Part 4

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.

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.

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.”

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.”