|
A Great Elm stood on Boston Common from Native American days until 1876,
when it was destroyed by a huge gale. The Common was originally used as a
cow pasture, with few trees standing within its boundaries for many years. The Great Elm was a
popular tourist transaction in the
1800s, and was often referred to as Boston's Oldest Inhabitant.
Just before the Revolution,
Sons of Liberty likely adorned the tree with lanterns to symbolize unity, and
after independence, criminals were probably hanged upon its limbs (Quakers
were hanged on
Boston Neck). The following is a history of the tree from 1856:
"THE GREAT ELM is one of the lions--perhaps the lion--of
Boston Common. Still hale and strong, it stands about the centre of the
green, and is supposed, to be upwards of two hundred years old.
In 1825 it was sixty-five feet high, the circumference at thirty inches from
the ground being twenty-one feet eight inches, and the spread of the
branches eighty-six feet. In 1855 it was measured, and found to be
seventy-two feet and a half feet high; height of the first branch to the
ground, twenty-two and a half feet; girth four feet from the ground,
seventeen feet; average diameter of the greatest span of branches, one
hundred and one feet. This shows that the elm has grown considerably within
the last quarter century.
But this colossal plant has more interesting features than its age or size,
though they are great.
There was once a powder magazine near this tree, on the hill at which foot
it stands. This hill, also, during the siege of Boston, was the site of a
British fortification, bombarded by Washington.
In the War of 1812 its existence was endangered by the encampment around it
of American troops, destined to protect the town. It has often been exposed
to injury by the custom of hanging and burning effigies upon its giant
branches; and many turbulent occasions, on Election and Independence days,
have exposed the tree to violence.
Severe tempests have at times threatened to annihilate the tree; and in 1831
or 1832 a violent storm separated four of its large limbs, and so far
detached them that they rested partially rested partially upon the ground.
They were raised and bolted together; the bolts are still visible, and the
branches, at the end of twenty-five years, appear to be perfectly united.
For many years the interior of the trunk was rotten, and much of it had
disappeared, from neglect; but finally the spirit of improvement, which came
upon the Common, extended to the great tree, and the edges of the aperture
were protected, and the exterior covered by canvas. The parts have been
regenerated, and the opening filled and obliterated.
Notwithstanding the years that have rolled over the veteran colossus, it
still presents an apsect of grandeur which will ever be the admiration of
the beholder. Dr. Warren remarks, in his book upon the great tree,--
'This tree, therefore, we must venerate as a visible relic of Indian
Shawmut, for all its other native trees and groves have long since
prostrated. The frail and transient memorials of the aborigines have
vanished; and even the hills of Trimountain cannot be distinguished; and
this native noble elm remains to present a substantial association of the
existing of the former ages of Boston.'
A handsome iron fence now [in 1856] surrounds it, through which entrance is
had by a gate. Flowers adorn the little circle enclosed at its foot;
and squirrels gambol among its branches, in which a shelter and food are
provided for them. The following inscription is on the fence:--
THE OLD ELM.
This tree has been standing
here for an unknown period.
It is believed to have existed be-
fore the settlement of Boston, be-
ing fully grown in 1722. Exhibited
marks of old age in 1792, and was
nearly destroyed by a storm in
1832. Protected by an iron
fence in 1854. J.V.C.
Smith,
Mayor
Return to
Boston Common Page
|
