The Pringle tree

    You probably know by now if you've been reading this blog very long that my family and I like to do a little exploring. A couple weeks ago we went by a place I thought was cool. Before we got there, my dad joked with me about this tree having cans of Pringle chips on it, and that the chips were invented there, haha. By the way, this post has nothing to do with chips. Sorry guys.
It was a sycamore tree that is apparently the third generation descendant of the tree that two of West Virginia's early settlers lived in for three years. It was near the town of Buckhannon, WV.
    Its not uncommon to hear about a person  seeking shelter in one of these big hollowed out sycamores but this is the first I've heard about someone living in one.
     The story goes that John and Samuel Pringle deserted their posts at Fort Pitt, which was near present day Pittsburgh, during the French and Indian war, in 1761. They had a couple of other guys with them but they were caught early on.
The brothers were from what would become the eastern panhandle of WV. They worked for a guy named John Simpson and lived with him until 1764 before taking refuge in the hollow part of a sycamore tree. The hollow of that tree was big enough that "an eight-foot fence rail could be turned inside the tree" according to the wv encyclopedia. They lived in the tree from 1764-1767. In 1767, John had got word that the war was over while he was out in settlements to trade. They went home and told their story and in the fall of 1768 they returned to the area with a small group to make a permanent settlement. This would be the first permanent settlement West of the alleghenies.
 
Sources
-C. Meffert, the brothers that lived in a tree in West virginia, April 2034,wboy.com
-N. W. Tenney, the pringle tree, October 22, 2010, wvencyclopedia.org
-M.Harvey, Pringle tree history, March 6th, 2024, wvnews.com



    

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