Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-05-25


 The announcement that the site of the historic charter oak at Hartford has been purchased by public spirited citizen, who will mark the spot with a suitable monument will be heard with interest throughout the United States. Probably no spot of colonial times, save ! Boston's Old South church, has been visited by 50 many tourists Hitherto the only thing to mark the site of the old tree which linked colonial and mod ern times has been small marble slab set in q retaining wall The marble is only one foot by two and makes part of the stone wall facing the old Wyllys property. now the residence of ex-Mayor William Waldo Hyde.
 The house fronts on Charter Oak place, which, leaving Charter Oak ave- ane, winds around a small hill to the southward. One rural visitor who had come from distance expecting, doubt less, to find the site of the famous char ter oak marked by monument eiacu- lated when at last he was able to find the small slab
 Well, by gosh, a hole i'll tree and stone i'll wall go well together, but it's Q wooden nutmeg sort O style O. doin business, say. If we'd had a charter yoke up our way, we'd mark ed the spot with no less than one O the pyramids O Egypt.
 The purchase was announced at the fourth annual meeting of the Connecti- cut Society of the Sons of Colonial Wars held il the Connecticut Historical so- ciety rooms on Wednesday afternoon. James J. Goodwin, as governor, read his annual address, in which he said:
 Today l have the great pleasure of informing you that the owner of the most cherished spot in this city has se- cured to us the point of land with suf- fieient ground adjacent, at the intersec- tion of Charter Oak avenue and Charter Oak place, nearest the site of the char ter oak, where we hope and expect some day to raise monument worthy of the place and event. D
 MT. Goodwin himself is the purchaser of the land, OH which he will have proper memorial erected The land to be put to thls use is about 100 feet long and is V shaped, lying between Charter Oak avenue and Charter Oak place, to the north of the latter, which leads up the side of small rise From Main street the rising ground Is plainly yis- ible, and any memorial structures erect ed upon 1t will be seen for some dis tance.
 The small slab of marble that has been the laughing stock of tourists since 1856 does not i'll reality mark the exact spot where the charter oak tree stood. 1t is to the southwest of it, the tree having stood i'll what is now the middle of the road leading around the hill. The memorial to be erected will be within few feet of the road and will be suitably inscribed. The sur rouudings will be so arranged with seats and other eonyenienees that visit ors may sit down and rest.
 Few pages ill history are dearer to the schoolboy's heart than that telling the story of how the charter was hidden ill the hole of the old oak tree when Sir Edmund Andros came to Connecticut i'll 1887 by order of King James II and Isurped the authority of the colonial government. The incident. unlike that ef Putnam and the wolf, rests on such historic foundation that its actuality has never been questioned. The name of Josep!l Wadsworth, the hero of the story, is a household word, and the fame of the old tree ill which he hid the charter is testified to by the innumera- bio pilgrimages to the spot where 1t stood.
 Dr. Trumbull's s version of the pro cecdings when Sir Edmund Andros came to take the government out of the hands of the people is given in the first vol ume of the History of Connecticut. '" Andros, he says, demanded the charter and declared the government under 1t dissolved. Dr. Trumbull reports the conference between the royal and colo nial governor as follows:
 "The charter was brought in and laid upon the table where the assembly was sitting The lights were instantly ex- tinguished and one Captain (Joseph) Wadsworth of Hartford, i'll the most sl- lent and secret manner, carried off the charter and secreted it i'll hollow tree fronting the house of the Hon. Samuel Wyllys, then one of the magistrates of the colony. The people appeared all peaceable and orderly The candles were officiously relighted, but the patent was gone, and no discovery could be made of it or of the person who had conveyed it away. Sir Edmond assumed the gov e,.pnant and the records of the colony were closed.
 The charter is thus described i'll the Memorial History of Hartford Coun- ty:"
 ''The territory over which jurisdic- ton was conferred by the charter was bounded northerly by Massachusetts, easterly by .Narrogancett river, south lxr Ixz line