Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/41

 1868.] The Penn Treaty-Ground and a Monument to William Penn. 21 townsman, Samuel Coates, to John Penn, Esq., of Stoke Park, England,- which the latter so highly valued as to mount it upon a pedestal in one of the apartments of his mansion, with the following inscription engraved upon a brazen tablet : " A remnant of the great Elm, under which the Treaty was held between William Penn and the Indians, soon after his landing in America, A. D. 1682, and which grew at Kensington, near Philadelphia, till the autumn* of the year 1810, when it fell during a storm, was presented to his grandson, John Penn, Esq. Mr. West, who has introduced this tree into his celebrated picture, representing the Treaty, has mentioned a peculiar mark of respect shown to it, in more recent times, in the following words : " ' This tree, which was held in the 'highest veneration by the original ' inhabitants of my native country, by ' the first settlers, and by their descend- ' ants, and to which I well remember, ' about the year 1*755, when a boy, often ' resorting with my school-fellows, (the ' spot being the favorite one for assem- 'bling in the hours of leisure,) was in ' some danger during the American 'war of 1715, when the British pos- 1 sessed the country, from parties sent ' out in search of wood for firing ; but ' the late General Simcoe, who had the ' command of the district where it ' grew, from a regard for the character ' of William Penn, and the interest he 'took in the history connected with ' the tree, ordered a guard of British 'soldiers, to protect it from the axe. ' This circumstance the General related ' to me, in answer to my inquiries ' concerning it, after his return to ' England.' " Philadelphia, Pa., July 11, 1868. Dear Sir : In pursuance of your late request, that I should jot down the various points within my knowledge concern- ing the Penn Treaty-Ground and other relevant subjects, I would remark, that the Great Elm Tree under and around which the treaty with the Indians is supposed to have been made by William Penn, was situate about fifty feet from the present south- easterly line of Beach street, and about sixty feet southwesterly at an angle of ninety degrees from Eyre's line, and not where the monument now stands. The trunk of the tree leaned over in a south- easterly direction before its fall, so much so that goats used to run up into it along the trunk and out upon the main limb ; and this lower limb, (on the side next to the river,) which also stretched southeasterly over the stream, appeared to be on a line parallel to the water, or the then wharf, over which it spread. The said limb was about one hun- dred and fifty feet in length. In the year A. D. 1810, only a short time before it blew clown, Mr. Matthew Van Dusen, Sr., on whose property the tree stood, was advised to put a shore or prop under the limb, that it might be supported in case a heavy blow of wind should come. With this done, it might have stood to this day ; but, although very proud of the tree, he neglected this precaution, and a few nights afterwards a severe gale of wind blew it over. It lay in that position for several years, each year getting less, of course, through being carried off piecemeal by the people to make canes, stools, frames, &c, out of pieces of the relic, until it was nearly all taken away, there only remaining say about eight or ten feet in length of the trunk or body of the tree attached to the broken stump, the roots remaining in the ground. This stump and stem- log was then hauled on a sled by ten horses (there being a small bed of snow on the ground) to Eyre's saw-shed, (where the carpenters of Van Dns-n's shipyard, then and now occupying the
 * It will be observed that Autumn should be Spring.