LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - JULY 14, 2019 by Lynne Belluscio With the recent demise of the library tree, I remembered a file in our history section that had arti- cles about some of the huge trees in LeRoy that had similar life ending stories. Probably the most famous was the “Old Elm Tree” on Summit Street. Two stories have surfaced. One says that the tree came from the Betsy Woodward gravel pit on East Main Road in 1837. The other story, which was most often repeated, tells that in 1816, ten-year-old George Platt was cutting down brush and he spared the young tree. By the time it succumbed to Dutch elm disease in 1960, the trunk was 18 feet in circumference. There was a large hole in the center, and at one time a currant bush grew there and folks in the neighbor- hood made jams and jelly from the currants. The story was that a deer had eaten part of the tree, and caused the huge hole in the center and it was the absence of the “heart” as they called it, to grow so large in circumference. It was considered one of the largest elms in New York State and there were published postcards with its photograph. It took four days to cut it down. I don’t think anyone thought to save some of it. North of the village, on Lake Street Road, about a mile north of Fort Hill, there was an “ancient oak tree” that grew on the Kelsey farmstead. In 1806, when Martin Kelsey came to the area, it was a good-sized tree. It survived until 1958 when Route 19 was widened. The newspaper article mentioned that an oil painting of the tree had been given to Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Kelsey as a wedding present by Mr. Kelsey’s aunt who lived in Michigan. I can’t help but wonder where that painting is now. Main Street from the bridge to the corner of Lake Street, was graced by huge tall elm trees. There were two in front of 1 Main – now the Creekside and one across the street at the west end of the bridge by the post office. There was another on the south side closer to Bank Street. It was written that these trees were brought from North Woods by James Ballard about 1870. The elms at the Presbyterian Church were set out by Samuel Gillette and his son about the same time. All of the elms succumbed to the elm disease and one by one they were cut down. This cartoon, “drawn by Mr. O’Mealia, the sports cartoonist,” was a com- ment on the removal of the elm tree in front of Willard’s Grocery Store. He drew himself holding the shovel. All the characters are labeled. The man in the Speiller junk wagon, who says “It can’t be on account o’ religion, Mr. Willard”, was Dr. Burton Speill- er’s father, who did drive a horse- drawn junk wagon around town. (His family was one of LeRoy’s Jewish families.) Mr. Brust is on the left in the plaid suit. Behind him holding the Stop Look and Listen sign is Mr. McCulley. Mr. Callahan is holding the coffee pot. Mr. Murphy, says that “it throws more of a shadow than me.” Mr. Daggs in his baseball uniform stands behind Mr. Willard with his apron on. In 1876, Frank Foreman, went to Philadelphia for the Cen- tennial Exposition, and brought back trees that he planted around his house on West Main, that eventually was owned by the Veitel family. Perhaps some of the trees near the house are still standing. East Main Street was known for its double row of stately ma- ple trees. Some accounts indicate that they were planted before the Civil War. When Route 5 was widened, many of these trees were removed, and one by one, as they succumb to drastic trimming by the power company, the last vestiges of this grand entrance to the village will be gone. That’s what happened to Clay Street and Lake Street. In March 1966, Lake Street and Clay Street were wid- ened and the rows of huge maple trees that lined Route 19 were re- moved, including several on the west side of Wolcott Street as it merges into 19. A grainy newspa- per photograph shows only part of the destruction. The tree surgeons from Lancaster Pennsylvania, were in LeRoy for three weeks removing those trees. The newspaper clippings also included a story about two unusual trees that were growing in the vacant lot on the corner of East Main and Church Street – the parking lot for St. Mark’s Church. At one time, the Kellogg house was located on the corner. It was known as the “Old Tyme Inn” for a while, and it was going to become a community center, until there was a fire and it had to be torn down. It is uncertain whether these two trees were part of the Kellogg home or not, but today there is still one near the parking lot. The trees are known as “cucumber trees.” They are in the magnolia family, and are list- ed as magnolia acuminate. They are native to Canada and the north east and they have a red cucum- ber type fruit that grows near the top of the tree. I think that Jack Hemphling told me of one grow- ing in Machpelah Cemetery that was measured by the state to see if it was the largest growing in New York. It missed the record by inches. Another tree story that I’ll mention, is that there was an or- dinance in LeRoy that prohibited people from tying their horses to the trees on Main Street, because horses will chew the bark off trees and kill them. In some towns, they built small fences around the trees to keep the horses and live- stock from girdling the trees. The “Library Tree” wasn’t the only tree on that site to have an important story. It seems that before the library was built, and when it was still the Ingham Cam- pus, the classes of 1878 and 1879 planted trees near the Art Conser- vatory. Hattie Annin Baker, who was a member of the class of 1879 wrote about the Ingham trees in July 1936. Hattie’s father was born in 1828, in the house where Ingham Hall stood. The class of 1879, planted their tree on the “north side.” Two feet east from the base of the tree, they buried a tin box with a potato and some pa- pers. (Why would they put a pota- to in a tin box and bury it?”) Ac- cording to Hattie, these were the only trees on the Ingham Campus, so I suspect they were cut down when the Union Free School was built. Which brings the story back to the Library tree. A hand-writ- ten note in the file written in 2007 by Eleanor Gomborone men- tions that Ethel Kermutt said that George Kermutt, who was em- ployed by Helen Woodward Ri- vas, planted the beech tree by the library. And Eleanor wrote to ask Seeley Pratt about that, because he would know for sure. Perhaps the story of the Li- brary Tree wouldn’t be so poi- gnant if it hadn’t been the tree that every kid in LeRoy climbed on, or met beneath, or carved their ini- tials in. Poems were written. Sto- ries were told. Photo s were taken. Memories were made. Most of the other trees just did what trees do. The Old Trees Elm Trees on Main Street