibiting to the present the stone
dwellings of the early settlement. Photograph of “The Philadelphia
Times.”
_PAGE 48_
Weeping Elms. Beautiful specimens shading the entrance to Meehans’
nurseries. Cut from “Meehans’ Monthly.”
_PAGE 51_
Louis Clapier Baumann, in his day the leading Florist of Germantown,
and the first “wholesale grower of cut flowers” for the Philadelphia
markets. Photograph copy by E. C. J.
_PAGE 57_
Hemlock Glen of the “Monks,” situated on the Wissahickon, above
Kitchen’s Lane. Photograph by E. C. J. From “Meehans’ Monthly.”
_PAGE 64_
Charles J. Wister, who preserves the traditions of “Grumblethorpe,”
and following in the footsteps of an illustrious line, is honored and
beloved wherever known. Photograph by Samuel R. Gray.
_PAGE 72_
Elliston P. Morris, the owner of the “Deshler-Morris” mansion
which President Washington occupied, and the possessor also of
one of the finest gardens in Germantown. Print of “The Germantown
Independent-Gazette.”
_PAGE 74_
R. Robinson Scott, an eminent Germantown horticulturist, and the
discoverer of the famous fern known as “Scott’s Spleenwort.”
Photograph copy by E. C. J. Print of “Fern-Bulletin.”
_PAGE 78_
Thomas Nuttall, a noted naturalist, lecturer and explorer. An
exceedingly rare spleenwort keeps before us his name. From “Botanists
of Philadelphia,” by John W. Harshberger, Ph. D.
_PAGE 79_
“Wyck,” a marvel of quaintness and exquisite beauty. The oldest
house and garden in Germantown, and the richest in intellectual
associations. Photograph by Gilbert Hindermyer. From “Home and
Garden.”
_PAGE 83_
Johnson Homestead, at northwest corner of Main street and Washington
lane, a house renowned in local history, whose garden is its equal in
absorbing interest. Print of “The Germantown Independent-Gazette.”
_PAGE 88_
Cliveden, the centre of the Germantown battle ground, and the home of
many beautiful plants. Print of “The Germantown Independent-Gazette.”
_PAGE 90_
Upsala, celebrated for its stately beauty, and its possessions of
rare and unique plants. Photograph by J. H. Russ.
_PAGE 94_
Joseph Meehan, a noted botanist and horticulturist, whose writings
form an integral part of our best floricultural magazines. Print of
“Floral Exchange.”
_PAGE 100_
Prof. Thomas Meehan, a noted scientist, educator and writer, the
author of the greatest books upon our native flora, and the nestor of
American Horticulture. Print of “Meehans’ Monthly.”
_GERMANTOWN_
_RARE AND NOTABLE PLANTS_
In the presentation and consideration of our home plants of special
interest, it should be kept in mind that nearly all, if not quite all,
were transplanted to the positions they now occupy, and that there is
here no disposition to compare or contrast with other plants of greater
age, of more historic worth, our rare and notable plants of “nature”
and cultivation.
Our purpose is rather to show that, with our town’s increase in girth
and years, we have had a like advance in intelligence and culture, and
that our old mansions, gardens and those who keep them have earned for
Germantown the title,--“the most beautiful suburb in America.”
We have no yew trees 3000 years old, no oak trees of 2000 years’
growth, no “Burnham beeches,” nor have we other plants of great age
equal to those of older countries and especially England, but such as
we have we shall in outline endeavor to present, and direct attention
to the fact that they have merited and received the attention of
visitors, who have had opportunity for observation abroad. About ten
years ago, George Nicholson, curator of the Royal Botanical Gardens of
Kew, London, was the guest of Prof. Thomas Meehan, and spent some time
here. After leaving he said:
“Germantown is a place which every foreigner interested in American
trees should visit, as the people of this suburb of Philadelphia one
hundred years ago were especially interested in the introduction and
cultivation of rare trees, and the first cultivated specimens of
several American trees were originally planted here, and may still be
seen. The roads of Germantown are shaded with beautiful rows of native
trees, and behind them stretch the green lawns of innumerable villas.”
John Walter, editor of the London Times, while here expressed similar
views, and many other visitors and writers who passed through
Germantown have left us a record of their “impressions.”
To name all our worthy plants were a hopeless task, and one which I
shall not attempt. Our efforts shall be rather to trace the thread of
development, and by examples of past and present conspicuous plants to
illustrate its growth. To do this properly we should go back to the
settlement of the town itself, know the causes which gave it birth,
understand the character of its founders and their pursuits--its growth
material and intellectual, before we may be able to meet its merits
with an equal appreciation.
Alway while walking along our Main street I am reminded of the popular,
well-known thoroughfare of Oxford, England, which it strangely
suggests, and I sometimes wonder if it was not this ancient street, and
not the central highway of Philadelphia, which to our own principal
thoroughfare 150 years ago gave us High street, a name by which it was
long known. Be this as it may, our Main street in a very striking way
resembles its more widely known namesake abroad, a highway Hawthorne
described as “the noblest street in England,” and to which “Wordsworth
devoted a sonnet to the stream-like windings of that glorious street.”
As I follow our “avenues” pleasing course, I am further reminded of
old Edinburgh’s hallowed hill, and as I picture its steep ascent,
its numerous historic buildings, its atmosphere of antiquity, I see
Sir Walter Scott from his carriage strenuously discoursing upon its
wealth of interests to the delight of his guests and his own apparent
satisfaction, for to him Edinburgh was home, and to so entertain
his friends was “very heaven,” and as I look into the future, I see
our own “cannongate” of not one whit less historic value, by one as
illustrious, made as widely, and as permanently known.
In olden time it was the custom to approach Germantown only by the
“Great Road,” for indeed for a period there was no other way. The
original survey map of Germantown, dated October 24, 1683, now in the
possession of Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, is void of side roads or
lanes, but this defect immediately after the settlement was remedied,
maps following showing lanes to mills, and later maps showing other
roads connecting Germantown with important near-by pikes east and west.
After Rittenhouse Mill road, and Roberts’ Mill road, one of the most
important of later roads was Bensell’s or School House lane connecting
our Main street with Ridge road, a favorite route with travelers when
the quagmires and quicksands of “3-Mile Run” proved troublesome.
In a letter dated March 7, 1684, which Francis Daniel Pastorius wrote
his parents, he gave them this information: “As relating to our newly
laid out town Germanopolis or Germantown, it is situated on a deep and
very fertile soil, and is blessed with an abundance of fine springs
and fountains of fresh water. The main street is 60 feet wide, and the
cross streets 40 feet in width. Each family has a plot of ground for
yard and garden 3 acres in size. The air is pure and serene, the summer
is longer and warmer than it is in Germany, and we are cultivating many
kinds of fruits and vegetables, and our labor meets with rich reward.”
The ground of which Pastorius wrote was not the immigrants’ first
choice, but after a difference with William Penn was selected on
account of its elevation, and also because it was open ground with
only here and there groups of trees. After the survey lines were
established farms and gardens, and of course, houses, were located on
each side of the main road, the farm boundaries extending in parallel
lines from the “great road” east to Bristol township line, now Stenton
avenue, and west to the Roxborough line, now Wissahickon avenue. In
other respects these lines, however, were never strictly drawn, and
places on York road to the east, and Roxborough on the west, were
nearly always referred to as “Germantown.”
The Main street farm lots began a few feet north of “Lower Burying
Ground,” now Hood’s Cemetery, and were plotted northward in divisions
of “half lots” of 115½ feet front each, or “whole lots” of 231 feet
front each, to a point adjoining “Upper” or “Concord Burying Ground,”
located a few feet north of Kyser’s, now Washington lane. The original
settlers of “42 persons in 12 families” were located upon this road,
for so it had been planned. In “a further account of the Province of
Pennsylvania,” published in 1685, wrote Penn:
“We do settle in the way of townships or villages, each of which
contains 5000 acres in square, and at least 10 families; many that had
right to more land were at first covetous to have their whole quantity
without regard to this way of settlement, tho’ by such wilderness
vacancies they had ruined the country and then our interest of course.
I had in my view society, assistance, busy commerce, instruction
of youth, government of people, manners, conveniency of religious
assembling, encouragement of mechanics, distinct and beaten roads,
and it has answered in all those respects, I think, to the universal
content.”
Our first settlers were not tillers of the soil. Pastorius records they
were “mostly linen weavers, unaccustomed to husbandry,” but “yeomen”
closely followed, and soon
“The meads’ environed with the silver streames”
were planted, and by a gracious providence stimulated to transmit
to us the increase. William Penn quoting Robert Turner, wrote--“the
manufacturers of linnen by the Germans goes on finely, and they make
fine linnen. Samuel Carpenter, having been lately there, declares they
had gathered one crop of flax, and had sowed for the second and saw it
come up well.”
This Samuel Carpenter was a busy resident of Philadelphia, and the
holder of 500 acres of ground in the vicinity of present Branchtown.
Very early in the growth of the new colony the importance of Germantown
was recognized, and although its founders were disappointed, desiring
ground upon a “navigable stream,” they made the best of what they
considered a poor bargain, and losing no time, they, under the
direction of Pastorius, gave life and vigor to the new “town,” planted,
and eight years after the settlement, Oldmixon stated, “the whole
street about one mile in length was lined with blooming peach trees.”
Soon the hastily constructed log cabins gave way to substantial
buildings of stone, and much of the stone, I doubt not, came from
the quarry of Godfried Lehman, located at what is now Main and Price
streets, where the old round-house once stood. Those who remember the
Heivert Papen or Jansen house, built in 1698, and which about 25 years
ago was removed from the northwest corner of Main and Johnson streets,
may picture the houses “built of stone which is mixed with glimmer,”
observed by Peter Kalm in his visit here in 1748.
About this time the character of Germantown began to change, although
this change did not become pronounced until 50 years later. An influx
of settlers of means and the improved conditions of the natives created
new desires, houses became larger and more elaborate, “plantations” or
“estates” began to take the place of farms, trade stimulated by wealth
became of more importance, and the commingling of commerce and culture
gave to Germantown an atmosphere not enjoyed by those who planted the
settlement.
With the advent and accumulation of gain came those luxuries which only
wealth and culture are able to accommodate, and the severe simplicity
of those who for conscience sake, left the Fatherland to aid in the
“holy experiment” and found a commonwealth, slowly gave way to an
expanding era of change.
There were writers of this period who give us other impressions. One of
the most unsympathetic of these was Silas Deane, who in 1775 wrote:
“Germantown consists of one street built mostly of rough stone, two
miles nearly in length, and the houses resemble the appearance of the
inhabitants, rough children of nature, and German nature too.” This
writer doubtless was an ancestral connection of Lewis Carroll, who, in
“Hunting of the Snark,” wrote,
“The crew was Dutch,
and behaved as such.”
But though rather uncomplimentary, Deane’s account is extremely
interesting, and as Townsend Ward reports him, is as follows:
“The greatest improvement on nature is that on their groves, owing
by no means to luxury, but to penury and want. The growth is red oak
(quercus rubra), interspersed with black walnut (juglans nigra), etc.
The poor are allowed to cut up the brush and trim the lower limbs; this
leaves the groves in the most beautiful order you can imagine. All is
clean on the ground; removing every shrub and bush, leaves the wind
full play to sweep the floor, and the soil, by no means luxuriant,
shooting up the trees rather sparingly, so much grass starts as to
give a pale green carpet; while the trees are trimmed up ten to fifteen
feet on their trunks, and give the eye a prospect far into the grove,
and the footman or horseman free access.”
As we may readily imagine, the original Germantown settlers were a
busy people, so with the exception of Pastorius, Godfried Lehman, and
a few others, we have little from them, and for our information we are
obliged to depend upon visiting travelers. Ten years before the time of
Deane’s report Major Robert Rogers wrote thus of Philadelphia:
“In short, scarce anything can afford a more beautiful landscape than
this city and adjacent country, which for some miles may be compared to
a well regulated, flourishing garden, being improved, as I have been
informed, to as great advantage as almost any lands in Europe.”
In 1799 Duke de la Rochefoucault described Germantown as “a long
village near 2½ miles in extent. The houses to the number of about 300
are all built on the side of the highway, and are erected pretty close
to each other.”
Of the planting of the people he wrote:
“They raise a good deal of wheat, and still more Indian corn, but very
little rye or oats.”
Rev. John C. Ogden, who visited here in the same year, describes the
village in much the same way, and noted, “the road is muddy and dusty
when rains or droughts prevail. The houses in Germantown are very
universally shaded with weeping willows, the Lombardy poplar, and other
ornamental trees. The gardens are under excellent cultivation, with
valuable fields in their rear.”
Several visitors of importance we shall pass, for the purpose is merely
to expose the line of continuity to enable us to form a better idea of
the floral life of old Germantown, and with a recollection of Edward H.
Bonsall, who, as Rev. S. F. Hotchkin reports, lived here from 1819 to
1835, we will turn aside into another path. Evidently the last-named
was a poor observer, for he said, “in a circle of six miles with Chew’s
house as a centre outside of Main street, there would not have been
found 5 houses superior to an ordinary farm house,” a statement so
absurd as to require no consideration.
This brings us to days which Robert Thomas and Joseph Murter, venerable
residents living with us, remember, and we shall now endeavor to follow
the development of our many fine estates enriched by mansions, gardens,
rare shrubs and notable trees, and with these note as much as we
possess or remember of data and lore as may give promise of interest.
To me it is extremely interesting that original holdings are yet
held by families whose ancestors first occupied them, and I doubt if
there be another settlement in America where uninterruptedly so many
generations have occupied the same ground. Names which come readily
to mind are Pastorius, Logan, Rittenhouse, Johnson, Keyser, and a
group of other names of early settlers represented by the Wisters. Yet
we have with us “Wyck,” its original house built by Hans Millan its
original settler, standing surrounded by its original garden, and its
occupant and owner, Miss Jane R. Haines, a direct descendant of its
first owner--a house whose only local competitor for age with the
possible exceptions of Rock-House, and Naglee’s Houses, is the “Fraley
House,” clearly of later construction, which stands in what was once
Dr. Christopher Witt’s garden, later Miss Elizabeth C. Morris’ garden,
situated at the southeast corner of Main and High streets, a building
which may be seen to the rear of Mrs. Farnum’s charming latticed
residence.
