Join us when we plant an American hybrid elm behind the Benjamin Peirce/Major Gen. Stephen Abbot monument — a reference to the original elm tree in Boston under which the Sons of Liberty gathered. This new tree will also replace the original Liberty Tree planted in Salem 50 years ago.

Speakers for the event will include Mayor Dominick Pangallo, historian Charles Newhall, and Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker. The Danvers Alarm List Company, a group of 18th century living history reenactors, also plan to be in attendance.

Benjamin Peirce, a baker and militiaman who died at age 37 in the Battle of Menotomy on April 19, 1775, is the only recorded Salem casualty from the first battles of the American Revolution. Research in the Historic Salem, Inc. files indicates that Peirce lived on North Street when on Feb. 26, 1775, when Lt. Col. Alexander Leslie’s British troopswere stalled as they waited to cross the North Bridge.

The original Liberty Tree and a plaque is located in the center of Church Street in front of St. Peter’s — San Pedro’s Episocopal Church, and was dedicated by Historic Salem on Patriots’ Day 1976 to the memory of Peirce. The monument is the first stop during Salem’s First Muster each April. The Bicentennial plaque references a Liberty Tree, of which there have been two trees to date in the immediate area.

While the original tree has since died, Department of Conservation and Recreation Forester David Bresnahan will be planting a new American elm hybrid at that location in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary and Peirce’s sacrifice.

The dedication of the new tree will take place on Saturday, June 6, at 9:30 a.m. at the monument on Church Street.