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History of Orange County
Town of Newburgh
Page 63
Balmville.—A small collection of houses two miles north of the village of Newburgh, and named after a large tree growing there, commonly called Balm of Gilead, remarkable for the strong balsamick scent of its leaves and buds. Formerly Mr. Daniel Smith and James Butterworth did extensive and profitable business at the place. They were the patrons of it for many years, but latterly the village has been stationary, and the trade wholly fallen off. Still the spot is beautiful, and the lands in the vicinity among the richest in the town, and highly cultivated. The stately and ample residence of Mr. William Thayer, and the beautiful cottage with its neatly ornamented, grounds, of Frederick J. Betts, Esq., are in the immediate vicinity, on the hill north of the village. These gentlemen deserve great praise for the examples furnished their fellow citizens of the town, which cannot be too strictly followed by those, who have the means to improve and adorn their lands, or build substantial dwellings at their posterity.
There is a tradition in the neighborhood, that this Balm of Gilead tree, now one of the largest and most beautiful in the whole country round, was once a riding whip stuck in the ground and took root. It is a soft wood and of the kinds which grow from the slip. That in addition to its being a riding whip, old Mr. Samuel Fowler, a devoted Methodist minister, cut off the centre stock for a gad to drive his team to Newburgh. He lived a few miles above Balmville. The form of the tree is evidence that the centre stock had been lost at an early period of its growth. Mr. Fowler has been dead some twenty-five years, and if he had lived to this time would have been 105 years old, being about 80 when he died. Supposing him 15 at the time he cut the gad off, and the tree 5—the tree is now 95 years old. The last half of the name ville, is from the Latin “villa,” and means village.
We find on enquiry that there are other traditions relative to the planting and early growth of this tree besides the one above stated. One is that Mr. Humphrey Merritt, who lived north of the place in question, said he brought it when a small branch from the mountains near New Jersey, at the beginning of, or during the Revolution, and sat it out in a wet spot where it took root—that his brother, George Merritt, after it had grown a few years, when riding past it, struck off the top bud with his whip, which caused it to branch. This would make the tree about 70 years old.
Mr. Benjamin Garrison of this town, now living and 67 years of age, informs us that. He remembered to have seen it when not larger than his arm—thought it about his age, and that all other accounts made it too old.
Isaac Demott, son of the first settler of that name, who lived and kept tavern at what is now called Balmville, at the fleet organization of the town in 1763, said that the tree grew there naturally, without being planted—that when it had grown large enough for a rail be cut it down, and used it for that purpose—that it sprouted from the root and he let it grow—that after it had grown up again an old countryman came along and told the family the name, value and medical properties of the tree, of which they were ignorant till then—that some years afterwards a Dr. Brown, who practised medicine in Newburgh, he hearing that there was a tree of that kind there, came and offered the family $17 to let him tap it and have the gum—that the offer was refused on the ground that the contents of the tree were worth more money.
This tree is about twelve feet in circumference, and we are told by individuals who have known it 50 years that it was then a large and beautiful tree. In accordance with this information and in despite of tradition and direct testimony, as a matter of opinion we judge the tree to be as old again as any of the previous statements make it. We have been thus particular in our remarks on this beautiful and truly magnificent tree, to show how little confidence can be reposed in tradition in many instances. If they cannot be relied on in a case like the present, where the subject matter has been a living object in the midst of the community since the first settlement of the town and locality in question, when can they be credited with implicit faith. In this consists the danger and falsity of early history, by which one-half of it is mere fiction, or at most, an historical novel. In our remarks upon all traditions, where we have reason to suspect, their truth, we shall be free to express an opinion, and leave the whole to the better judgment of the reader for our correction.
We were many years since informed by John Blake, Esq., late of the town of Montgomery, that the large button-wood tree growing beside the turnpike before the residence of Mr. Nathaniel Brewster of this town, grew up from a handspike used in working the roads at the early settlement of Montgomery and Newburgh—perhaps over a hundred years since. On ceasing to work, the handspike was stuck into the then low and moist land, where it remained undisturbed by further use and vegetated. This tree, as well as the Balm of Gilead, grows comparatively rapid, and comes to maturity in a shorter period than oaks, chesnuts and some other kinds.