Local history, to me at least, is alway alluring, and it is with
difficulty that I hew to the proper line, the temptation being to
venture a little more. But we shall leave Dr. Witt and these pleasant
shades to follow in the footsteps of others perhaps less well known.
[Illustration: Morris Littell House]
By an unwritten law, observed from the days of Godfried Lehman to those
of Charles F. Jenkins, our latest guide, Germantown has been approached
from the south by way of Main street, and a custom so honored I hope
not to be the first to disturb. Many of us, indeed most of us, I think,
are able to recall Germantown village of 2½ miles or more, when the
large buttonwood tree (platanus occidentalis) at Naglee’s house
stood entire, shading on late afternoons “Turnpike Bridge” near; when
horse-cars, ignoring schedule, halted at the temporarily deserted tree
at the fork, in waiting for “Jake,” who was somewhere out of sight
northward on the hill, and no more in a hurry than those in the car,
who looked upon as an unwarranted innovation a noisy train which passed
to disturb their restful meditations; when laden wagons unfortunate
jumped the track, seriously interfering with suburban traffic; when
on “market days” long lines of wagons laden with hay, straw and other
commodities numerous, twice a week struggled through and oft-times
blocked the busy road. Time was, and that not long ago, when Charles
J. Wister, the well-known beloved father of Grumblethorpe’s present
owner, under the shade of his street trees, dined upon the sidewalk,
with none to wonder nor molest; and Conestogas with other vehicles
numerous, which James Stokes records, passed and re-passed as naturally
as present day trolleys, to whose inveterate clash and bang we have
become accustomed. Those were the days when gardening was a pleasure
if not an “art,” and the planting of the good old plain gardeners, who
never dreamed their calling would be elevated to a “science,” is before
us to judge.
At the house of Isaac Norris, until a generation ago standing on
Germantown road, near Tenth street, and widely known as “Fairhill,”
was one of the finest gardens in the colonies. This garden was of the
formal type, and “Francis Daniel Pastorius, of Germantown, himself a
man of taste, pronounced Fair-hill garden the finest he had seen in
the whole country,”--so wrote Thompson Westcott in “Historic Mansions”
of Philadelphia, and this same writer continues: “Some of the trees
and plants came from France. There were catalpas from the Southern
States, and it was here were grown the first willow trees (salix alba)
in Pennsylvania, the introduction of which is told by Franklin in his
account of noticing the sprouting of a willow which had been used in
a basket which he saw on board a ship which came to a wharf on the
Delaware. Franklin took the sprout, and presented it to Debby Norris,
who planted it, where it became the parent of many trees of the same
species which have since become so common.”
There are many white willow trees about Germantown, two fine specimens
each with trunks 4 feet in diameter by 70 feet in height, being located
on East Coulter street, corner of Cumberland street; but nearly all
our best weeping willows (salix babylonica) have disappeared. Now no
vestige remains of the rows of willows which lined both sides of Church
lane, east of Willow avenue, notable trees which Thomas MacKellar
described for Rev. S. F. Hotchkin. Under one of these trees, which
stood prominently in the middle of the road, tradition says General
Washington was accustomed to spend an evening hour in its shade. There
yet remains to us, however, interesting willows near the entrance to
Vernon, at Wyck, and several large and beautiful specimens are on the
estate of Charles Weiss, East Washington lane, near Stenton avenue.
As you may remember, the weeping willow is a native of China, and by
the Dutch was introduced to Holland. By these same people it was also
introduced to England, one of the first specimens in that country
being planted at Hampton Court.
Advancing northward by way of York road, we note on the grounds of J.
Bertram Lippincott a fine white oak (quercus alba) with a trunk four
feet in diameter and rising to a height of 80 feet. Here also is a
specially fine white pine (pinus strobus), but there is hardly a place
of importance in or near Germantown where there are not conspicuous,
if not great, white pine trees. It is a characteristic of a white pine
that it dominates wherever it is, and a plant which at a distance
appears to be of great proportions, near is found to be disappointingly
ordinary.
From “Solitude,” located east of York road, south of Fisher’s lane,
the best plants have disappeared. There yet, however, is a catalpa
(catalpa bignonioides), having a trunk three feet in diameter and a
height of forty feet; a chestnut (castanea vesca), with a trunk of five
feet in diameter and a height of 70 feet; a tulip poplar (liriodendron
tulipifera), 4 feet in diameter and 100 feet in height; and a finely
proportioned walnut (juglans nigra), 3 feet in diameter and 80 feet
high.
These trees are surpassed by others elsewhere, the walnut in particular
being excelled by like trees on Morton street near High street, on
Main street above Tulpehocken street, at Nutwold on East Johnson
street,--all superior plants, and by a wide branching tree of the same
species overspreading a spring-house on the grounds of Frank Smyth,
Washington lane, east of Chew street, a specimen 6 feet in diameter and
90 feet high, I think by all odds the finest in Germantown.
On Fisher’s lane east of York road is an exceedingly fine white poplar
(populus alba), having a trunk 48 inches in diameter and a height of 80
feet; and farther east on the same lane, with its lands bordering those
of “York Farm,”--the last American home of Fanny Kemble,--is Champlost,
a beautiful estate occupied by Miss Fox, where grow some of our finest
plants,--but it being situated beyond our proper limits, we shall with
this mention pass it, to stop at a worthy neighbor.
Bordering York road, above Logan Station, is “Clearfield,” now
“Fairfield,” a plantation which Henry Drinker purchased in 1794,
and so named because “James Fisher has a place that has been called
‘Newington’ for many years, ’twas thought best to change the name,”
wrote Elizabeth Drinker in her entertaining “journal.”
This plantation or farm was held for two years by the Drinkers, its
mistress delighting in its occupation and rewards, recording its
cherries ripe May 17; describing an odd tulip (tulipa gesneriana),
which grew in its garden, a plant “with 8 leaves, which I look upon as
a curiosity, never having seen one before with more than 6 leaves,” and
continuing she noted, “a very beautiful place it is, how delighted and
pleased would many women be with such a retreat.”
The beauty of Clearfield was appreciated by successive owners and
care was taken for its preservation. Although a railroad has cut the
place in sections, and its collections are depleted, it yet preserves
sufficient of merit to attract the most superficial plant observer.
Here at the old mile-stone--“2 M. to R. S., 4 M. to P.”--surrounded
by high trees and ivy-covered, is its secluded mansion, which one
approaches by box (buxus sempervirens) bordered walks, winding
between borders of heavy shrubbery, and about are several conspicuous
hemlock (tsuga canadensis), beech (fagus ferruginea), and button-ball
(plantanus occidentalis) trees.
Near the upper entrance gate is a white pine, and beside the house a
Norway spruce (picea excelsa), both of strange development, and as odd
as any of the grotesque growths I have seen at Wildwood, N. J., and
elsewhere on the Atlantic coast.
Here also is a curious Austrian pine (pinus Austriaca), with a
depressed crown; an unusually fine specimen of Himalayan pine (pinus
excelsa), 50 feet in height, second only to pines of the same species
at William Rotch Wister’s, Wisteria avenue; at Justus Strawbridge’s,
School House lane and Wissahickon avenue, and at Caspar Heft’s, Main
street, near Manheim street, the latter a specimen which George Redles
considers the best in our territory.
[Illustration: George Redles]
At “Fairfield” is a fine specimen of rare Japan cedar or cryptomeria
(cryptomeria japonica), the acknowledged “queen of evergreens,” 25
feet in height; also a fine white oak (quercus alba), 80 feet in
height; a white or silver birch (betula alba), 40 feet in height, the
latter a fine plant, but not equal to specimens at Fern-hill and at
E. W. Clark’s, Wissahickon avenue and School House lane. Also here,
as reported by Philip C. Garrett, the present occupant of Fairfield,
for Mrs. Anne DeB. Mears--“over the upper spring-house is an ancient
and famous catalpa tree pictured in the horticultural journals, which
still bears its beautiful crop of blossoms every year,” a tree yet
vigorous, and near the mansion, between it and the road, is a fine
cedar of Lebanon (cedrus libani), 50 feet in height. All these plants
are prominent, and may be plainly seen from the road.
“Stenton,” once extending from Fisher’s lane to Nicetown lane, from
Germantown road to York road, and situated from “Fairfield” to the
west, has been shorn of much of its wealth. A. J. Downing, who visited
it, thus describes it in “Landscape Gardening” of 1849: “Stenton,
near Germantown, four miles from Philadelphia, is a fine old place,
with many picturesque features. The farm consists of 700 acres, almost
without division fences--admirably arranged--and remarkable for a grand
old avenue of the hemlock spruce (abies canadensis), 110 years old,
leading to a family cemetery of much sylvan beauty.”
This same “splendid avenue of hemlocks,” described later by Townsend
Ward, is no more, and of interest at Stenton now is but a tulip
poplar, a large plane tree (platanus occidentalis), a few persimmon
trees (diospyrus virginiana) and a row of Lombardy poplars (populus
dilatata), plants surpassed by many with us, and by two plants of
exceptional merit, one a wide-spreading black walnut (juglans nigra),
appearing to the south of the mansion, and the other a notable elm
(ulmus Americana), having a trunk 4 feet in diameter and a top
spreading at a height of 120 feet, a plant which on part of Stenton
grounds disposed of, may now be seen in the yard of Dr. William
H. Hickok, northeast corner of Eighteenth and Cayuga streets, a
magnificent specimen said to have been mature in the days of James
Logan and William Penn.
Near-by and north of Stenton is “The Cedars,” a green grove wherein
Professor Stewardson Brown long dwelt, and where this gentleman
informed me is a fine specimen of swamp magnolia (magnolia glauca), two
rare yellow-flowering magnolias (magnolia fraseri), a lemon-scented
variety of great beauty, by many considered our finest magnolia, and a
small tree of the always rare cedar of Lebanon. Here also are several
fine specimens of swamp cypress (taxodium distichium), familiarly known
about Philadelphia as Bartram’s cypress.
Without exception, the finest grove of trees in Germantown is that
in the midst of which “Wakefield,” a near neighbor of Stenton and
Fairfield, is situated--a grove composed of immense juniper (juniperus
virginiana), chestnut (castanea Americana), white oak (quercus alba),
red oak (quercus rubra), and tulip poplar (liriodendron tulipifera)
trees. Here is a green-flowering cucumber tree (magnolia acuminata),
perfectly proportioned, having a trunk 2 feet in diameter and a
height of 30 feet. Also here on the front lawn is a tulip poplar,
measured by John Warr and George Redles, a tree 5 feet in diameter,
ivy-covered from the ground to its first limb at 40 feet, and rising to
a height of 130 feet, a noble specimen equal to celebrated relatives
growing on the Virginian mountains, where the species is said to attain
its greatest development; truly a tree, especially when in bloom,
deserving Benjamin Franklin’s designation--“King of the American
forests.”
[Illustration: Wakefield]
Passing for the present “Little Wakefield,” we halt in lower Fisher’s
lane to note a most interesting white oak (quercus alba), long familiar
to me, but which I overlooked until directed again to it by George
Redles. This is a rugged tree 4 feet in diameter and 60 feet high,
perfectly formed, and growing on the top of a rock it has cleft in
twain.
William E. S. Baker, in “Widow Seymour,” accurately locates this tree
“between the Wakefield mills in Fisher’s Hollow, close by the bank of
the Wingohocken creek, and at the curve of the lane.” “The immense
flat-rock” which supports this tree is also associated with “Widow
Seymour,” and those of a poetic temperament may here find much of
interest. Advancing to the elevation at Stenton avenue and Fisher’s
lane, we find before us at Mrs. M. H. Stiver’s two of our finest trees,
one a white oak, the other a red oak, each 4 feet in diameter and 80
feet high; both plants perfectly shaped, and with huge wide-spreading
limbs, covering an area equal to their height.
Other fine specimens of oak we have are a group of three fine white
oaks at Old Oaks Cemetery on Wissahickon avenue; a red oak at Stewart
A. Jellett’s “One Oak,” Pulaski avenue, near Apsley street; a beautiful
tree on the grounds of Francis B. Reeves, Clapier street and McKean
avenue; our most striking and picturesque oak at Judge F. Carroll
Brewster’s, Manheim street, near Wissahickon avenue; a great white
oak at Ivy Hill Cemetery, near Pennsylvania Railroad, a single finely
developed specimen 5 feet in diameter and 100 feet high; and if not
the largest, one of the finest, and certainly our most interesting oak
planted by John Wister in 1803, and now adorning Vernon Park.
There are several fine trees on Fisher’s lane, but we shall now stop
only at T. Charlton Henry’s place, where Alexander Lawson was long
gardener, to record a century plant (agave Americana), which here
bloomed a few years ago.
Retracing our steps through Wister’s woods, we pass a declivity on
which once grew a celebrated memorial beech. This tree stood to the
north of Fisher’s lane and Wakefield street, and through age and abuse
came to its end in the year 1870. The Germantown Telegraph, January
29 of the named year, gave an account of this venerable and venerated
tree. Near the earth its trunk was 3 feet in diameter, and “many very
ancient scars and markings were on its surface, and among them within
an escutcheon, deeply engraved and quite legible, were the initials D.
L. W., 1771,” cut there by Daniel and Lowry Wister. It is a pleasure to
note that this interesting work has been preserved, and is now among
the treasures of “Grumblethorpe.”
