The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-01-05
A BOSTON
LANDMARK
History of Famous Old Elm Des>
trOyed by the Wind.

This Celebrated Tree, Believed to
Have Existed before the Settlement
of the City, Was Blown Down In
she Great storm of 1876.
Feb. Is, 1876, was a sad day for To-
cal 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 he'd
been destroyed by great storm which
swept over the city at that time. So
many eulogies, both oral and written,
were delivered on this most ancient Of
Boston's landmarks, and it was real
tied that a connecting link with the
remote past was gone forever.
It 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 a 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 it's 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 a
feature.
In 1928 the first recorded measure
ment of the old elm showed its d.
menslons to be as follows: Height, 65
feet; circun ference, 21 feet inches at
2 feet inches from the ground, and
the extreme diameter Of the branches
was SO feet. At this time ii 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 buneting it has received from
a century, its original beauty and sym
metry have not been impaired, al.
though it has at times lost many Of its
brapches."
The tree was accurately measured by
the city engineer Of Boston in 1855. and
it was found that it was considerably
larger than in 1925. its height being
figured at seyenty-hve feet. This
showed that it was still growing In its
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 of at the time 100 rings were
counted, which indicated the great age
Of the tree.
The opening Of the centennial year Of
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 III O'Clock In the
evening, its trunk pointing toward the
Park Street church, and the force Of
the fall shattered the trunk, while the