New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-03-05
THE BOSTON ELM.
An Old Landmark Gone.

An Old Landmark Gone.
The following il from the Boston 1Too'
eller Of February IL:
At m early hour last evening the old elm
m Boston Common, which mas toweto9
aloft for two hundred and fifty years ana
.tood against the severest storms, was
hiovn down bv the gale. The wind did NOT
seem to materially affect it until soont
O'clock. when it's direction was changed 10
'n Th " h;ii behind the elm up to this had
fotred a protection for it, but when the
wind obsnged it became fully exposed. AT
about 7:05 to q few passers by 1t became
evident by the creaking OF the tree, tno
falling of several of the upper Inn s anu me
svavine of the trunk that the end was fast
sCnroaohine. From time to time. - the
IND gathered itself for each fresh attack,
the breaking of the trunk increased, until
finally at III, the tree fell with crash,
which aounded like the report of cannon.
II fell toward the Park Street Church with
snch force as to splinter the trunk in every
imaginable manner, while the upper nmDs
we're broken and scattered in every direc-
ton. The trunk was torn clear down TO lte
roofs. on a level with the ground, and that
nart If the iron fence surrounding it, on the
aide on which it fell, was crushed into frsg-
ments.
The news of it's fall spread rapidly. and in
a short time the place was crowded with
relic hunters, who began an attack upon 1t.
These "curious" people crowded upon the
trnnk. and. with knife in hand, were not
long in gratifying their fond desire BY get.
ting such souvenirs as they most priced.
On the departure of each successive squad
it's place as filed by fresh arrivals.
The tree was very rotten, and Its trunk
h. 1ooLod lie drain CAVIAR
pines. 90 hollow were they. A good deal OF
the tree, in fact about all the smaller limbs
and branchee, were taken away before the
police could prevent it.
The tree has been known as far back as
tradition can 20, and is represented upon
the oldest map Of the town known to exist,
and which was engraved in the year l7S2,,
and then was of sufficient size to have at-
tanned distinction. 1t is reasonable to be-
lieye that it was growing before the arrival
of the first cOl0nists. Probably it was
growing in 1880. Upon it's limbs it is sup
posed that some of the early executions in
the old colony took place.
In September, 1869, the hurricane that
swept away the root of the first Coliseum
building. and leveled several of the Boston
church spires, carried off another great
branch. Since then the tree has been dead.
SO far az its trunk was concerned, though
many of the younger branches gave signs
by their swelling buds that spring would
bring renewal IF foliage and beauty.
Rev. j. w. Hamilton, of this city, upon
the occasion of the eighty-fft anniversary
of Jesse Lees sermon under the old elm,
prepared memorial volume containing the
following historical sketch of the great
tree, which will be read with interest:
The oldest inhabitsnt of Boston is the
great tree in the common. No citizen now
living can remember when it was not ven
cradle for it's years and its history. No
monument stands in the city that 10 older;
no family Bible has record Of its age. Be-
fore Washington or Winthrop the tree was.
And before BlaxtOn bought ground Of the
Indians, and Trimoun aine or Shawmutt
we're the pames of Boston; when Chicka-
tabut was chief Sachem, and sat with his
council in the shade of the trees, the great
elm stood forth in the sun, hospitable then
as now. 1t is patriarch among all the
trees of it's kind on the coast.
But longevity is never indisputable, and
few men who study chronology ever agree.
The age of the tree is denied, and some one
is found to account for its origin. Fifty
q paper appeared which declared. on what
authority is not mentioned, that Captain
Henchman, an officer who had distinguished
himself in the Indian ware, had planted
the tree A. d. 1910. The captain was q
member of the Ancient and Honorable
Artillery Company, an ancestor of Governor
Hancock. and the writer in the Gazette adds
that he planted this tree to shelter the com
pany during their parades on the common.
But DR.. Warren, president Of the Society
of Natural History, in his book on
the Great Tree, published A. D. 1856,
unhesitatingly declares that there was
no foundation for such . legend,
and he presumes the only authority for the
statement " as = report emanatlng from
lady who was near relation of . descend
ant of Captain Henchman. 1t was improb-
able that q tree should have been planted
for shelter in situation go remote as that
Of this tree at that time. He had himself
always lived IN the vicinity Of the common,
and had distinct recollection of its appear
ance for about seventy-fve years. and when
he first knew the elm it bore strong marks
of decreptitude and approaching dissolu-
ton. In q picture wrought with needle
work A. D. 1855, by Miss Hannah Otis, aunt
of the late distinguished orator and states
man, Harrison G. Otis, large oriice was
represented in the bark Of the trees
trunk, through which it was said boy eight
or nine years old could creep into larger
1926, the height Of the tree was sixty-fve
feet, circumference twentyone feet eight
inches at two feet six inches from the
ground, and the branches extended in
diameter eighty-six feet. Such dimensions
represent it as q venerable tree even then.
But in . map engraved during the admins
tration of Governor Burnett, it was marked
as insulated from all other trees, from
which we may gather that it was the tree
already historically distinguished; and in
another plan still older, A. D. 1872, it is
again found in the same situation, an insu-
lated tree, comparatively of great size, from
which it is inferred that it might have been
more than enc hundred years old ut
that time. Besides all this, says DR.. Shurt-
left, Boston's best topographer and most
reliable historiOgrapher, more than 100
rings can be easily counted in the great
branch that WAS broken off A. D. 1860, and
which must certainly be several years
younger than the tree itself, which alone
carries back that portion of it to period az
early az the Henchman tradition can with
any certainty 60. We may allow, there
fore, that the old elm poet has not trans
cended, at least, the rights of historical
license in addressing the following lines to
the great tree:
When first from Mother Earth YOU sprung.
6re Chaucer, Spencer. Shakespeare rung,
" furita Ms had come among
The tavages toloose each tongue
In psalms and prayers.
THESE forty acres more or less
Now gayly clothed IN Natures dreee
Who're Yankees walk, aud brag and guess,
We're but bowling wilderness
OF wolves and bears.'
The tree belongs to q species of the elm
family known as the american or white
elm" which il much admired and cultivated
abroad for it's gracefulness of growth. In
the books and papers describing it. a. bv
the older inhabitants Of Boston, it has al
ways been called the 'great tree;" but the
infirmities OF age and the memorable his
torlcal associations connected with it have
oy common consent exchanged the majestic