Continuing through Wister’s wood, a place where its late owner loved
to roam, we note near the upper spring an odd twin growth, to which
Charles T. Macarthur, superintendent of the Germantown Gas Works near
by, directed my attention. Here are two trees, one a red oak and the
other a tulip poplar, which for several feet together grow as one,
resembling a unity of two species, I discovered growing on Dark Run
lane, near the Asylum pike, some years ago.
Following the Wingohocken Valley southward we round the point to “Mill”
or “Valley creek,” and on our left find “Little Wakefield,” the home of
Ellicott Fisher, where a number of chestnut, butternut and tulip poplar
trees of fair proportions may be observed, but not any of which are
equal to the lofty vigorous specimens appearing on “Wakefield’s” bank
to the right, where sturdy oaks, not observable from the front, here
impressively stand. “Belfield Homestead, with its famous coffee tree
and lovely boulevard of maples,” now appears before us a perfect haven
of rest, its most prominent plants thus referred to by W. E. S. Baker,
standing conspicuous above a bordering wealth of vegetation.
From the valley we turn into Thorp’s lane, once a gem of rural beauty,
but now sadly changed, to view a beautiful avenue of silver maples
(acer dasycarpum) extending from the main entrance to the mansion where
Fanny Kemble wrote “My children were born, by first and only American
home.” In “Records of Later Life” the same gifted author, under date of
1837, notes: “The other day, for the first time, I explored my small
future domain, which is bounded on the right by the high road, on the
left by a not unromantic little mill-stream with bits of rock, and
cedar bushes, and dams, and, I am sorry to say, a very picturesque,
half-tumbled-down factory; on the north by fields and orchards of our
neighbors, and another road; and on the south by a pretty, deep, shady
lane, running from the high road to the above-mentioned factory. There
are four pretty pasture meadows, and a very pretty piece of woodland,
which coasting the stream and mill-dam, will, I foresee, become a
favorite haunt of mine.”
“The Farm” or “Butler Place” yet contains many notable plants, though
the “row of old acacia trees near the house” was removed, and “a
double row of 200 trees planted along the side of the place” show
wear. The latter, however, is of great interest to us, for in spite of
an acknowledged “combined ignorance” a majority of these plants have
lived, and from “York Farm” in 1874 Fanny Kemble wrote: “The trees I
planted along the low enclosure hedge of Butler Place, 30 years ago,
stretch their branches and throw their shadows half over the road which
divides the places.”
Though exceedingly pleasurable, we may not linger here too long, and
to all interested in Germantown and its associations, I suggest the
reading of “Records of Later Life” and “Further Records,” both books of
great interest, and mainly produced at “Butler Place” and “York Farm.”
There are many avenues of silver maples (acer dasycarpum) worthy of
record with us, among them being one in Town Hall Park, another at the
Pulaski avenue approach to “Fern-hill,” and also that leading to the
Pinckney homestead, where Judge William D. Kelly once lived.
Other striking maple-lined avenues may be seen at Justus C.
Strawbridge’s, School House lane and Wissahickon avenue; at Samuel
Welsh’s, West School House lane, both of great beauty; also that of
Garrett’s Hill on our main street, with others numerous; and on Norwood
avenue, extending from Chestnut avenue to Sunset avenue, Chestnut Hill,
is one beyond compare. At Butler Place the hemlock (tsuga canadensis)
hedge continues of more than ordinary merit, but it is surpassed by a
notable hedge of the same species at Thomas P. Galvin’s grounds, West
Walnut lane, and by the remarkable hedges of “Fern-hill.” Other plants
at Butler Place worthy of notice are a black walnut and a coffee tree,
both of immense size and majestic proportions. Distributed throughout
our territory are many large and beautiful coffee trees (gymnoclaudus
canadensis). One of these may be seen at Dr. I. Pearson Willit’s,
on West Walnut lane; another holds its place in Vernon Park; and a
specially fine specimen stands before the Welsh mansion at Spring-Bank.
At Dr. George De Benneville’s “Silver Pine Farm” is a group of white
pine (pinus strobus), which if not the largest is at least the most
imposing one among us. These trees are nine in number, are about two
feet in diameter trunk, rise to a height of from 80 to 100 feet, and
their shattered arms are familiar to every frequenter of Branchtown by
way of Green lane or York road. As these trees gave name to the place,
so we may refer to a farm house-like structure which once stood where
Masonic Hall now stands on Main street near St. Luke’s Church, a house
in 1832 the home of Bronson Alcott, and the birthplace of Louisa M.
Alcott--which from a group of trees before it, became known as “Silver
Pine Cottage.”
In this same cottage, while rector of St. Luke’s Church, Rev. B. Wistar
Morris also dwelt, and this in a measure may account for his love of
“Oregon pines,” though his old-time neighbors say he was elected bishop
for quite another reason.
Conspicuous specimens of white pine, in some respects our most
impressive tree, may be seen at Loudoun, at Toland’s, at Henry’s,
all near Naglee’s Hill; at Fern-hill, at George Blight’s and Dr.
James Gardette’s on Wissahickon avenue; at Manheim, where there is a
beautiful tree three feet in diameter and 90 feet high; at Carlton on
Indian Queen lane; at Armstrong’s on Duy’s lane, and at almost every
place on School House lane from John Alburger’s, near Greene street,
to William Weightman’s, near the “Falls;” at Jacob A. Datz’s, Stenton
avenue and Mill street, and at Alfred Williams’, near by; at Old
School, County line and Limekiln pike; at Vollmer’s, Washington lane;
at Upsala and Lutheran Seminary--indeed, so many and so generally
distributed are these beautiful plants that it is needless to further
enumerate.
At Butler Place is an odd white pine, which curiously at a height of 40
feet had its terminal bud destroyed, the result being the development
of a trinity of side buds. In like manner there is also a remarkable
specimen at Philip Guckes’ on West School House lane, a tree 2½ feet in
diameter by 70 feet high. This tree’s terminal bud at 40 feet elevation
having been destroyed, two side shoots were developed, which each
sturdily rose to an additional height of 30 feet.
Without exception, the finest and most perfect white pine in our
district is a plant growing on a knoll on “Perot’s Farm,” now Northwood
Cemetery. This tree has a trunk 2½ feet in diameter, rises to a height
of 70 feet, has a spread of 40 feet, and is vigorous, perfect and very
beautiful.
At “Outalauna,” the residence of Joseph Wharton, is an exceedingly fine
silver poplar (populus alba), and near at “Bonnenal Cottage,” the home
of Mrs. Anne de Benneville Mears, are two immense buttonwood trees
(platanus occidentalis) with trunks 4 feet in diameter, each with a
height of 100 feet, and 40 feet spread. In “Old York Road,” Mrs. Mears,
writing of “Bonnenal Cottage,” states “it was surrounded by a fine lawn
and in front still stands one of the sycamore trees whose age is over
300 years, and its companion was planted by Dr. George De Benneville,
Sr., in 1768.”
With us continue many notable buttonwood trees, although all our home
trees are inferior to specimens growing in more favorable locations.
In Case’s Botanical Index, Page 46, there was recorded in 1880 a
buttonwood tree growing in Greene county, Indiana, having a trunk
16 feet in diameter, and which rose with a clear trunk 25 feet, the
altitude reached being 160 feet, and plane trees much greater than this
are known.
It would be futile to name all our worthy specimens, so I shall
without mention pass many to locate a few which more directly appeal
to us. We all may remember the buttonwood tree within the gate to our
“Earthly Paradise,” and whose denuded trunk stands to remind us of
days when settlers first took up ground on “side land lots.” Here with
an additional story of recent growth is Naglee’s house, where James
Logan for a season dwelt, a building like the “Rock House,” a venerable
survivor and typical representative of the stone houses of early
Germantown.
[Illustration: Naglee Houses]
Recently we have lost one of two well-known sycamore trees at Wagner’s,
and the tree continuing is but a reminder of its former greatness.
Another interesting specimen on Main street is that on the grounds
of William Heft, a tree 5½ feet in diameter and 80 feet high, one of
the trees which changed the name of a public house once here from
“Ye Roebuck Inn” to “Buttonwood Hotel.” Though often so asserted by
over-zealous loyalists, these trees were not planted “by Philadelphia’s
first mayor,” but by Andrew Garret, who carried them from the banks of
the Schuylkill, and here set them in place, as “The Guide” some years
ago instructed us. Andrew Garret may be remembered as an eccentric
character, who during the latter part of the eighteenth century had a
dwelling on Indian Queen lane, near the “Falls.” Here he lived alone,
and by robbers was one night foully murdered, a sufficient warning, let
us hope, to all of like preferment.
Other interesting buttonwood trees are located at the pump on Manheim
street, where there is a specimen 4 feet in diameter by 80 feet high;
at Manheim, near the club house, where is an odd-shaped specimen with
a short trunk 4 feet in diameter, and awkwardly branching limbs rising
to a height of 100 feet; at Friends’ grounds on Main street, where is
a rare tree 4 feet in diameter by 60 feet high, and another specimen
at Market Square, now only of interest because it was planted by
Samuel B. Morris; at Dr. Ashton’s on West School House lane, where
there is a majestic tree, and several others worthy a visit are in this
immediate neighborhood. Rare specimens may also be seen at spring-house
on Cresheim road, above Allen’s lane; at William Dewees spring-house at
the bend in the upper Wissahickon, where grow two fine specimens; at
“Spring Bank,” the residence of John Welsh, where is a perfect plant,
4 feet in diameter and 100 feet high; and two trees in Wissahickon
avenue, near “Fern-hill” entrance, one 6 feet in diameter, 100 feet
rise, with a spread of 80 feet, and the other about its equal, are the
finest plane trees we have.
At National Cemetery, Haines street and Limekiln pike, are many
beautiful trees, though but few of unusual size or rarity. Here are
fair specimens of ginko (salisburia adiantifolia), but not equal to
the ginkos of Edward Hacker, Wister street; Charles J. Wister, Main
street; Lloyd Mifflin, Penn street; Benjamin H. Shoemaker, Mill street;
and that of Alfred C. Harrison, at Thorpe’s lane, Chestnut Hill. Larch
(larix Americana), but surpassed by the larch of David Pancoast at
High and Baynton streets, by that of “Fairfield,” of “Upsala,” and
several others. Silver birch and other trees of superior merit are
here, and also here is a fine white pine, while in sight is a number
of specimens of the same species at Middleton’s on Limekiln pike.
Among the best plants at National Cemetery is an arbor vitae (thuja
occidentalis) group of 12 feet in diameter spread and a 30-feet height,
and an exceedingly fine specimen of retinospora plumosa.
At one time there were several fine trees on Christopher Ludwig’s
farm, Haines street, near Chew street, but the best of these have
disappeared, and there now remains but mediocre plane and walnut trees
to halt us at the house of Washington’s doughty baker general, who
spent here several years of his honest life, and who from his “labors”
rests in St. Michael’s Lutheran Churchyard. Opposite “Ludwig Farm”
is “Awbury,” containing the homes of John S. Haines, Thomas P. Cope,
Francis R. Cope and other members of well-known families of like name,
where are many rare and beautiful plants. From “High Street Station”
which was, there extended to the Cope houses a rustic walk shaded by
a double row of silver maples, and this shortened continues to remind
one of the celebrated “walks” of Addison at Oxford and Milton at
Cambridge. Shielding Haines street, east of Chew street, is a row of
specially fine scarlet maple (acer rubrum) trees now in bloom, and at
“John Haines’ gate” grow two fine elm trees, each having a trunk 2½
feet in diameter, a height of 60 feet and a spread of 80 feet, entirely
covering the entrance to this most inviting place.
With us are several fine elm trees (ulmus Americana), one being on the
grounds of Charles Edward Pancoast, East Johnson street; another is in
the “Concord graveyard,” and two very beautiful weeping elms of the
Galena type on Chew street, opposite Church street, shade the entrance
to Meehans’ nurseries.
[Illustration: Weeping Elms]
At one time several of our largest trees were to be found at Old Oaks
Cemetery, grounds once a part of John Tucker’s “plantation.” This
burying ground was located on Township Line road, and extended from
near the toll-gate at McKean’s hill to the railroad, south. Here was a
number of immense chestnut trees, but the finest have been destroyed.
Our best, however, did not class with trees elsewhere. At Hereford,
Bucks county, Pa., there is, or was, standing on the farm of James
Schlegel a chestnut tree 8¾ feet in diameter, 90 feet high, and said
to be 200 years old. At James A. Wright’s place on Township Line road,
near Clapier street, is an imposing grove of great chestnut, silver
maple and oak trees; at “Carlton,” Indian Queen lane, is a number of
chestnut trees of immense girth, but of no great height, storm riven
and impressive; but perhaps our largest chestnut trees are located
on the grounds of Thomas P. C. Stokes and Dr. George Strawbridge,
Wissahickon avenue, near Frank street.
“Fernhill,” which from “Old Oaks” appears on an elevation before us,
is slowly but surely losing its choicest plants, and during a recent
visit there with George Redles, John F. Sibson, its efficient manager,
attributed its losses to noxious gases proceeding from the steel works
near by. Here, in addition to plants previously noted, are superior
specimens of barberry (berberis vulgaris), weeping dog-wood (cornus
F. variety pendula), common beech (fagus ferruginea), a fine specimen
of Virginian fringe tree (chionanthus Virginica), and a larch of
perfect proportions, 2 feet in diameter and 40 feet high. To compare
with these, along Wingohocken creek, immediately north of the “Rocky
Mountains” in Meehans’ nurseries, is a grove of fringe trees very
beautiful when in flower, and at Manheim there is a magnificent larch,
2 feet in diameter of trunk, rising to a height of 80 feet.
The finest larch in Germantown once stood on the grounds of Hugh
McLean, corner of Carpenter lane and Cresheim road, but this great tree
a few years ago unfortunately met its fate.
