Trees in Massachusetts History

A giant Pagoda Tree still stands on South Water Street in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Photo Credit: Marash Girl

"The Giant Pagoda Tree, Edgartown, Massachusetts: (A Chinese Nuai Tree - Sophora Japonica) was brought from China in a flower pot in 1837 by Captain Thomas Milton to grace his new home then being built. This is believed to be the largest of its kind on the continent." Photo Credit: Marash GIrl

No longer standing in Concord, Massachusetts is Jethro's Tree - 1630-1930:  "Near this spot stood the ancient oak known as Jethro's Tree beneath which Major Simon Willard and his associates bought from the Indians the "5 myles of land square" ordered by the General Court for the plantation of Concord, September 12, 1625.  Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission. Photo Credit: Marash Girl

No Photo Available

The Oak Tree atop Wilbraham Mountain, Wilbraham, Massachusetts

Central to the lives of an Armenian family who summered at the top of Wilbraham Mountain was a giant White Oak Tree, a tree that had survived for 300 years, a tree under which the family picnicked for many a summer, a tree which was central to their summers and their lives,  a tree around four people could stand and still not touch hands, the tree under which their Uncle Harry slept on the day that he went to be with the Lord, the tree that fell soon after Uncle Harry's passing.  Marash Girl has yet to find a photograph of this tree.

The Historic Trees of Massachusetts

 By James Raymond Simmons published by the Plimpton Press in Norwood Massachusetts in 1919 and housed in the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, is now available online as an e-book.