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.