At Thomas Jones’, Manheim street and Wissahickon avenue, is a holly
(ilex opaca) 15 feet high, with a spread of 15 feet, a beautiful
specimen, but equaled by two notable plants at Vernon, and surpassed by
Wister Price’s specimen on Manheim grounds, a tree having a trunk 1½
feet in diameter, 25 feet high, with a branch spread of 20 feet. Here
also is a rare virgilia, the first, and once the finest specimen in
cultivation,--a tree now showing the ravages of old age, but none the
less interesting. A virgilia younger (cladrastis tinctoria), vigorous
and beautiful, overhangs the gate of “Grumblethorpe,” Main street,
opposite Queen street, and is the best of its species I know in our
territory.
The charms of “Caernarvon” have flown, but Manheim possesses a beauty
of its own, one of its many attractions being the finest group of
rhododendrons (rhododendron maximum) in Germantown. The neighborhood of
Manheim to me is of great interest, but we may not stop to consider its
historic associations nor to refer to all its plants worthy of notice.
By far the finest silver maple in Germantown stood on the grounds of
Louis Clapier Baumann, at corner of Manheim and Henry streets. This
fine tree some years ago I measured, and when it was felled to make
way for improvements these measurements were verified by John Holt.
The tree was perfect in every particular, of commanding height, and
was a notable landmark of Manheim street. An account of this plant
I prepared for “Forest Leaves,” of June, 1897, wherein it is described
as being 138 feet in height. At half its altitude it had a spread of 35
feet on every side of the main trunk, and at 1 foot above the ground
the trunk was 4⅓ feet in diameter.
[Illustration: L. C. Baumann]
We have many fine specimens of silver maple continuing, and one of the
finest stands on Cresheim road, near Gorgas street. Another appears to
the rear of Dr. John D. Godman’s house, Main street, opposite Pastorius
street. Another, and a very striking one, stands at the corner of West
Walnut lane and Adams street, but this tree a few years ago was visited
by marauders and now it is but a relic of its former greatness. At “The
Corvy,” the residence of William Wynne Wister, there are several silver
maples, not specially great, but of interest because they are directly
on Main street and shade Gilbert Stuart’s house.
It is recorded that Jacques Marie Roset, who lived on the upper side
of Manheim street, adjoining James R. Gates’ lumber yard, and not at
“Spring Alley,” as has oft been reported, had a beautiful garden,
the products of which it is said he loved to distribute, one of
his recipients being Fanny Kemble, who from her home on York road
frequently passed this way on driving trips, a recreation she always
loved. It is also recorded that Roset first introduced tomatoes to
Germantown, but this does not appear to be correct, for the credit
belongs, I think, to E. B. Gardette, whose place on Wissahickon avenue,
opposite Manheim street, is marked by three notable pine trees rising
to a height of 80 feet.
This gentleman came to America during the Revolutionary period, and it
is said his gardener first grew the tomato (lycopersicum esculentum),
or love apple, for the color of its fruit. Melons or canteloupes were
also first raised here, it has been stated, but this I have never been
able to verify, “for the seed of the canteloupe was brought to this
country from Tripoli, and distributed by Commodore James Barron,” so I
give the credit for what it is worth.
This, however, I know, Philip R. Freas, a neighbor of Commodore Barron,
had a canteloupe patch which the “brickyard” boys well knew, and about
it I doubt not Philip Walters, and George Redles--who having reached
years of discrimination, has now no need to ask if it be “true that
horses when old never lie down”--can tell you more than I.
Baumann’s great maple grew on ground which once belonged to “White
Cottage,” an estate at one time owned by the Logans. Here lived Dr.
Samuel Betton, who was succeeded by his son, Dr. Thomas Forrest Betton,
the friend of Rafinesque, and here under Samuel Betton, its present
occupant and owner, William Kulp, well known to many of us, has been
many years gardener. Recent changes have robbed “White Cottage” of
its seclusion, but with it yet continue many beautiful ivy-dressed
trees, which spread their branches over the grounds, in season almost
shielding the house from view.
Near General Wayne Hotel, on Manheim street, is a specially fine
ailanthus (ailanthus glandulosus) 2½ feet in diameter of trunk,
with a height of 50 feet, and at the Keyser-Rodney House, Main and
Duval streets, and on Garrett’s Hill, opposite Lovett Library are
conspicuous superior specimens. Also on Manheim street, near Main
street, is a honey-locust tree (gleditschia triacanthos) with a trunk
3 feet in diameter by 80 feet high, and larger and finer specimens
are on Pulaski avenue, near Seymour street, and in front of Michael
Schlatter’s stone house, Main street, near where the road turns off for
“Wheel Pump,” Chestnut Hill.
At “Carlton” is a magnificent beech (fagus ferruginea) 3 feet in
diameter of trunk, with a height of 60 feet and a spread of 40 feet,
the finest specimen I know in our territory. We have many fine
beeches, one being at “Awbury,” and another at Miss Nixon’s, on East
Tulpehocken street. There are also exceedingly fine specimens at George
L. Harrison’s, on West School House lane; at William Heft’s, on Main
street; at “Fernhill,” and at places elsewhere, too many to name.
By George Redles my attention was directed to a large dogwood (cornus
Florida) growing near Queen Lane basin, and there true to life, between
the basin and Midvale avenue, may be seen a notable specimen 1½ feet in
diameter by 20 feet high, with a spread of 20 feet, and here are two
sassafras trees (sassafras officinalis) 2 feet in diameter by 40 feet
high, both notable plants, one, however, surpassing the other in form.
These are remarkable plants, and stand on historic ground, once part of
“Carlton.”
Here the army of Washington was encamped, and here during an encampment
of the Civil War Joseph Meehan, botanist and horticulturist, active
among us, first did “picket duty.” Here also is a tulip poplar, 4
feet in diameter and 100 feet high, not equal to Wakefield’s notable
specimen, but yet a plant of great merit.
We have many superior tulip poplars, one being at “Woodside,” Edward
T. Steel’s residence on West School House lane, 4 feet in diameter and
100 feet high; another on John Wagner’s grounds on the same lane being
5 feet in diameter and 60 feet high. There are also several fine tulip
poplars at Thomas MacKellar’s, on Shoemaker’s lane, but the finest
specimen here, like the Blair linden at Main street and Walnut lane,
has been despoiled.
At “Torworth,” the residence of Justus C. Strawbridge, and also at
“Blathewood,” Joseph S. Lovering’s place adjoining, we have very
fine specimens of hemlock (tsuga canadensis), as indeed we have in
many parts of Germantown, but our finest hemlock trees are in the
Wissahickon, where almost the entire southern bank of its romantic
stream is fringed by this refreshing tree, and wherein are groups or
groves above Kitchen’s or Garsed’s lane, above Allen’s lane, at Devil’s
Pool, beside Megargee’s dam, and near Rex avenue, plants ranging from
1½ to 2 feet in diameter and from 60 to 80 feet in height. Also near
Rex avenue bridge is a specimen hemlock of graceful proportions, having
a trunk 2½ feet in diameter and rising to a height of 100 feet.
Among our most interesting plants are the native “Jersey pines,” which
appear sparingly about Germantown. With us are two varieties, that
on School House lane, opposite Gypsy lane, and others in the same
neighborhood extending to the mouth of the Wissahickon, are technically
known as pinus inops.
[Illustration: Hemlock Glen]
At Walnut lane and Wissahickon avenue is a specimen of pinus rigida
one foot in diameter and 30 feet high. At James A. Mason’s, near
Upsal Station, is a group of pinus inops. At Thomas’ Mill road on the
Wissahickon, and eastward on the same road in the open above Towanda
street, are from one to two hundred pinus rigida, interesting survivors
of a flora supplanted. On Stenton avenue, near Bethesda Home, we have
an isolated group of pinus inops, and at County Line road and Limekiln
pike, also on Mt. Airy avenue near Main street are solitary specimens
of the same species.
The Wissahickon is covered by numerous valuable plants, but of these
a majority is too densely crowded to develop to the best advantage.
Several years ago Thomas Meehan in Meehans’ Monthly, asked for data of
sassafras trees, the text-books and general information agreeing that
the average height of mature specimens of this plant to be 30 feet.
At “Solitude” and at the “Indian Mound,” on E. W. Clark’s grounds,
School House lane, there are specimens rising to a greater than this
height, and at Tulpehocken and Musgrave streets were twin specimens,
one now surviving, exceeding this height, and finely formed. Near the
“Suicide’s Grave,” north of Rabbit lane, George Redles informed me
there is a specially fine specimen. In the Wissahickon, near Thorp’s
lane, I measured a slender specimen 80 feet in height, but the finest
plants of this species I know were those measured for me by Joseph
Heacock, two plants growing near Media, each three feet in diameter and
80 feet high.
About home we have numerous and exceedingly fine specimens of
juniper (juniperus virginiana). Almost wherever one goes these may
be observed--along the borders of Wissahickon, at “Bummers’ Cave” on
Stenton avenue, on Chew street north of Johnson street, a place known
to Ellwood Johnson as “Vinegar Hill,” and at Tulpehocken street and
Wingohocken creek. This latter tree has a trunk 3 feet in diameter and
is 35 feet high. A short time ago it was a healthy, beautiful specimen,
but now it is partly or wholly dead, a plant when in its prime
approached in my knowledge only by two like it which grow on Sumneytown
pike, near “Indian Creek Meeting.” At Roberts Le Boutillier’s on East
Washington lane, and elsewhere near, there are many other specimens
worthy of record, but space and time details and elaboration forbid.
The deep frost of last winter played havoc with many plants, partly
or wholly destroying box, ivy and other evergreens not usually
affected. The celebrated evergreen magnolia (magnolia grandiflora) at
Lippincott’s, Broad and Sansom streets, Philadelphia, entirely dropped
its leaves; in many ponds all the fish were killed, and losses in other
directions one may not yet undertake to estimate. Untouched, however,
we have many box-bordered garden walks, such as may be seen at “White
Cottage,” at “Grumblethorpe,” at “Wyck,” at Spring Bank, at C. M.
Bayard’s, on upper Main street; formal designs set in green like those
at Robert S. Newhall’s, Main and Gorgas streets; but the most elaborate
and most perfect of our box borders are those adorning the garden of
George C. Thomas, at Blue Bell Hill, protected by beautiful hedges of
osage orange, arbor vitae and neatly clipped hemlock.
I never pass “Spring-bank” without thinking of John Welsh, its late and
honored owner. Here I often saw him walking “in the cool of the day”
under the shade of the “glorious” trees which line the front of the
estate, and, always excepting Wyck, there is not to me in Germantown a
more delightful spot. Here we have already noted a few plants, and we
shall stop only to look at a perfect tulip poplar, 3 feet in diameter
at trunk, with branches rising to 80 feet, a tree vouched for by Martin
Constable, the gardener, as “planted by John Welsh himself,” also here
is a specimen oak now 20 feet high, the acorn producing which N. Dubois
Miller told me was brought from Jerusalem and here grown. In this
direction we shall now go no further, but will southward turn, and by
way of Main street, which we left at Stenton, proceed to a conclusion.
Naglee’s and “Joe Nafle’s” we shall pass, and the Loudoun pines we have
already noted.
Since the days of John Hart progress has here forced its way, and
many fine plants, including those on the adjoining grounds of James
S. Huber, have retreated before its irresistless advance, and the
great tree on the hill equipped with a swing, like “Green’s Meadow,”
implanted in the memory of every “Smearsburg” girl and boy of the last
generation, is gone forever. Toland’s and Wagner’s and Henry’s are
holding out “like grim death,” but it is only a question of time when
“Wayne Junction” shall overwhelm them.
It is a pity I have often thought that fruit trees are not more often
planted for shade, and native sweet-scented flowering plants for
bloom, in a measure to bring the best of orchards and woods to home,
and thus more directly beauty and utility combine. Our wood plants
without exception may be readily grown if removed at a suitable time
and properly planted, and I have never had failure in growing laurel
(kalmia latifolia), arbutus (epigaea repens), and other of our native
plants considered difficult to transplant.
Those of us familiar with Main street and Chelten avenue 25 years ago
may remember “Tinker” Frey’s famous swamp magnolia (magnolia glauca).
This is no more, but we have now at George Redles’ on Wister street;
at Dr. Herman Burgin’s on West Chelten avenue; near Christ’s Church
rectory on West Tulpehocken street; fine specimens of this common in
New Jersey swamps, but rare in cultivation, plant.
Virginian fringe tree, perfectly hardy, and a very beautiful plant in
bloom, although we have several fine specimens, is not common enough
in gardens, exceptions not subject to this criticism being conspicuous
and notable plants on the grounds of Dillwyn Wistar, Wayne street
near Coulter street; Samuel Emlen, Coulter street near Greene street;
and Charles M. Bayard, Main street near Carpenter lane. Fringe tree
appears spontaneously as far north as the southern counties of New
Jersey, and several years ago it was found by Joseph Meehan in the
woods near Millville, though before this it had been collected in the
same district by Dr. J. B. Brinton. These, with Judas tree (cercis
canadensis), elder-berry (sambucus canadensis) and our native dog-woods
in variety, are but a few of many worthy native plants, but enough, I
hope, to direct attention to the subject.
A creeping yew (taxus adpressa) appears in front of “Conyngham House”
or “Hacker House,” Main street, opposite Bringhurst street, but is not
equal to the famous plant once at Upsala, yet, however, there is a
most beautiful specimen of this rare evergreen in the garden of Edward
Hacker on Wister street. On grounds to the rear of Conyngham House are
several valuable plants for data of which I am indebted to Miss Howell.
Here was one of “the first wild flower gardens” of later Germantown,
containing plants from many parts of the United States, but a garden
of which only a trace now remains. Here also is “the finest grove of
over-cup oaks (quercus macrocarpa) about, so Thomas Meehan always
said,” “and a specimen of strange weeping oak” (quercus pendula).
