350
��Historic Trees.
��pends itself in a host of branchlets which feather the Hmbs, and give rise to a false impression of vigor.
Never has tree been cherished with greater care, but its days are numbered. A few years more or less, and, like Penn's Treaty Elm and the famous Charter Oak, it will be numbered with the things that were.
THE ELIOT OAK
When John EUot had become a power among the Indians, with far- reaching sagacity he judged it best to separate his converts from the whites, and accordingly, after much inquiry and toilsome search, gathered them into a community at Natick — an old Indian name formerly interpreted as "a place of hills," but now generally admitted to mean simply " my land." Anticipating the policy which many believe must eventually be adopted with regard to the entire Indian question, Eliot made his settlers land-owners, conferred upon them the right to vote and hold office, impressed upon them the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, and taught them the rudiments of agriculture and the mechanic arts.
In the summer of 1651, the Indians built a framed edifice, which answered, as is the case to-day in many small country towns, the double purpose of a schoolroom on week-days, and a sanctuaiy on the Sabbath. Professor C. E. Stowe once called that building the first known theological seminary of New England, and said that for real usefulness it was on a level with, if not above, any other in the known world.
It is assumed that two oaks, one of the red, and the other of the white, species, of which the present Eliot Oak is the survivor, were standing near this first Indian church. The early records
��of Eliot's labors make no mention of these trees. Adams, in his Life of Eliot, says : "It would be interesting if we could identify some of the favorite places of the Indians in this vicinity," but fails to find sufficient data. Bigelow (or Biglow, according to ancient spell- ing), in his History of Natick, 1830, states : " There are two oaks near the South Meeting-house, which have un- doubtedly stood there since the days of Eliot." It is greatly to be regretted that the writer did not state the evi- dence upon which his conclusion was based.
Bacon, in his History of Natick, 1856, remarks; "The oak standing a few rods to the east of the South Meet- ing-house bears every evidence of an age greater than that of the town, and was probably a witness of Eliot's first visit to the ' place of hills.' " It would be quite possible to subscribe to this conclusion, while dissenting en- tirely from the premises. It will be noticed that Bacon relies upon the ap- pearance of the tree as a proof of its age. His own measurement, fourteen and a half feet circumference at two feet from the ground, is not necessarily indicative of more than a century's growth.
The writer upon Natick, in Drake's Historic Middlesex, avoids expressing an opinion. "Tradition links these trees with the Indian Missionary." For very long flights of time, tradition — as far as the age of trees is concerned — cannot at all be relied upon ; within the narrow limits involved in the pres- ent case, it may be received with caution.
The Red Oak which stood nearly in front of the old Newell Tavern, was the original EHot Oak. Mr. Austin Bacon, who is familiar with the early
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