Life still springs from at least one of the plantings of those far
distant days of the forefathers. Thomas Prence, who first set foot
on the Cape in 1621, subsequently built a house for himself and his
bride near Fort Hill. He planted a little pear tree there; it had been
brought over from England.
Each Spring a pear tree blossoms on this site. Thoreau, in the book
on his Cape Cod travels, refers to the planting by Thomas Prence and
states the tree had been blown down a few months previous to his visit
to the scene. A modern historian, however, records that Thomas Prence’s
pear tree is still bearing, a sapling having been planted after the
old tree had been swept down in a gale. Thoreau quotes the following
tribute by a Cape Codder, a Mr. Herman Doane:
“_That exiled band long since have passed away,
And still, old Tree! Thou standest in the place
Where Prence’s hand did plant thee in his day,--
An undersigned memorial of his race._”