“Grumblethorpe,” one of our most familiar homes, is now before us,
and its plants are second only to its other possessions. Its occupant
and owner is Charles J. Wister, to whom credit earned fully given
would seem but empty flattery. Here all his long life lived Charles J.
Wister the father, a man whom his neighbor, John Jay Smith, pronounced
“the greatest botanist living,” and here amidst the sanctity of its
associations lives the son, a most worthy successor. Quoting from
an article written several years ago by William E. Meehan, which is
sufficiently full for our purpose, there is growing at “Grumblethorpe”
“a number of interesting trees, among them three old pear trees, two
late Catherine and one sugar pear. There are records to show that
these trees are about 150 years old. The sugar pear, which still bears
abundantly, is 50 or 60 feet high, and has a girth of six feet. An aged
ivy has completely overgrown the trunk and has climbed almost to the
topmost branches. A very fine specimen of the famous larch of the Alps,
familiar to every student of Swiss Alpine scenery, is also growing on
these grounds. This tree, knotted and gnarled with age, has a trunk 5½
feet in circumference, and the tree is probably the finest of its kind
around the city.”
[Illustration: Charles J. Wister]
A Japanese Ginko tree, which was among the first importations, is also
among the curiosities of the Wister place, and, it may be well to
add, this is the first recorded ginko in America to fruit. “About
1830 Charles J. Wister planted one of the first ailanthus (ailanthus
glandulosus) brought from China. This is one of the most rapid growers
of any known tree, and has attained a height of over 70 feet, and has a
girth of 12 feet 2 inches.”
Here also is a rare specimen of papaw (asimina triloba), a tree equaled
only by one of the same kind at “Wyck,” one foot in diameter by 40
feet high. “A gray poplar (populus alba), introduced about the latter
part of the last century from Italy, is also growing in Mr. Wister’s
grounds. Its trunk measures 10 feet 4 inches, and its branches cover a
great area of ground.”
When we remember that the old fruit trees of “Grumblethorpe” have lived
through the busiest life of our town, and yet bear as they did at a
time when Christopher Saur in a building close by printed pamphlets and
books now highly prized, we may well halt for a moment of reverential
meditation, not for the trees and their produce, but for the power
which gave them life, which sustained them, and which has given them to
us. Interesting trees the garden of “Grumblethorpe” suggest, are the
Chancellor pear, which originated on the grounds of William Chancellor,
School House lane, adjoining Germantown Academy, and the original
Keiffer pear, produced by Peter Keiffer at his nursery on Livezey’s
lane, west of Wissahickon creek.
While in the vicinity of Germantown Academy, let us notice there a
beautiful specimen of blood-leaved maple (acer J. atropurpureum), and
also one of equal worth on the grounds of Miss Jane E. Hart, diagonally
opposite.
These plants are very fine though small,--but superior specimens may be
noted at Dr. James Darrach’s, Greene street, near Harvey street,--and
at Mrs. Thomas W. Evans’, Cliveden avenue and Main street, the latter
our representative plant.
Thanks to Meehans’ nurseries, we have many fine specimens of this showy
tree about Germantown, and among a number known to us one of the best
is on the grounds of William Rotch Wister, Wisteria avenue. Also in the
garden of Samuel Emlen, West Coulter street, among other rare plants is
the most beautiful specimen of cut-leaved maple (acer J. dissectum a.)
I have ever seen.
Passing the residence and one-time garden of the “annalist” John
Fanning Watson, we now turn in Penn street to visit “Ivy Lodge,” the
home of John Jay Smith, whose long, useful life was here lived, where
much of his best work was done, and from whence he departed to the
habitations of the “just made perfect.” “Ivy Lodge” is of interest in
many ways, but we shall stop only to mention a sun-dial with a noted
inscription associated with Stenton, and one of two original “constable
boxes” which once did service for the “borough,” the other box being
preserved at Manheim,--and present a few plants. Both dial and box are
conspicuous objects in the garden, and surrounding them are some of
the rarest shrubs and trees in our midst. Far more than I am here able
to give, credit is due Miss Elizabeth P. Smith, a daughter of John J.
Smith. At “Ivy Lodge” is a specially fine specimen of weeping beech
(fagus H. var. pendula), a memorial red oak (quercus rubra) planted by
Miss Smith’s mother, and an immense black oak (quercus nigra). Also
here once grew a notable juniper (juniperus squarrata), and several
specimens of araucaria.
Miss Smith told me her father many times here tried to raise araucarias
(araucaria imbricata) in the open, but never succeeded in keeping them
over three years, this much being “considered quite an achievement.”
In England araucarias of great height are quite common, so I doubt not
the length and severity of our winters is responsible for the plant’s
non-existence in our gardens. At “Ivy Lodge” are several fine mahonias
(mahonia aquifolium) of 35 years’ growth, and with the exception of
a small specimen growing on the grounds of Edward Hacker, on Wister
street, here is the only cedar of Lebanon (cedrus libani) to my
knowledge growing strictly within the town limits. This is a fine plant
about 25 feet in height, and is one of two memorial trees planted in
1852 by John Jay Smith and John Granville Penn, the latter the last
of the “proprietor’s” line, in honor of William Penn and James Logan.
The “William Penn” tree, planted by a descendant of James Logan, is
the plant we may see. The James Logan tree planted by a descendant of
William Penn, is no more, having gone the way of “all the earth.”
Until a few years ago there was on the grounds of Colonel Galloway
C. Morris, on East Tulpehocken street, a very fine cedar of Lebanon,
but this to make room for improvements was destroyed. A “cut” of this
plant, however, survives, and with a description may be seen in Vol.
I, page 39, of Meehans’ Monthly. Our best and most notable cedars of
Lebanon stand in North Laurel Hill Cemetery, and these grown under the
care of John Jay Smith are said not to be excelled in America.
I wonder how many who pass up and down Main street, or who visit the
Friends’ Library, notice the trees at “Friends’ Meeting.” To me these
are always a delight, and I love to look back into the spacious,
restful grounds, for here and wherever these “meetings” are is a
picture of peace. We all are apt to know more about “green hills” far
away than of those immediately before us, for the things at hand often
appear ordinary, while those heard of or seen under unusual conditions
are rated by an exalted measure.
Walking in the Wissahickon upon two occasions with men of travel, I
asked, “Did you ever see a more beautiful place?” One answered, “It is
very much like the scenery of New Zealand, but it is better.” Another
said, “I have traveled throughout Europe, and the only place that will
compare at all with it is the Trossachs in Scotland, but in extent it
is insignificant compared to this.” Henry Carvill Lewis, who “circled
the globe” before attaining his “majority,” told me in all his travels
he saw nothing that in his estimation approached the beauty of the
Wissahickon, and others who have traveled far and who lived long abroad
have told me “the Wissahickon is incomparable.”
So we may know much about “Bartram’s cypress,” a plant 9 feet in
diameter and 120 feet high, while we may not have noticed the beautiful
cypress at “Fairfield;” the specimen at David Peltz’s, on Nicetown
lane; the exceedingly fine specimen 2 feet in diameter and 80 feet high
at James E. Caldwell’s, on Manheim street; specimens at Henry’s, Main
street, opposite Fisher’s lane; at David Hinkle’s, on Main street,
near Penn street; at “Ivy Lodge;” at Vernon; at Town Hall Square; at
several points on West Walnut lane, at Pomona; and the group of three
very fine cypress trees we passed at Friends’ grounds.
There are many other fine cypress trees with us, but our most noted
ones are on Main street, above Washington lane, where at Ellwood
Johnson’s is a group of three trees of unusual height, and one solitary
plant 5 feet in diameter by 100 feet high, conspicuous by its size.
These plants grow upon “Honey Run,” on ground once owned by Peter
Keyser, whose son of the same name, a “preacher” and tanner, brought
them from South Carolina, and under his direction about the year 1800
were here planted by Israel Haupt, so Miss Elizabeth R. and Ellwood
Johnson informed me.
At the Deshler-Morris home, owned and occupied by Elliston P. Morris,
is one of our finest gardens, possessing several of our largest and
finest trees. Mr. Morris wrote me:
“The exact age of some of my fine old trees is uncertain, the family
tradition is that some of them were planted by my grandfather, or
members of his family. I doubt not some of the older trees were there
when it was President George Washington’s residence during the yellow
fever epidemic of 1793. The great storm two years ago with its wind and
sleet sadly spoiled my most attractive trees, and in some cases left me
but skeletons of their former beauty, notably a 70-year-old elm tree
planted by my father, Samuel B. Morris, which stands in the middle of
my grounds.”
[Illustration: Elliston P. Morris]
Those who view the garden of Mr. Morris wonder at its freshness, and
proceeding with its owner:
“The great secret of my lawn is the unbroken expanse of grass, and the
planting in conformity with established rules of landscape gardening.
I have still some choice specimen trees, notable an immense English
horse-chestnut (aesculus hippocastanum), with a girth I should think
of some 10 feet; a hybrid English walnut (juglans regia) and butternut
(juglans cinerea) very unusual, about 70 feet high and a girth of say
8 feet; a pretty specimen of the lovely cut-leaved beech (fagus S.
heterophylla); a 70-year-old magnolia glauca, a fine box tree (boxus
arborescens), and some 100-year-old box-bushes (boxus sempervirens),
and a good variety of shrubbery, with its ever changing bloom.”
With us are many exceptional gardens, and these, with the beautiful
garden of Mr. Morris, I trust may be presented at another time.
We have also many rare “wild garden plants,” and such native rare and
notable plants as Goldie’s spleen-wort, climbing fern, walking fern,
Nuttall’s spleen-wort, Scott’s spleen-wort, Wister’s coral plant,
obolaria, Adam and Eve plant, cancer root, and others exceedingly
scarce and valuable, which we may only in this way refer to.
[Illustration: R. Robinson Scott]
On Main street, opposite Armat street, in a house occupied by Edward
Manley, a one time preceptor of mine, once lived Christian Lehman,
scribener, surveyor, notary public and nurseryman, and here in the old
“nursery” is an English walnut to remind us of the first local importer
of this valuable tree. The present specimen belongs to a later period,
but is doubtless a product of an original planting of surrounding
grounds. From a much used advertisement of the Pennsylvania Gazette of
April 12, 1768, we learn that there was “to be sold--a choice parcel
of well grown young English walnut, as well as pear and apricot, and a
curious variety of the best and largest sorts from England of grafted
plumb trees fit for transplanting this spring or next fall, as well as
a great variety of beautiful double hyacinth roots and tulip roots,
next summer season, and most other things in the flower or fruit
nursery way, by Christian Lehman.”
“Vernon,” although its native charms vanished with its open stream,
meadow, spring-house and protecting shrubbery, yet preserves much to
hold and interest us. The ground now covered by Vernon include the
estate of Melchior Meng and part of that of Henry Kurtz, both plant
lovers possessing fine gardens, which were enriched by cultivations of
Matthias Kin, a celebrated plant collector.
Here is the locally known “Meng’s magnolia” (magnolia macrophylla)
procured by Kin, the first magnolia of its kind cultivated in North
America, and here are oak and hemlock trees planted by John Wister in
the early part of the last century. Several noted trees once here have
gone. One was an immense buttonwood with a trunk having a diameter
of 5 feet; another was a weeping willow (salix babylonica) located
near the spring-house, and others were a large horse-chestnut which
shaded the front of Kurtz house, and a large linden (tilia Americana)
once prominent on the street before the door of Melchior Meng. Many
doubtless may recall Meng’s house as “Oliver Jester’s tin shop,” until
a few years ago standing on Vernon’s southern front.
Old gardens, and the grapes of which Pastorius wrote have gone, but we
have in new Germantown, gardens superior to any of olden time, and I
warrant the 8-inch diameter grape vine-trunks of middle Wissahickon are
equal to any the “founder” ever saw. So, too, the two gardens of Dr.
Christopher Witt are no more, and there is nothing surviving to suggest
them.
On the Geissler-Warner tract, part of which was also once occupied by
Dr. Witt, whereon also he had his first garden, stands St. Michael’s P.
E. Church, and on its rear chancel wall is an ivy recently re-planted
by E. A. Frey. This plant, carefully transferred from a former
position, is a hardy “English ivy” brought originally from Sir Walter
Scott’s “Abbotsford” by Dorsey Cox, and was here planted under the
direction of the late beloved rector, Dr. John K. Murphy.
At this place also grew a white mulberry tree (morus alba) of local
celebrity, one of many which sprang up in this neighborhood, the
parent tree being at the “cocoonery,” Hermann and Morton streets.
Although Dr. Philip Syng Physick, nor his son Philip--who was never a
doctor--had any direct connection with this tree, it is justly prized,
and I am pleased that in the form of a “Canterbury chair,” made by
George Redles, it now occupies a prominent position in the chancel of
the church, for beyond these associations, it was grown in the Warner
burying ground, where was laid the remains of the Warners, Daniel
Geissler, Dr. Christopher Witt, and perhaps John Kelpius, all Mystics
and early botanists, and we have before us a memorial sanctified by the
blood it contains.
Though the Warner ground mulberry was a foundling, we have on the
original “multicaulis” grounds where Philip Physick lived a solitary
specimen of mulberry of unusual size, 3 feet in diameter by 40 feet
high, now in bloom, to remind us of a “South Sea bubble” burst, which
troubled the investors of a generation past.
Among the noted trees of Germantown was a pecan once standing on the
grounds of Dr. William R. Dunton, and which was removed after the
erection of the First Methodist Church. This tree was grown from one of
several nuts which Thomas Nuttall brought from Arkansas and presented
to his friend, Reuben Haines, a prominent officer of the Philadelphia
Academy of Natural Sciences, and at whose home in Germantown he was
a frequent guest. The nut which produced Doctor Dunton’s tree was
given by Reuben Haines to his neighbor, Daniel Pastorius, and two nuts
were planted in his own garden, all developed to plants of maturity,
but the trees at “Wyck” died, while the Pastorius tree reached large
proportions, bore fruit, and it is to be regretted that a specimen of
so much interest could not have been preserved.
