The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-05-18
A BOSTON LANDMARK
HISTORY OF A FAMOUS OLD ELM
DESTROYED BY THE WIND.

This Celebrated Tree, Believed to
Have Existed Before the Settlement
of the City, Was Blown Down In
the Great storm of 1876.
Feb. 10, 1876, was sad day for To-
val historians in Boston, for the news
papers announced the next day that at
about Z o'clock the previous evening
the old elm on Boston Common had
been destroyed by great storm which
swept over the city at that time. So
many eulogies, both oral and written,
We're delivered on this most ancient of
Boston's landmarks, and it was real
lied that a connecting link with the
remote past was gone forever.
1t Is not known when the tree began
to grow, but an old Boston tradition
was that the wife of Thomas Hancock,
the eminent merchant, who was Lydia
Henchman before her marriage, claim
ed that her grandfather, Hezekiah
Henchman, planted the tree when he
was boy. This would have made the
tree just 200 years old at the time Of
its destruction.
1t is probable that some of the many
persons on record as being publicly
executed on Boston Common looked on
the fair world for the last time when
standing beneath its branches, for it
was one of the largest trees, if not the
largest, in the town, and it stood on
its outskirts, and also in 1922 it must
have been a prominent object in Bos-
ton, for Bonner's map Of the town,
published in that year, shows it as
feature.
In 1925 the first recorded measure
ment of the old elm showed its di-
mansions to be as follows: Height, 65
feet; circumference, 81 feet inches at
2 feet 6 inches from the ground, and
the extreme diameter of the branches
was SO feet. At this time it was said
of the tree that ''this pride Of our Com
mon is pronounced by judges to be as
handsome in form as it is large in size
and venerable in age, and it may be
worth the remark, notwithstanding all
the buffeting it has received from
storms and hurricanes for more than
q CCntuIJ1 ltS OA1SA1dl OCduLJ aAQ oJ LII
metry have not been impaired, al
though it has at times lost many Of its
branches"
The tree was accurately measured by
the city engineer of Boston in 1856, and
it was found that 1t was considerably
larger than in 1925, its height being
figured at seventy-fve feet This
oh d. d. -.
extreme old age.
The first serious damage the tree re-
ceived was in 1882, when the largest Of
its limbs was so rent asunder that
three branches rested on the ground,
but at much cost and labor they were
replaced in their former positions and
held together by iron rods and bolts.
The great gale in June, 1850, injured
the tree to such an extent that its for
mer symmetry was destroyed, and at
this time the cavity in the trunk was
filed with several loads of material.
On one of the branches which were
torn off at the time 100 rings were
counted, which indicated the great age
of the tree.
AAC OPCAlA1S VI lAkC CCALCAAld1 yCd1 O1
the republic, 1876, found the tree alive,
but decrepit, and it would probably
have been decorated on Evacuation
day and the Fourth Of July, but, as
stated at the beginning of this article,
Feb. Is saw its destruction.
The old elm fell at TIT o'clock in the
evening, its trunk pointing toward the
Park Street church, and the force Of
the fall shattered the trunk, while the
branches were scattered in every di-
rection. The melancholy news spread
like wildfire through the city, and soon,
despite the storm, the fallen monarch
was surrounded by relic hunters. Arm
, ed with saws, hatchets and knives,
they quickly detached pieces of the
branches to preserve as souvenirs. Per-
sons were seen in the theaters laden
with boughs, and it was q common
sight that evening to see men in the
streets carrying limbs several feet in
length and as large around as stove
pipe. Much Of the tree was made into
veneer, and one book at least of local
history has on its back cover a large
veneer from the tree, bearing on its
face lifelike engraving Of the same.
So passed the old elm, and Boston
incurred for its passing.
DR.. Jerome v @. Smith, mayor of
the city in 1854 showed his interest in
the old elm by having the tree care
fully pruned and cleaned, and he
caused to be placed around it an orna-
mental iron fence oeta 10nal in shane
On the entrance gate was attached an
oval tablet bearing the following In
scription:
THE OLD ELM.
This tree has been standing here for
an unknown period. 1t is believed to have
existed before the settlement of Boston,
being full grown in 1722; exhibited marks
of old age in 1892 and was nearly destroy
ed by a storm in 1882. Protected by an
iron Enclosure in 1854.
]. v. C. SMITH. Mayor.
Soon after the falling of the old elm
a young tree of the same species was