\n published in the Hunterdon County Democrat, January 1, 1931<\/em><\/p>\n
This month is a big allergy month for me, so I looked up what Mr. Bush had to say about trees. Turns out\u2014quite a lot. Bush had a great affection for the grand old trees that had survived the previous century, and frequently mentioned them in his articles.\u00a0<\/em>Now that our trees are leafing out, it seems appropriate to publish this essay. The willow described here once stood in front of Roger Byrom\u2019s house in Headquarters.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the bank of the stream in front of the mansion house at Headquarters, just below the old mill, stands a rough old willow tree that is well worth your notice. You may not think so at first glance from a distance. Go nearer, and see how the rough old tree grows in size and interest as you approach. At first you saw only two or three dead boles, broken off at varying heights. These do not stir up much interest, but go ahead and something will.<\/p>\n You find that these three all sprang from one mother bole, and that there has been still another and larger one among them. You will find also that the tallest of those standing is not entirely dead, but is doing its best to keep the good old grandmother still alive. For it does look as if that central or fourth bole had been the direct ancestor around whose declining body the other three sprang as the next generation, the great short body from which they all sprang being the grandmother or perhaps the great-great-grandmother of the three.<\/p>\n Notice this old body, eight or nine feet high. See how it swells out before you until it is indeed a monster. Note its shape and its size, and you will no doubt decide that it is a thing of beauty in spite of almost hideous ugliness.<\/p>\n How big is it? That is just what Bert B. German and the writer were asking each other a few weeks ago. Neither knew, so he got a ball of twine and we measured the girth\u201424 feet, a very unusual size for this vicinity. I am not sure of ever having measured quite its equal. There it stands, and there it has stood, O so long! It is well, while gazing upon it, to let the mind run back over the generations of men that have come, looked upon that tree and passed to the Great Beyond.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bert B. German was the storekeeper at Headquarters for many years, along with his wife Jennie Hann. They married about 1908, but did not have any children. Their niece, Grace German, recalled that Bert was a sweet and kind man who enjoyed giving her candy when she visited his store.<\/p>\n How Old Is It?<\/strong><\/p>\n How old it is, no body knows or ever will know. The trunk is no doubt so defective within that no counting of concentric rings will ever be possible. George Washington, while a guest in the Mansion house, no doubt looked calmly upon the verdant beauty of that tree more than a century and a half ago; and rich John Opdyke\u00a0cast an appreciate eye upon it while building the original mill\u00a0in 1754, and later as he was \u201cmeasuring his money with a half-bushel.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It was Charles Wilson Opdyke, in his grand \u201cOp Dyke Genealogy,\u201d who declared that John Opdycke measured his money with a half bushel. That is where Mr. Bush got this idea of Washington\u2019s visit to Headquarters. It was a long-standing tradition in the Opdycke family. Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t compute. Gen. Washington, if he did visit Headquarters, did not stay at the \u201cMansion House.\u201d At the time of the Revolution, the mill and Mansion House were tenanted by Benjamin and Elizabeth Tyson. The mill was often referred to as \u201cTyson\u2019s Mill.\u201d John Opdycke, the patriot, was residing in a stone house some distance south on Lambertville-Headquarters Road. Washington is more likely to have stopped at the inn located at the corner, known as White Hall Tavern. This inn was headquarters for Capt. David Johnes, who recruited for the Amwell militia. It was a very large house, and would no doubt have had room for the General and his staff. The inn was demolished in the 20th century. I have written about this myth before: \u201cWashington Didn\u2019t Sleep in Delaware Twp.<\/a>\u201d and\u00a0\u201cWho Saw George Washington?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n As for when the mill was built, \u201cthe original mill\u201d was almost certainly built about 1735, when Benjamin Severns and wife Sarah Green came to live in the vicinity. There is a surviving datestone with that date, although there is some question whether the stone really is original. And there is some question about where exactly the original mill stood. There is a magnificent ruin on the property that is probably the first of several mills that operated there. The datestone is attached to the present mill building.<\/p>\n![\"Bert](\"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Germans.jpg\")
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