[Illustration: Thomas Nuttall]
In many respects a pecan (carya olivaeformis) resembles a hickory
(carya tomentosa), a tree whose name occupies an important place in
the early records of Germantown. From our Township line boundaries
the ancient “hicories” have disappeared, and I shall refer only to a
notable one which stood on Baynton street, west of Church lane, a tree
Thomas MacKellar described as “the finest hickory” he ever saw.
“Wyck” throughout the history of Germantown has been conspicuous, and
I regret that present bounds will not permit us to enlarge upon it.
To this attractive spot came the most noted naturalists of the last
century, and following in the path of generous culture came Lafayette,
who in the year 1825 was given here a public reception, which is
distinctly remembered by Robert Thomas and Joseph Murter, honored
citizens already referred to, who attended it. At “Wyck” is growing a
Spanish chestnut (castanea vesca) raised from a tree whose parent nut
was planted by Washington at Belmont for Judge Richard Peters. Also
here is a white walnut (juglans cinerea) grown from a tree planted by
Lafayette at Belmont, upon his “farewell visit” to America. Many of
us may remember it was an immense tree standing on “Wyck” ground,
and afterwards in the centre of the street almost opposite “The
Barn,” which gave to Walnut lane its name. This walnut for many years
was permitted to keep its place, but in due time became a prey to
expediency.
[Illustration: Wyck]
Likewise it was a noted oak which gave name to a familiar “east-side”
lane, and the circumstances attending, were almost identical with those
serving the Walnut lane dedication.
Among plants rare, though not rare plants, are several which have
always puzzled me that they are not more general in cultivation. One
of these is tamarisk (tamarix gallica), a shrub or small tree common
enough in other parts, but with us scarce. The finest specimen of this
plant we have is one 8 inches in diameter, rising with a bushy head to
a height of 16 feet, and growing in the garden of Mrs. Frank Cooley,
106 Hermann street. Ordinarily tamarisk is of a thin, straggling
habit, but responding to care and liberal pruning this plant shows a
remarkably heavy, vigorous growth, as a cut, page 173 of volume 12,
Meehans’ Monthly, fairly illustrates.
On our way northward, let us as we pass Charles Megargee’s mansion,
now the home of a popular club, recall a rare oriental spruce recorded
by William E. Meehan. Impersonality in writing is often its greatest
strength, but the credit for a large amount of city history presented
by Mr. Meehan I should like to see justly given, for much that has
appeared and repeatedly reappeared belongs to him. The oriental
spruce (picea orientalis) once here was considered a remarkably fine
one, and belonged to the “most northern growing of all the pine tree
family.” This specimen was brought to Philadelphia “by Engineer George
W. Melville on his return from the famous De Long expedition,” the
specimen being secured “on an island near the mouth of the Lena river.”
Among our scarce plants is persimmon (diospyros Virginiana), though why
this should be I do not know, for outside our territory, and especially
in the neighborhood of the Perkiomen Valley, it is one of the most
common of trees. At Stenton; on Abbotsford avenue near James A.
Wright’s place; in the Wissahickon, near “Livezey’s Mills;” near Rabbit
lane and County line, we have meritorious if not great persimmons; and
at Miss Hocker’s, Main street above Washington lane; also at Joseph
C. Channon’s, Main street, above Pastorius street, we have at each
place two specimens, noteworthy because being directly upon our main
highway they serve to remind us of farm days and the simple character
of our one-time village. Here, too, at “Channon’s,” under the care of
Miss Amelia R. Wood, is a lusty Japanese persimmon (diospyros kaki)
which never fails to fruit. Also here, as well as at Miss Elizabeth R.
Johnson’s near-by, are quince, pear and apple orchards, survivors of
ancient days, blossoming as of old.
Townsend Ward, with others before him, and followed by Judge Samuel
W. Pennypacker, have given accounts of a great but almost unknown man
who had the confidence to address Cromwell upon his plans, a religious
writer of wide influence, the founder of a successful community, which
existed nearly 200 years before that of the more widely known Brook
Farm of New England. This man was Peter Cornelius Plockhoy, and his
colony was located on the Delaware river, where the town of Lewes now
is. Ward records: “In 1694 there came to Germantown an old man and
his wife. He was blind and poor, and his name was Cornelius Plockhoy,
the founder and last survivor of the Mennonite colony broken up 30
years before at the Hoorn Kill by Sir Robert Carr. The good people of
Germantown took pity on him;” and continuing with Judge Pennypacker,
“they gave him the citizenship free of charge.” They set apart for him
at the end street of the village by Peter Klever’s corner a lot 12
rods long and one rod broad whereon to build a little house and make
a garden; in front of it they planted a tree. Jan Doeden and William
Rittenhouse were appointed to take up “a free will offering” and to
have the house built.
I refer to this because Plockhoy, more than he is, should be identified
with Germantown, because a tree in this early life of the colony
was considered of sufficient importance to name, and also because
this house and tree stood upon Kyser’s lane within sight of the
homestead owned and occupied by Miss Elizabeth R. Johnson, in whose
charming garden situated at the northwest corner of Main street and
Washington lane, we shall stop for awhile to “sit at her feet” while
she entertains us with accounts of her historic plants. Among the
rare treasures here is a fine Persian lilac (syringa persica) planted
in 1771, which continues vigorous and spreads its sweetness upon the
receptive air. A curious fig (ficus carica) here is the development
of a shoot which for 4 years after the removal of the parent tree did
not appear, but is now, as figs go, a stately plant. Here also on
the southern exposure of the mansion is the first wisteria (wisteria
speciosa) planted in Germantown, and one of the first planted in
America, a plant of immense proportions, and whose numerous runners
overspreading two near-by trees weighted them to earth.
[Illustration: Johnson Homestead]
Many fine wisteria plants we have, and at Ellwood Johnson’s fascinating
retreat adjoining there is a most beautiful specimen; another is at
“Grumblethorpe;” another at William Rotch Wister’s on Wisteria avenue,
and yet another at Dr. Herman Burgin’s on West Chelten avenue; also
at David McMahon’s on East Chelten avenue are two handsome wisterias
grown as standards. All these are notable plants, and conspicuous among
an innumerable company which help beautify our town.
At the Johnson homestead are several fine box trees planted in the
year 1800, and these bring to mind other superior box trees; plants on
Hermann street, near Baynton street; at Hacker house, on Main street;
at Vernon, and at many other points in our territory.
At Ellwood Johnson’s we shall halt for a moment to partake of his
sparkling spring water, and note a pear tree of Revolutionary days
which yet spreads its branches over a charming spring-house. Here
until the storm which overthrew Christ Church steeple, stood an old
willow (salix babylonica) with a trunk 5½ feet in diameter, and one of
the first weeping willow trees planted in America, a notable specimen
which outliving its strength was felled by the great wind of the storm
referred to, but now a scion from its roots has risen to preserve its
memory.
Also here among many notable plants is a fine specimen of the rare
clammy locust (robinia viscosa), and the largest hazelnut (corylus
Americana) I have ever seen, a plant of 20 feet in height, and covering
a large area.
Passing Concord School, its nature-loving pupils, George Lippard
and William E. Meehan, with other associations of interest to plant
students, we halt at “Pomona Grove” to present a plant which should
not be forgotten, for “Pomona” and its charms are now a memory. At
the northeast corner of what is now Baynton street and Pomona terrace
once stood a yew, which by those competent to judge was considered
remarkable. No one has been able to definitely state where this tree
came from, nor when it was planted. All agree that it was a mature
imported plant and was placed at “Pomona” by Col. Thomas Forrest. There
need be no mystery, however, for it is well known a yew grows rapidly
for 20 or more years, more slowly for a hundred years, after which
period it exists in a practically stationary condition.
Prof. Thomas Meehan pronounced the Pomona yew the finest he had ever
seen, and his ripe knowledge and wide travels gave a distinct value to
the opinion. This plant was in perfect condition, covered a circle of
13 feet diameter, and stood at a height of 20 feet.
“Alas, that vandal hands should tear away
The ancient landmarks dear to other days,
And spoil the verdurous temples in a day,
Which nature took so many years to raise!”
It is to be forever regretted that the efforts of our Germantown
Horticultural Society to secure this gem for Market Square failed, for
it rather than objectionable intrusions now there, would better serve
the purposes for which the block was set apart.
We have, however, near Market Square in the garden of Elliston P.
Morris, a small, but perfect and very beautiful specimen of English
yew, identical in variety with the plant so unfortunately lost.
Continuing--we pass Miss Arrott’s select school, which was once a barn,
and Leonard Stoneburner’s house and farm, he an active citizen, whose
pride lay rather in the speed of his horses than in “crops” and trade
and politics, all of which claimed a large share of his attention; also
passing Naaman K. Ployd’s garden, and his numerous plants of more than
local interest--we soon reach “Cliveden,” first occupied as a country
seat by Chief Justice Chew in the year 1763. This is the battleground’s
centre, and is sacred because of the men who died there; but while
appreciating this, let us work and pray for a time when war shall be
considered a crime, and the taking of human life for any cause, murder.
At “Cliveden” there are now no plants of the Revolutionary period, and
many of its finest shrubs have been planted within my memory.
“Growing close against the Chew mansion a beautiful rose of Japan.
It is certainly at least 75 years old, and has delighted all who
have seen it by the quality and beauty of its large red blossoms,”
so noted William E. Meehan. Mrs. Chew wrote me: “There were a number
of magnificent English elms, a row along the front of the place near
the street, extending as far as Upsal street, and another row along
Cliveden street.”
Near the barn there is at present an elm (ulmus campestris), a sole
representative of the trees indicated. The street “trees were killed by
wanton boys when the family temporarily left the place about 40 years
ago,” and by the fathers I doubt not of the “Dog-towners,” who stoned
every Rittenhouse School boy of my own class reckless enough to venture
alone into the reserved precincts of “Beggarstown.” Here is a beautiful
specimen of European larch (larix Europaea), and to continue with Mrs.
Chew, “the tulip poplars on the west side of the house were planted by
Blair McClanachan during the few years after the battle that he owned
the property. The oak on the lawn in front of the house was planted
about 70 years ago by one of the family.”
The pine tree (pinus rigida) on the front lawn “may be accounted for
in the following way, I think, although I do not positively know.
Mr. Chew, the son of the Chief Justice, owned a number of very fine
farms in New Jersey, and his tenants there were of the same family for
generations, and they were on the most kind and friendly terms with Mr.
Chew. I imagine that this tree when very small may have been brought
as a gift to Mr. Chew by one of his tenants, and there planted by Mr.
Chew himself.”
Surviving on Upsal street is a companion pine, which from its position
gives strength to this opinion, for these trees appear to have been
twins planted in “Cliveden” equi-distant.
[Illustration: Cliveden]
“Upsala,” opposite, which we all know well by name, possesses several
of our finest and most notable plants. Miss Sally W. Johnson, who
owns and occupies it, generously gave me an account of its rare home
plants, which we may now only present in outline. Among these plants
were grapes planted and cared for by Dr. Johnson, a very large white
flowering camellia, a white flowering sweet jasmine, a laurestinas, a
daphne, not equal to the one which Miss Ann Chew had in her hall by the
front window. Of her garden, Miss Johnson’s account is so interesting
that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of quoting. In it “there were in
summer Bordeaux lilies, and varlotta purpurea, a handsome red clustered
lily, and agapanthus with their odd shade of lavender blue; funkias,
vincas, oriental poppies in garden beds, and the ‘York and Lancaster’
rose still blooms, though it is a curious dwarf. The Marie Louise, a
sweet light pink rose, has lived on all through the garden for I am
sure the past hundred years. I try to replace the trees or plants that
have died. There was once a double row of white Hawthorn to the Johnson
street entrance. The red berries were so bright, and made a charming
English decoration for Christmas. A double pink hawthorne was a very
fine tree.”
“The fringe tree was an old favorite, arching gracefully over the
middle walk, and when gone was replaced by another, and a group
of tartarian honeysuckle is still blooming every spring after the
daffodils and cowslips and double low buttercups with their mottled
shiny leaves, periwinkles and lilies of the valley were in every shady
spot, and the late summer was gorgeous with phlox--the hardy--and
Drummondii, larkspurs, tritoma, trumpet vine, and the like.”
Though many of “Upsala’s” best trees are no more, here yet are several
of which we may be justly proud. The once well-known creeping yew is
gone, and the silver fir planted in 1800, which reached 100 feet in
height, a plant figured and described in A. J. Downing’s “Landscape
Gardening,” was removed several years ago, and a memorial apolinian fir
was planted in its place.
[Illustration: Upsala]
Here is a famous American yew, a plant distinct from English yew; a
noted catalpa, a dwarf spruce, a handsome tulip-poplar, a number of
towering white pines, an exceedingly fine cryptomeria or Japan cedar,
which greatly excels specimens at “Fairfield,” at Edward Hacker’s on
Wister street, at Peter Keiffer’s on Livezey’s lane; and here is a
California redwood or “big-tree” (sequoia gigantea), a plant now about
25 feet in height, the rarest, and so far as known to me, the only
specimen of a size worthy of consideration in Philadelphia. This tree,
now showing the effects of last winter’s unusual frost, stands directly
in front of the mansion, and my prayer is that “Upsala” unaltered,
and its owner in health and “perpetual youth,” may continue until it
attains the proportions of its most illustrious progenitors.
Time presses upon us, so we shall pass rapidly Billmyer house, where
are beautiful specimens of locust (robinia pseudacacia), walnut and
honey-locust (gleditschia triacanthos); Peter Leibert house, where
are fair Norway spruce, horse-chestnut and silver maple; the Church
of the Brethren grounds, where grow four of our finest trees, two
larch trees, each 2 feet in diameter and 60 feet high, and two coffee
trees of magnificent development, plants 2 feet in diameter by 80 feet
high each; several striking plants of merit at Peter D. Hinkle’s; St.
