Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-11-18
A Very VscfuI Trcc.

The Rev. II. L. Wayland contributes the fol.
lowing to the Independent:
"Boston had its liberty tree, Hartford its char
ter oak PlttSfeld its great elm, New York its
Stuyvesant pear tree, and Seymour lind has its
beech tree. Its stands about two miles west of
the town, just at the crossing of the country
road and the o. and NJ Il. K. The trunk is COW
cred pretty thickly with the names of persons
who desired to go down to posterity in a corrical
immortality associated with the tree, from
which, under the auspices Of Judge Lynch, six
criminals were suspended.
81 visited the beech tree not long since. and
heard from some of the neighborng farmers IFS
story. For years there had been no safety of
life or property. Depredatons were almost
nightly. Several times the cars were run off the
track at night; and the passengers suddenly
aroused from sleep and helpless, we've robbed by
armed men in disguise. Repeatedly the ma
rauders had run off from II train standing at the
depot a locomotive with the baggage and ex-
press car attached; and, after reaching seclud-
ed place, had robbed the express car. Not sell
dom robbery was accompanied by murder.
"No rational being had any doubt as to the
authors of these acts. The universal instinct,
stronger oftentimes and more unerring than
legal evidence, pointed to the members Of a sim
gle family and their cOnfederates. But every
effort to secure the execution of Justice was
lruitcss. If the suspected were arrested, there
an abb would be Overwhelmingly proved bv
witnesses prepared to swear through a stone
wall. Ii there were inconyeuient adverse wit.
neSses, they were spirited away or bribcd to
absent themselves, or, if insensible to reason or
persuasion, they were put out OF the way by
violence. Persons were found murdered, against
whom there was no grudge or ground Of offence
save the fear that they might prove impraetica-
BILE witnesses.
Sat last the HOosier spirit arose-a spirit pa
tient, sluggish even, but when aroused actino
in tremendous earnest and irresistible, as was
eminently proved in the war. Another robbery
Of an express car had taken place, and three
men charged with the offence were on their way
by the cars TO the county Jail, to be tried and
again released; and again, il may be, to retaiate
on all who had been active in their arrest A
body of citizens stopped the train, took the men
from the cars, and hanged them from the beech
tree Later, three more, under precisely similar
circumstances, were hanged 10 the same Tree. 1t
was ghastly incident Of the affair that the tree
stood within Il stones throw of a ittle house in
which one of the prisoners had been born. His
last gaze before be swung off into eternity was
fixed upon the door about which he had PLAYED
in his innocent childhood.
Later still, four more Of the same brand were
taken from the Jail and were hanged. Thus
stood mp PhinehaS and executed Judgment. and
the plague was stayed Acts of violence ceased !:
life and property became safe; threats of rcprisa
were muttered, but were never executed To the
good sense of the community the act justified if
self, from conviction of its necessity and from
an experience OF its results"