Historical Name: Sergeant Alvin York
Common Name: Tulip Poplar
Latin Name: Liriodendron tulipifera
The Sergeant Alvin York Tulip Poplar grows near the gravesite on the Nashville, Tennessee farm of the man once called “the greatest hero of World War I.” Alvin C. York was born in 1887 to a poor farm family in Tennessee. As a boy he learned hunting and sharp shooting skills that served him well during the battle of the Argonne. York so intimidated the German forces he faced at the Argonne that they surrendered. York, with only six companions, marched 132 German prisoners to the American lines. Marshall Foch later said of York, “What you did was the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all the armies of Europe.” After WWI the Nashville Rotary Club raised the funds to purchase a 400 acre farm for their financially strapped local hero. York spent the rest of his life there. The tree in this Grove grew from a seed taken from the Sergeant Alvin York Tulip Poplar, and was planted into UCNJ’s Historic Tree Grove in 1997.
(text adapted from American Forests)