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Page 13
In 1774, a new township in the District of Maine, was granted, by the
General Court of Massachusetts, to the "proprietors of Suncook," to
recompense them for their losses. The township was called Sambrook, and
embraced the present towns of Lovell and New Sweden; it was located in
the neighborhood of the battle-field, where, a half century before, so
many brave lives had been sacrificed.
NOTE.--The townships of Rumford and Suncook, both granted by
Massachusetts authorities, made a common cause in the defence of their
rights against the claimants under New Hampshire, known as the Bow
proprietors. The latter, who were, in fact, the New Hampshire Provincial
authorities, and who not only prosecuted but adjudicated the cases,
brought suits for such small extent of territory in each case, that
there was no legal appeal to the higher courts in England. The two towns
therefore authorized the Reverend Timothy Walker, the first settled
minister of Rumford, to represent their cause before the King in
council. By the employment of able counsel and judicious management of
the case, he was eminently successful, and obtained a decision favorable
to the Massachusetts settlers. In the meanwhile, the proprietors of
Suncook had compromised with the Bow proprietors, surrendering half of
their rights--for them the decision came too late. The Rumford
proprietors, however, were benefited, and Concord, under which name
Rumford was incorporated by New Hampshire laws, maintained its old
boundaries as originally granted,--which remain practically the same to
this day.
[Footnote 2: General Timothy Bedel served during the Revolution; his
son, General Moody Bedel, served in the War of 1812; his son, General
John Bedel, was a lieutenant in the Mexican War, and brigadier-general
in the Rebellion.]
* * * * *
HISTORIC TREES.
By L.L. Dame.
THE WASHINGTON ELM.
At the north end of the Common in Old Cambridge stands the famous
Washington Elm, which has been oftener visited, measured, sketched, and
written up for the press, than any other tree in America. It is of
goodly proportions, but, as far as girth of trunk and spread of branches
constitute the claim upon our respect, there are many nobler specimens
of the American elm in historic Middlesex.
[Illustration: THE WASHINGTON ELM. [From D. Lothrop & Company's Young
Folks' Life of Washington.]]
Extravagant claims have been made with regard to its age, but it is
extremely improbable that any tree of this species has ever rounded out
its third century. Under favorable conditions, the growth of the elm is
very rapid, a single century sometimes sufficing to develop a tree
larger than the Washington Elm.
When Governor Winthrop and Lieutenant-Governor Dudley, in 1630, rode
along the banks of the Charles in quest of a suitable site for the
capital of their colony, it is barely possible the great elm was in
being. It would be a pleasant conceit to link the thrifty growth of
the young sapling with the steady advancement of the new settlement,
enshrining it as a sort of guardian genius of the place, the living
witness of progress in Cambridge from the first feeble beginnings.
The life of the tree, however, probably does not date farther back than
the last quarter of the seventeenth century. In its early history there
was nothing to distinguish it from its peers of the greenwood. When the
surrounding forest fell beneath the axe of the woodman, the trees
conspicuous for size and beauty escaped the general destruction; among
these was the Washington Elm; but there is no evidence that it surpassed
its companions.
Tradition states that another large elm once stood on the northwest
corner of the Common, under which the Reverend George Whitefield, the
Wesleyan evangelist, preached in 1745. Others claim that it was the
Washington Elm under which the sermon was delivered. The two trees stood
near each other, and the hearers were doubtless scattered under each.
But the great elm was destined to look down upon scenes that stirred the
blood even more than the vivid eloquence of a Whitefield. Troublous
times had come, and the mutterings of discontent were voicing themselves
in more and more articulate phrase. The old tree must have been privy
to a great deal of treasonable talk--at first, whispered with many
misgivings, under the cover of darkness; later, in broad daylight,
fearlessly spoken aloud. The smoke of bonfires, in which blazed the
futile proclamations of the King, was wafted through its branches.
It saw the hasty burial, by night, of the Cambridge men who were slain
upon the nineteenth of April, 1775; it saw the straggling arrival of
the beaten, but not disheartened, survivors of Bunker Hill; it saw the
Common--granted to the town as a training-field--suddenly transformed
to a camp, under General Artemas Ward, commander-in-chief of the
Massachusetts troops.
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