Michael’s Lutheran Church grounds, where is a superb specimen of Irish
yew (taxus, var. Hibernica), resembling, but in beauty far exceeding,
similar plants at St. Vincent de Paul’s Church, and Lower Burying
Ground; Phil-Ellena, the one-time residence of George W. Carpenter,
whose garden of home gardens, if not the greatest, was at least the
one most widely known, but its rare plants are now distributed and
its notable trees in the main leveled to accommodate “Pelham,” a late
product of capital and change.
At George Hesser or William M. Bayard house, opposite, is a number of
fine box-bordered walks, an impressive linden resembling the linden in
Concord Burying Ground, and a picturesque white pine, but these without
further mention we shall neglect to stop briefly at Joseph Meehan’s,
on Pleasant street, and at Meehans’ nursery on Main street, the latter
once located at the southeast corner of Meehan avenue, where numerous
plants now beautifying home streets and gardens were first grown.
Among Joseph Meehan’s “wild plants” is a handsome aster, discovered by
this botanist near Gettysburg, Pa., a plant which for several years has
been growing in his garden. As yet the “authorities” have not decided
upon a name, so we shall present it as aster Meehani.
Here also is a specimen of the rare Franklin tree (gordonia pubescens),
and with the exception of a like specimen at Meehans’ nurseries, and
another near Horticultural Hall, also one raised by William De Hart and
now growing near Lansdowne, it is the finest specimen I know.
In our “Flora,” I have referred to the parent of this tree, which was
a scion of the plant brought from South Carolina by William Bartram.
The original plant, abused at Bartram Garden after the retirement
of Colonel Carr, was rescued and revived by William De Hart at his
garden on Darby road, where it grew for several years. It was then
presented to Joseph Meehan, on whose grounds, its energy spent, it
struggled through a precarious existence to an honored death--truly
an interesting record of the most remarkable plant in botanical
nomenclature.
From Main street nursery Thomas Meehan removed to “Hongs’ Farm,” on
Chew street. His partner, William Saunders, located first on Johnson
street, near Greene street, and later took charge of the experimental
gardens at Washington. At the Chew street nurseries are many of the
choicest and most notable plants in America, specimens from which
plates of the “Flowers and Ferns of the United States” were figured;
indeed so many “new and rare plants” that I shall leave them,
trusting that Joseph Meehan may favor us with a paper upon the same,
and at present we shall be content with reference to a few valuable
ones I think him likely to ignore--namely, cut-leaved plum (prunus
myrobolana, var. dissectum); halesia Meehani or silver-bell, a
species of shrub or small tree bearing beautiful white bell-shaped
flowers; weeping dog-wood (cornus F., var. pendula), and rose-flowering
dog-wood (cornus F., var. flore rubro), all distinct varieties
originating at these widely known and justly famed nurseries.
[Illustration: Joseph Meehan]
I had thought to completely cover our territory, but within the “time
limit” this I have found impossible. There are many “estates” of merit
with us to which I have not referred, and on them and elsewhere near
are many deserving plants and odd growths I should like to introduce
and enlarge upon, such as a cherry (prunus serotina) of immense
proportions, situated on Fisher’s lane, near Lower Burying Ground;
a very fine silver-bell tree on the grounds of George W. Russell,
Seymour street near Morris street; two beautiful elms on Spencer’s
Farm, and standing near the site of “Roberts’ mill” on Church lane,
near Township Line road; the Henry Lenhart memorial stone in Market
Square Church grounds, which since the year 1830 has been enveloped
by the root growth of a silver maple, and in its vise-like grip
is supported vertically; several commemorative trees, emblems of
affection, such as the purple beech and white pine trees planted on
Greene street near Coulter street by “Dr. Rivinis, a grandson of the
botanist for whom Rivinia or rouge plant” was named; and the “Mollie
Middleton,” “Helen T. Longstreth” and numerous other marked trees in
the Wissahickon; an exceedingly fine American aspen on the grounds
of Dr. Daniel Karsner, Tulpehocken and Greene streets; a group of
large pine trees at Adams street and Washington lane; the wild goose
lily treasured by Ellwood Johnson, a unique plant resembling, but
quite distinct from Hemerocallis Flava of our gardens; a valuable and
perfectly formed Norway maple, situated on Chew street, near Washington
lane, a tree which always leads its kind in leaf and flower; an immense
hawthorn (crataegus oxyacantha) on Magnolia street, near Johnson
street; individual paulownia (paulownia imperialis), catalpa (catalpa
bignonioides), and smoke trees (rhus cotinus) of merit, conspicuous
in many places throughout our domain; a celebrated Irish yew once
standing beside the Carpenter Mansion at Phil-Ellena; a white oak of
remarkable growth showing a trunk 5 feet in diameter, a height of 60
feet, and having an immense limb tapering from 2 feet in diameter,
32 feet long, projecting horizontally for its entire length, and
completely spanning Rabbit lane, east of E. Rittenhouse Miller’s place;
a magnolia, the product of skill if not art, flourishing on James E.
Gowen’s grounds at Main street and Gowen avenue, a monstrosity formed
by the union of a circle of plants drawn together at about 3 feet above
the earth and united, rising in a central trunk, reminding one of
Alexander Pope and his strange fancies at Twickenham; a curious seat at
“The Cherries” at Spring-bank, naturally supported by the outgrowth of
two oak trees,--and near the same spot, a storm-cleft chestnut tree,
which strangely has renewed itself; many rare and beautiful magnolias,
such as may be seen at Mrs. Taws’, West Tulpehocken street, at Thomas
Meehan’s, at “Wyck,” at William Heft’s, and in general distribution
throughout our territory; “cut-leaved” plants in variety, such as
may be seen on Baynton street, near Walnut lane, at Chelten avenue
and Godfrey street, and at many places elsewhere; Kilmarnock willows
and “weeping plants” innumerable; rare plants at Miller & Yates’; the
celebrated “paragon chestnut” of William L. Schaeffer, a variety of
Spanish chestnut (castanea vesca) which originated on what is now the
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb grounds, and obtained wide celebrity;
fern-leaved beech (fagus, var. asplenifolia) at Edward S. Buckley’s,
and weeping beech (fagus, var. pendula) at C. B. Dunn’s, with another
noted one at Thomas C. Price’s, all of Chestnut Hill; Caleb Cope’s
garden “grotto” and valuable plants; the “new garden” of John T. Morris
on Wissahickon, a botanical garden in every respect save name; and
many unique plants stationed throughout the length and breadth of the
Wissahickon region.
But among our superabundance it has been possible only to mark a few
guide posts to point the way to all who care “to lead or follow” to
a possession which in other parts is suggested only by such rich old
settlements as Alexandria, West Chester and some New England towns,
but not any of which, so far as I have been able to observe, is able
to approach the treasure ever present with us. Much that we desire to
present we thus are obliged to curtail or ignore, and with one more
thought we shall conclude.
When visitors of distinction called upon George W. Childs at “Wootten,”
they invariably were requested to plant a tree. The custom is a
pleasing one, worthy of imitation, and should be encouraged. Wrote
Thomas Meehan: “trees are associated with our dearest memories and most
important events.” Abroad memorial and historic trees are so numerous
that we refer to them only for illumination, and in our own country we
have the “Charter Oak” of Connecticut, the famous “Elm of Cambridge,”
and the “Treaty Tree” of Philadelphia. Other trees quite as important,
but not so well known, are the “Liberty Tree” of Newport, the mulberry
tree of Maryland under which the first settlers met to establish a
government, and the plane tree of Burlington, to which New Jersey
colonists tied ship before the founding of Philadelphia.
Stop soon we must, and passing many home plants of tender associations,
I shall select one, and close with mention of a memorial tree near
Kitchen’s bridge in the Wissahickon, a pin oak (quercus palustris),
planted “Arbor Day, 1903, by the pupils of Andrew G. Curtin Public
School in memory of Thomas Meehan, the friend of boys and girls.” No
truer words than these were ever penned, but let us not limit, for
Thomas Meehan was a friend to all--the world is better because he
lived, and there is no one in Germantown this day who does not enjoy
the fruit of his great work.
[Illustration: Prof. Thomas Meehan]
So we pass, and although our list of plants is indicative only, and
those named but meagrely “presented,” yet we trust enough has been
noted to direct attention to the beautiful creations placed before us
to enjoy. We have no need to covet or compare, for in a magnificent
fullness we have what others have not, and while we envy not nor desire
another less, let us for ourselves strive to deserve the favors so
bountifully given us, and take lesson, for false accumulations are
vanity, so let us spurning the selfishness of the few who ignore
the rights of the many, find pleasure in pursuits which no abuse is
able to restrict nor monopoly to control, for when schemers and their
usurpations are no more, nature incorruptible and unalterable will
continue steadfast on her way.
Now as I go about our “village,” developed to a full-fledged town, I
rejoice that we have so much for the enjoyment of the many, and so
little that is not as free as our own desires. As of old, our common
highway follows its tortuous course, and although peach and weeping
willow and lombardy poplar trees of long ago have vanished, other trees
of sturdier mould have risen to take their place. Large, substantial
houses in the ripeness of age continue with us, but those who built
them sleep in our shaded graveyards, and we may decipher their names
on bleached and weather-beaten decomposing stone. Lofty trees planted
by those who “have gone before,” in “the fullness of time” stand as
monuments to them, and as friends to us to shade and protect.
Time “may come, and time may go,” for nature is change, and change
nature, but to us “Providence has been very kind,” and the past though
hardly pressed, yet dominates the present.
Mansions and plantations justly venerated have become the property of
all, and now among us we have “Vernon” and “Stenton,” “Waterview” and
“Cliveden” as public parks, not great nor finished as yet, but ours,
while behind looming up in the possibilities of “pleasure grounds” is
“Fernhill,” and with us forever secure is the peerless Wissahickon.
Though slowly, the character of our town alters, “orders old giving
place to new,” but I rejoice that we have so much to remind us of days
gone by--“Cliveden” and “Upsala,” “Grumblethorpe” and “Wyck,” to any of
which an enforced change would be a catastrophe.
Logan, Huber’s, Spring Alley, “Tinker” Frey’s, Vernon and Chew springs
have gone, but Wister, Cope and Johnson springs continue to remind us
of rural long ago. Henry’s, Vernon and Methodist lane pumps, once with
never-tiring handles traveling uncomplainingly “neath earth and sky”
for the public good, have been retired, but “Manheim street pump”
unfailingly dispenses to who so e’er will wait. Toll-gate, Conestoga
and stage-coach have disappeared from our turnpike road, and the
trolley has “followed after,” yet in spite of “all temptation” we cling
to the past, and the “Germantown wagon” undaunted waits upon us to do
us service.
Change truly is in the air, but there is a remarkable blending of the
old with the new. The curse of war has passed from among us, “swords
have been beaten into plough-shares, and spears into pruning hooks,”
“peace and plenteousness” reign within our borders. No more the
cannon’s thundering roar disturbs our homes, and “storied groves of
Johnson’s lane, where Washington the bold led Freedom’s sons on British
guns in the brave days of old” are free of strife.
Now from many gardens on our “Appian Way” the perfume of blooming
plants “maketh glad the heart of man;” native birds frequent, charming
with enlivening song, our Main street lawns, and from above, falling
upon never-tiring ears, “the great bell still tolls the hours,” as
one by one they round to remind us of youth and age and the “vast
forever,” while over the “belgian block,” heedlessly perhaps, “the
noise of traffic rolls.”
Days come and go, the wheel turns. With us, “too soon, too soon, the
noon will be the afternoon, to-day be yesterday.” “The night cometh”
when no man may work. While it is yet day, let us remember those who
“planted and watered” that we might benefit, and not forgetting our
obligations to them, to ourselves and posterity, let us appreciate and
provide, so that generations to come may receive with the increase
those blessings so generously showered upon us, that the Germantown
of greater opportunity to be, may upon the traditions and heritage
preserved and bequeathed, rise to heights not attained, because unknown
to us.
_INDEX_
A.
Page
Acacia, 38
Adam and Eve Plant, 73
Addison’s Walk, 47
Ailanthus, 53, 65
Alburger, John, 41
Alcott, Bronson, 40
Alcott, Louisa M., 40
Armstrong, 41
Araucaria, 68
Arbor Vitae, 46, 59
Arrott’s School, 86
Ashton, Dr., 45
Aspen, American, 96
Aster, Meehan’s, 93
Awbury, 46, 54
B.
Baker, W. E. S., 33, 36
Bartram, Wm., 93
Barbary, 49
Barron, Com. James, 52
Baumann, L. C., 50, 53
Bayard, C. M., 59, 62, 92
Beech, 9, 29, 49, 54, 96
“ Fern-leaved, 98
“ Weeping, 98
“ Wister’s, 35
Beggarstown, 88
Belfield, 36
Benneville, Dr. Geo. De, 40, 42
Bethesda Home, 57
Betton, Dr. Saml., 53
Big-tree, California, 91
Billmyer House, 91
Birch, Silver, 30, 46
Blair, Linden, 55
Blathewood, 56
Blight, Geo., 41
Bonneval Cottage, 42
Bonsall, E. H., 20
Box, 29, 59, 73, 84
Branchtown, 16, 40
Brethren, Church of, 92
Brewster, F. Carroll, 34
Brickyards, 53
Brinton, Dr. J. B., 62
Brown, Prof. Stewartson, 32
Bummer’s Cave, 58
Burgin, Dr. H., 62
Butternut, 36
Button-ball, 29
Butler Place, 38, 41
Buttonwood, 42, 43, 44, 75
Buttonwood Hotel, 44
C.
