Our Biography

We have lived in this beautiful area of Western New York State all of our lives, where we were high school sweethearts and graduated from Alfred Almond Central School in the 1950s.  We married young and lived on the family dairy farm on Karr Valley, Almond, NY, until Lee was “discovered” by Nationwide Insurance in 1962 and became an agent for them in Almond and Hornell, New York. 

We worked together in the insurance business for 33 years, retiring in 1995.  We then had time to become more active in many organizations, including the  Hornell Camp of Gideons and the  Alfred Almond Bible Church, where Lee serves as an elder and Donna plays the piano. 

We also serve together, as president and secretary/newsletter editor, of the Alfred Almond Central School Alumni Association, and we are dedicated to raising scholarship money for AACS graduates. We were charter members of the Almond Historical Society in 1965, but up until the time we retired from our insurance business, we were not able to serve actively.  Donna became the secretary in 1997, and began writing the quarterly newsletter.   Researching topics and historical information in the archives room located in the Hagadorn House museum, we came upon a black and white photo of an Indian Trail Tree located on Bully Hill in Almond.  The inscription on the back of the photo indicated the tree's provenance: "M. Earl Dungan and the Indian Trail Tree on the Bully Hill Road that goes from Karr Valley Road up into Bully Hill, taken by a photographer for the Alfred Sun on Monday, July 18, 1960.  Eugene VanHorn, editor of the Alfred Sun, was with us too.”

 
A sign, affixed to the tree, reads: “INDIAN TRAIL TREE – 250 YEARS OLD”

We went looking for the tree and finally found it – in very sad shape.  Flooding, erosion and bulldozer work had caused the tree to now sit at a 70° angle, and the tree was dying.  In our next AHS newsletter, we printed a copy of the original 1960 photo and a photo of the tree in its current state.  We began to get phone calls from our readers:  “I know where there is a tree like that . . .” or “I have seen trees like that when I hunted in the  woods. . .” 

In the next newsletter issue,  we included a photo of another Indian Trail Tree, located not too far from the Bully Hill tree.  Then, the local rural mail carrier told us of another tree,  which he felt probably had become a victim of the construction of the four-lane highway that had been built in the 1970s.  However, Lee went to the site described, and there was the tree – safe and secure in the median between the east- and west-bound lanes! 

Some time later, Lee came in contact with a friend who had hunted the local woods and State forests and showed him the pictures of the three trees.  He said, “I used to sit on a tree like that thirty years ago when I was hunting . . .” and they made arrangements to go up into the Bully Hill State Forest to do some exploring.

What they found, undisturbed in a hedgerow, was not just one tree – but a line of several Indian trail trees, believed to be part of a trail used by the Seneca Indians.   Later, Lee got a Garmin GPS tracker  for his birthday and returned to these trees to measure and record the GPS readings. 

In the meantime, on a trip to Florida, we looked up Elaine Jordan of Ellijay, GA, who has photographed hundreds of trees in N GA and surrounding areas, and has authored the book, Indian Trail Trees.  Elaine has been a wonderful source of information and encouragement to us in this quest to discover and preserve these incredible links to the past – our oldest living historical landmarks.

Two years ago, we wrote an article about our local Indian Trail Trees which was published in the Native American magazine, Whispering Wind, Vol. 35, No. 3, Jack Heriard, managing editor. (www.whisperingwind.com)

Our quest continues as people contact us with “tree spottings”.  We have given several presentations at various meetings of historical societies, senior citizens and other groups, hoping to raise public awareness and protect these trees.

We are planning to develop a way to place signs on these trees (doing no harm to them) indicating that they are Indian Trail Trees.  We welcome your cooperation and comments!