No Facebook. No Twitter. Not even a phone camera. Yet, when the Treaty Tree at Shackamaxon was uprooted in a great storm on March 5, 1810, word quickly spread.

From Philadelphia’s “Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser” to Rhode Island’s “Columbian Phoenix” to “The Independent American” in Washington, D.C., newspapers across the country picked up the story. People cared that the Great Elm under which Chief Tamanend and the original stewards of the land had made a Treaty of Friendship with William Penn in 1682, no longer stood beside the Delaware River. Through many drawings, paintings and written word, the tree image had come to symbolize justice and friendship.

Wood from the fallen tree became a valuable relic. Souvenir hunters arrived. Gifts made from the Treaty Tree wood were cherished. Perhaps Chief Justice John Marshall upon receiving a small box made from the tree wood in 1831 said it best:

This box is to me an inestimable relique. I know no inanimate object more

 entitled to our reverence than the tree of which it was a part, because I

think  few events in history have stronger claims on our serious reflection, on

our humanity, our sense of rights, and our judgment, than the treaty which

was made under it, and the consequences which followed that treaty.

Saplings from the Treaty Tree were also preserved. Today, a descendant of the tree flourishes at Haverford College and “tree children” are lovingly cared for in their arboretum nursery. And, of course, a descendent grows in what is now Penn Treaty Park along the Delaware.

In a culture that creates monuments and memorials that all too often remind of loss and sadness it is important to remember a brief moment in our history when friendship, justice and fair play took center stage. Do a Google search and learn how the Treaty Tree captured the imagination of artists, writers and musicians as far back as 1682 and continues to do so today. The story of this simple act endures. The Tree is a symbol of what can happen when people put aside their differences and share their common goodness.

Perhaps on March 5 we can pause for a moment and think about the Treaty Tree and the gathering that took place beneath its branches.  It mattered in 1810. It matters in 2016.