Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

The precedent for Daniel Boone holding court under an elm tree was set at the settling of Boonesborough in 1775, south of present-day Lexington, Kentucky. The branches of a huge elm -- so large the settlers feared the toil of cutting it down -- sheltered the first church service and the first American legislative meeting west of the Allegheny mountains. The settlers of Boonesborough nicknamed it the Divine Tree.

Richard Henderson, one of the original settlers, wrote: "Thank God! The tree is mine...This same tree is to be our church, state-house, council-chamber, and etc...Hope by Sunday sennight to perform divine service for the first time in a publick manner, and that to a set of scoundrels who scarcely believe in God or fear a devil, if we were to judge from most of their looks, words and actions."

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