The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-20
BEAUTIFUL WOODBRIDGE GREEN
It's History-How the Preacher and the People Made it a Place of Trees.

It's History-How the Preacher and the People Made it Place of Trees.
 Everyone who passes through Wood-
 bridge Center admires the beauty of
 the park on which the Congregational church stands and the attraotiyeness which the trees give to 1t. .tr
 The park or green was given by Mir.
 Joseph Beecher. one of the early set- tiers and contained live acres. It has been somewhat encroached upon by the roads on two sides of n. but Is still of good size. At the time 1t was given there were quite a number Of large boulders on 1t and 1t had little that would attract the admiration of the landscape gardener. These were mostly removed during the pastorate of Rev. s. H. Elliot. At one time there had been row of butternut trees on the north side, but these had all died and only one elm and two or three small naples were left. The green was not fenced and the cows and pigs and geese roamed over 1t at leisure. The geese were particularly annoying, as they would gather during the after noon service to pick up the crumbs and other remnants of the dinner bas- kets which had been thrown out at noon. Sometimes they would be so noisy during sermon time that someone would have to go out and drive them away, the old gander making more im- pression on the audience than the ser mon. The green had remained in this open way for century and quarter nearly. The matter of enclosing 1t had been talked of, a plan had been made but the plan would not build itself and for twenty-five years the plan had been in existence and nothing done. There came a time at length when someone suggested, with a little em- phasis to the suggestion, that fence should be built and the parishioners heartily responded to the movement and the present fence was built When the fence was built the green was bare and unattractive as any other bare lot would be. The fence was erected in the fall, and on the following spring the Sabbath before the state election, which was then helf the first Monday in April, the pastor read for the af- ternoon lesson from the sixtieth of Isaiah, and when he came to the pass age "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary" he paused in his reading and looking around upon the congregation, said: Tomorrow is election day and am tempted to make this passage the foundation of an ex- hortation to my audience. Tomorrow is election day and we expect every man to do his duty" A smile played upon the faces of many and they began to elbow each other expecting politi. cal speech. He said, however: q dc not propose to speak to you of youi political duties, suppose the politicians have done that already. But what ] propose is that each man plant a tree on the green before he deposits his vote, and I pledge myself to plant two trees on the green before I vote to. morrow" At the close of the service as the audience were retiring from the house they said to each other, "Are you going to bring your tree?" "Yes, was the reply. AS a result ninety trees were planted on the green. Tn the fall one of the doubtful ones of the place said: 'The Lord was on the pastors side once," calling him by name, flor every one of those trees lived" At the same time MT. Edward Hine gave the circle of fir trees in front of the church, and little later MT. s. P. Perkins gave the circle on the west side to mark where the old church stood, and Deacon French the cluster of evergreens on the east side of the green. And this is the history of the Woodbridge green, which is so of- ten spoken of and is so much admired.