Caernarvon, 50
Caldwell, Jas. E., 70
California Red-wood, 91
Cancer Root, 73
Canteloupe, 52
Carlton, 41, 48, 54
Catalpa, 24, 26, 30, 96
Cedar, Japan, 30, 91
Cedar of Lebanon, 30, 32, 68, 69
Cedars, The, 32
Century Plant, 35
Champlost, 27
Channon, Jos. C., 81
Chancellor, Wm., 66
Charter Oak, 99
Cherry, 95
Chestnut, American, 32, 36, 48
“ Horse, 92
“ Paragon, 98
“ Spanish, 26, 78
Chew, Chief Justice, 87
“ Mrs., 87
Childs Geo. W., 99
Christ’s Church, 84
Clark, E. W., 30, 57
Clearfield, 28
Cliveden, 87
Cocoonery, 76
Coffee Tree, 36, 39, 92
Concord Ground, 47, 93
Concord School, 47, 85
Constabel Martin, 60
Conyngham House, 63
Cooley, Mrs. Frank, 79
Cope, Caleb, 98
“ Francis R., 46
“ Thomas P., 46
Corvy, The, 51
Cryptomeria, 30, 91
Cucumber Tree, 32
Cypress, Bartram’s, 32, 70
“ Swamp, 32, 70
D.
Datz, Jacob A., 41
Darrach, Dr. Jas., 66
Deane, Silas, 18
De Hart, William, 93
Deshler-Morris Garden, 71
Devil’s Pool, 56
Dewees, William, 45
Dial, Logan, 69
Doeden, Jan., 82
Dog-town, 88
Dog-wood, Common, 54, 62
“ Rose Flowering, 95
“ Weeping, 95
Downing, A. J., 30
Drinker, Elizabeth, 28
“ Henry, 28
Dunton, Dr. William R., 77
E.
Elder, 62
Elm, 31, 47, 95
“ Cambridge, 99
“ English, 87
Emlen, Samuel, 62, 66
Evans, Mrs. Thomas W., 66
F.
Fairfield, 28, 30, 32, 70
Fair-Hill, 24
Farm, The, 38
Farnum, Mrs., 22
Fern-Hill, 30, 38, 39, 41, 45, 48, 54
Fig, 83
Fir, Silver, 90
Fisher, Ellicott, 36
Fisher’s Hollow, 33
Forrest, Col. Thomas, 85
Fox, Miss, 27
Fraley House, 22
Franklin, Benjamin, 24, 33
Franklin Tree, 93
Freas, Philip R., 52
Frey, E. A., 75
Frey, “Tinker”, 61
Friends’ Library, 69
Friends’ Meeting, 44, 69
Fringe-tree, 49, 62, 90
G.
Galvin, Thomas P., 39
Gardette, E. B., 52
“ Dr. James, 41
Garret, Andrew, 44
Garrett’s Hill, 39, 54
Garrett, Philip C., 30
Geissler, Daniel, 76
Germantown Academy, 66
“ Horticultural Society, 86
“ Lots, 14
“ Maps of, 12
“ Method of settlement, 14
“ Old Roads of, 12
“ Wagon, 103
Ginko, 45, 64
Godman, Dr. J. G., 51
Goldie’s, Spleenwort, 73
Gowen, James E., 97
Grape, 75
Greens, Meadow, 61
Grumblethorpe, 23, 35, 50, 59, 63, 65, 83
Guckes, Philip, 41
H.
Hacker, Edward, 45, 68
Hacker House, 63
Haines, Miss Jane, 21
“ John S., 46
“ Reuben, 77
Harrison, Alfred C., 45
“ George L., 54
Hart, Miss Jane E., 66
Hart, John, 60
Haupt, Israel, 71
Hawthorn 90, 96
Hazel, 85
Heacock, Joseph, 58
Heft, Caspar, 29
“ William, 43, 54, 97
Hemlock, 29, 31, 39, 56, 59
Henry House, 40, 61, 70
“ T. Charlton, 35
Hesser House, 92
Hickok, Dr. William H., 31
Hickory, 77
High St. Station, 47
Hinkle, David, 70
“ Peter D., 92
Hocker, Miss, 81
Holly, 49
Holt, John, 50
Honey-Locust, 54, 92
Honey-Run, 71
Hongs’ Farm, 94
Horse-Chestnut, 75
“ “ English, 72
Hotchkin, Rev. S. F., 20, 25
Hotel, Buttonwood, 44
“ General Wayne, 53
Howell, Miss, 63
Huber, James S., 60
I.
Indian Mound, 57
Inn, Ye Roebuck, 44
Ivy, 59
Ivy, Abbotsford, 75
Ivy Hill Cemetery, 34
Ivy Lodge, 67, 68, 71
J.
Jansen House, 16
Jellett, Stewart A., 34
Jenkins, Charles F., 22
Johnson, Dr., 89
“ Miss Elizabeth R., 71, 81, 82
“ Ellwood, 58, 71, 83, 84, 96
“ Miss Sally W., 89
Jones, Thomas, 49
Judas tree, 62
Juniper, 32, 58, 67
K.
Kalm, Peter, 17
Karsner, Dr. Daniel, 96
Keiffer, Peter, 66, 91
Kelly, Judge William D., 39
Kelpius, John, 76
Kemble, Fanny, 27, 37, 38, 52
Kew Gardens, 10
Keyser, Peter, 71
Keyser-Rodney House, 53
Kin, Matthias, 74
Kulp, William, 53
Kurtz, Henry, 74
L.
Lafayette, 78
Larch, 45, 49, 64, 88, 92
Laurel Hill Cemetery, 69
Lawson, Alex., 35
Le Boutillier, Roberts, 58
Lehman, Christian, 74
“ Godfried, 16, 19, 22
Lehman’s Quarry, 16
Lenhart Memorial, 95
Lewis, H. Carvill, 70
Liberty Tree, 99
Lilac, Persian, 83
Lily, Wild Goose, 96
Linden, 75
Linden, Blair, 55
Lippard, George, 85
Lippincott, J. Bertram, 26
Locust, 92
Locust, Clammy, 85
Locust, Honey, 54, 92
Logan, James, 32, 43, 68
Lombardy Poplar, 20, 31
Longstreth Tree, Helen T., 96
Loudoun, 40
Lovett Library, 54
Lovering, Joseph S., 56
Ludwig, Christopher, 46
Lutheran Seminary, 41
M.
Macarthur, Charles T., 36
MacKellar, Thomas, 25, 55, 78
McClanachan, Blair, 88
Magnolia, 32, 59, 97
Magnolia, Evergreen, 59
“ Glauca, 32, 61, 72
“ Swamp, 32, 61, 72
“ Yellow Flowering, 32
Mahonia, 68
Manheim, 44, 67
Manley, Edward, 73
Maple, Baumann’s, 50, 53
“ Blood-leaved, 66
“ Cut-leaved, 67
“ Norway, 96
“ Silver, 36, 37, 38, 47, 50, 51, 92
Market Square, 44, 86
Mason, James S., 57
McLean, Hugh, 49
McKean’s Hill, 48
McMahon, David, 84
Mears, Mrs. Anne DeB., 30, 42
Meehan, Joseph, 55, 62, 93, 94
Meehan Memorial, 100
Meehans’ Nurseries, 66, 72, 94
Meehan, Prof. Thos., 10, 57, 63, 86, 94, 97, 99, 100
Meehan, William E., 64, 80, 85, 87
Megargee Dam, 56
Melons, 52
Melville, George W., 80
Meng’s Magnolia, 74
Meng, Melchior, 74, 75
Middleton Tree, Mollie, 96
Mifflin, Lloyd, 45
Milan, Hans, 21
Miller, E. Rittenhouse, 97
“ N. Dubois, 60
Miller & Yates, 98
Milton’s Walk, 47
Morris, Bishop, 40
“ Elizabeth, C. 22
“ Elliston P., 71, 86
“ Galloway, C., 69
“ John T., 98
“ Samuel B., 45, 72
Mulberry, 99
“ White, 76
Murphy, D. D., Rev. John K., 76
Murter, Joseph, 21, 78
N.
Naglee Hill, 41
“ House, 22, 23, 43
National Cemetery, 45, 46
Newhall, Robert S., 59
Newington, 28
Nicholson, George, 10
Nixon, Miss, 54
Norris, Debby, 24
Norris, Isaac, 24
Northwood Cemetery, 42
Nuttall’s Spleenwort, 73
Nuttall, Thomas, 77
Nutwold, 27, 47
O.
Oak, 9
Oak, Black, 67
“ Jerusalem, 60
“ Mossy-cup, 63
“ Red, 18, 32, 34, 36, 67, 88
“ Weeping, 63
“ White, 26, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 97
Obolaria, 73
Ogden, Rev. J. C., 20
Old Oaks Cemetery, 34, 47
Oldmixon, 16
One Oak, 34
Osage Orange, 59
Outalauna, 42
P.
Pancoast, Charles E., 47
“ David, 46
Papaw, 65
Papen House, 16
Pastorius, Daniel, 77
Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 13, 15, 19, 24, 75
Peach, 16
Pear, Catherine, 64
“ Chancellor, 66
“ Keiffer, 66
“ Sugar, 64
Pecan, 77
Peltz, David, 70
Penn, J. Granville, 68
“ William, 13, 14, 15, 32, 69
Pennypacker, Judge S. W., 12, 81, 82
Persimmon, 31, 80, 81
Perot Farm, 42
Peters, Judge, 78
Phil-ellena, 92, 97
Physick, Philip, 76
“ Dr. Philip Syng, 76
Pinckney Homestead, 38
Pine, Austrian, 29
“ Himalayan, 29
“ Jersey, 56, 88
“ White, 26, 29, 40, 41, 42, 46, 52, 96
Plane Tree, 42, 43, 44, 99
Plockhoy, Peter, 81
Ployd, Naaman K., 87
Plum, Cut-leaved, 94
Pomona Grove, 85
Poplar, Gray, 65
“ Lombardy, 20
“ Silver, 42
“ White, 27
“ Tulip, 26, 31, 32, 36, 55, 60, 88
Price, Wister, 49
R.
Rafinesque, C. F., 53
Redles, George, 29, 33, 48, 53, 54, 58, 61, 76
Red-wood, 91
Reeves, Francis B., 34
Rittenhouse, William, 82
Rivinus, Dr., 96
Rhododendron, 50
Roberts Mill, 95
Rochefoucault, Duke de la, 19
Rock-House, 22, 43
Rodney House, 53
Rogers, Major, 19
Roset, Jac. M., 51
Rose of Japan, 87
Rose, York and Lancaster, 90
Russell, George W., 95
S.
Sassafras, 55, 57
Saunders, William, 94
Saur, Christopher, 65
Schaeffer, William L., 98
Schlatter, Michael, 54
Scott, Sir Walter, 12, 76
Scott’s Spleenwort, 73
Seymour, Widow, 34
Shoemaker, Ben. H., 45
Sibson, John F., 48
Silver-bell, 95
Silver-Pine Cottage, 40
“ “ Farm, 40
Smearsburg, 61
Smith, Miss Elizabeth P., 67
“ John Jay, 63, 67, 69
Smoke-tree, 96
Smyth, Frank, 27
Solitude, 26, 57
Spring-Alley, 51
Spring-Bank, 39, 45, 60, 97
Spruce, 80
Spruce, Norway, 29, 91
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, 75
“ Lutheran Church, 46
Steel, Edward T., 55
Stiver, Mrs. M. H., 34
Stokes, James, 23
“ Thomas P. C., 48
Stoneburner, Leonard, 86
Strawbridge, Dr. George, 48
“ Justus C., 29, 39, 56
Stenton, 30, 31, 32
Stuart, Gilbert, 51
Suicides Grave, 58
Sycamore, 42, 43, 44
T.
Tamarisk, 79
Taws, Mrs., 97
Thomas, George C., 59
“ Robert, 21, 78
Toland House, 40, 61
Tomato, 52
Torworth, 56
Treaty Tree, 99
Tulip Poplar, 26, 31, 32, 36, 55, 60, 88
Tucker, John, 47
Turn-pike Bridge, 23
U.
Upsala, 41, 46, 63, 89
V.
Vernon, 25, 35, 39, 49, 71, 74
Vinegar Hill, 58
Virgilia, 50
Vollmer, 41
W.
Wagner House, 61
“ John, 55
Wakefield, 32, 55
“ Little, 33, 36
“ Mills, 33
Walnut, Black, 18, 26, 27, 31, 39, 92
“ English, 72, 73
“ White, 78
Walter, John, 10
Walters, Philip, 53
Ward, Townsend, 18, 81
Warner Ground, 76
Warr, John, 33
Washington, George, 25, 55, 72
Watchman box, 67
Watson, John Fanning, 67
Weightman, William, 41
Weiss, Charles, 25
Welsh, John, 45, 60
“ Samuel, 39
Wescott, Thompson, 24
Wharton, Joseph, 42
Wheel-Pump, 54
White Cottage, 53, 59
Wild-Garden, 63
Williams, Alfred, 41
Willits, Dr. I. P., 39
Willow, Kilmarnock, 98
“ Weeping, 20, 25, 75, 84
“ White, 24, 25
Wingohocken Creek, 49, 58
Wissahickon, 45, 56, 57, 66, 70, 96, 98, 102
Wistar, Dillwyn, 62
Wister, Charles J., 23, 63, 65
“ Jr., Charles J., 45, 63, 65
Wister Coral Plant, 73
“ Memorial Tree, 35
“ John, 34, 74
“ William Rotch, 29, 66
“ William Wynne, 51
“ Wood, 35, 36
Wisteria, 83
Witt, Dr. Christopher, 22, 75, 76
Wood, Miss, A. R. 81
Woodside, 55
Wright, James A., 48
Wyck, 21, 25, 59, 60, 65, 77, 78, 79, 97
Y.
Yew, American, 91
“ Creeping, 63
“ English, 9, 66
“ Irish, 92, 96
“ Pomona, 85
York Farm, 27, 38
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Typos and extraneous punctuation corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been left unchanged.
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