Tree Warden

Tree warden. It's not an occupational title you hear of too often. At least in New York City. But they're there, just as the trees are there.

@Obitsman has Tweeted a reference to the ultimate fell-good story. A 103 year-old man, a former tree warden, is buried in a casket made from the 217 year-old elm tree that he was able to keep alive until about 2 years ago.

It's an AP story out of Maine, and printed in the Miami Herald. Miami, and Florida in general, have quite a share of retirees, and plenty from the northeast, so it's a natural human interest story.

But "tree warden," sounds like something from Dickens, and perhaps it is. No matter. What it is is a spark that ignites the memory of the "tombstone" story that appears on the front page of the May 6, 1912 edition of the New York Times that came as part of one of those Legacy/Ellis island things. Find a relative who came through Ellis Island, and the Times will package a reproduction of the Ellis Island record of the arrival, a picture, or drawing of the ship, and a reprint of the front page of the paper from the arrival day. It's nicely done, and not especially prohibitively expensive.

In my instance, I got a commemorative arrival of my grandfather, who at 30, was making his third trip from Greece in order to bring his 18 year-old brother over to join him.

All that family stuff aside, what is additionally interesting is how bluntly death can be reported in 1912. Not anyone I know, but there on the front page is the following story about a Massachusetts tree warden who didn't make it home alive for supper.

           --------------------
SITS DOWN; BLOWN TO BITS.
           --------------------
Dynamite in Man's Pocket Strikes
Stone Causing Fatal Explosion.

SHARON, MASS, May 5 - Thomas J.
Leary, the town tree warden, sat down
beneath a tree in East Roxboro street to-
night, and a moment later a terrific ex-
plosion blew him to pieces. A hole three
feet deep was made in the ground where
he had been sitting. The report of the ex-
plosion was heard for miles, and houses a
quarter of a mile away rocked danger-
ously.
    The cause of the explosion is not def-
initely known, but the theory is that
Leary, who was a contractor, had a stick
of dynamite in his pocket, and that when
he sat down it came in contact with a
stone. Leary was 35 years old and un-
married.

I guess it will never be known if Leary was drinking at the time. I know my great-uncle never learned to read English, so it is unlikely he read this story on his arrival. I suspect my grandfather was also ignorant of it as well.

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