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Page 15
In 1850, it still retained its graceful proportions; its great limbs
were intact, and it showed few traces of age. Within the past
twenty-five years, it has been gradually breaking up.
In 1844, its girth, three feet from the ground, where its circumference
is least, was twelve feet two and a half inches. In 1884, at the same
point, it measures fourteen feet one inch; a gain so slight that the
rings of annual growth must be difficult to trace--an evidence of waning
vital force. The grand subdivisions of the trunk are all sadly crippled;
unsightly bandages of zinc mask the progress of decay; the symptoms of
approaching dissolution are painfully evident, especially in the winter
season. In summer, the remaining vitality expends itself in a host of
branchlets which feather the limbs, and give rise to a false impression
of vigor.
Never has tree been cherished with greater care, but its days are
numbered. A few years more or less, and, like Penn's Treaty Elm and the
famous Charter Oak, it will be numbered with the things that were.
THE ELIOT OAK
When John Eliot had become a power among the Indians, with far-reaching
sagacity he judged it best to separate his converts from the whites, and
accordingly, after much inquiry and toilsome search, gathered them into
a community at Natick--an old Indian name formerly interpreted as "a
place of hills," but now generally admitted to mean simply "my land."
Anticipating the policy which many believe must eventually be adopted
with regard to the entire Indian question, Eliot made his settlers
land-owners, conferred upon them the right to vote and hold office,
impressed upon them the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, and
taught them the rudiments of agriculture and the mechanic arts.
In the summer of 1651, the Indians built a framed edifice, which
answered, as is the case to-day in many small country towns, the double
purpose of a schoolroom on week-days, and a sanctuary on the Sabbath.
Professor C.E. Stowe once called that building the first known
theological seminary of New England, and said that for real usefulness
it was on a level with, if not above, any other in the known world.
It is assumed that two oaks, one of the red, and the other of the white,
species, of which the present Eliot Oak is the survivor, were standing
near this first Indian church. The early records of Eliot's labors make
no mention of these trees. Adams, in his Life of Eliot, says: "It would
be interesting if we could identify some of the favorite places of the
Indians in this vicinity," but fails to find sufficient data. Bigelow
(or Biglow, according to ancient spelling), in his History of Natick,
1830, states: "There are two oaks near the South Meeting-house, which
have undoubtedly stood there since the days of Eliot." It is greatly to
be regretted that the writer did not state the evidence upon which his
conclusion was based.
Bacon, in his History of Natick, 1856, remarks: "The oak standing a few
rods to the east of the South Meeting-house bears every evidence of an
age greater than that of the town, and was probably a witness of Eliot's
first visit to the 'place of hills.'" It would be quite possible to
subscribe to this conclusion, while dissenting entirely from the
premises. It will be noticed that Bacon relies upon the appearance of
the tree as a proof of its age. His own measurement, fourteen and a half
feet circumference at two feet from the ground, is not necessarily
indicative of more than a century's growth.
The writer upon Natick, in Drake's Historic Middlesex, avoids expressing
an opinion. "Tradition links these trees with the Indian Missionary."
For very long flights of time, tradition--as far as the age of trees is
concerned--cannot at all be relied upon; within the narrow limits
involved in the present case, it may be received with caution.
The Red Oak which stood nearly in front of the old Newell Tavern, was
the original Eliot Oak. Mr. Austin Bacon, who is familiar with the early
history and legends of Natick, states that "Mr. Samuel Perry, a man who
could look back to 1749, often said that Mr. Peabody, the successor to
Eliot, used to hitch his horse by that tree every Sabbath, because Eliot
used to hitch his there."
This oak was originally very tall; the top was probably broken off in
the tremendous September gale of 1815; as it was reported to be in a
mutilated condition in 1820. Time, however, partially concealed the
disaster by means of a vigorous growth of the remaining branches. In
1830, it measured seventeen feet in circumference two feet from the
ground. It had now become a tree of note, and would probably have
monopolized the honors to the exclusion of the present Eliot Oak, had it
not met with an untimely end. The keeper of the tavern in front of which
it stood had the tree cut down in May, 1842. This act occasioned great
indignation, and gave rise to a lawsuit at Framingham, "which was
settled by the offenders against public opinion paying the costs and
planting trees in the public green." A cartload of the wood was carried
to the trial, and much of it was taken home by the spectators to make
into canes and other relics,
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