Now, Pendino – who lives in Elko New Market – has written and published a novel, titled “The Witness Tree.” The book follows Dani Holden, a woman who moves to an Iowa farmstead and helps ...

A white oak’s roots run especially deep. It’s a descendant of the Donegal Witness Tree, a long-gone tree where people gathered in 1777, vowing to fight England to form a new country.

That means there are trees alive today which have borne witness to some of history’s most significant events. They were present through wars and disasters, political and social change.