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 present case, it may be received with caution.

The Red Oak which stood nearly in front of the old Newell Tavern, was
the original Eliot Oak. Mr. Austin Bacon, who is familiar with the early
history and legends of Natick, states that "Mr. Samuel Perry, a man who
could look back to 1749, often said that Mr. Peabody, the successor to
Eliot, used to hitch his horse by that tree every Sabbath, because Eliot
used to hitch his there."

This oak was originally very tall; the top was probably broken off in
the tremendous September gale of 1815; as it was reported to be in a
mutilated condition in 1820. Time, however, partially concealed the
disaster by means of a vigorous growth of the remaining branches. In
1830, it measured seventeen feet in circumference two feet from the
ground. It had now become a tree of note, and would probably have
monopolized the honors to the exclusion of the present Eliot Oak, had it
not met with an untimely end. The keeper of the tavern in front of which
it stood had the tree cut down in May, 1842. This act occasioned great
indignation, and gave rise to a lawsuit at Framingham, "which was
settled by the offenders against public opinion paying the costs and
planting trees in the public green." A cartload of the wood was carried
to the trial, and much of it was taken home by the spectators to make
into canes and other relics,

"The King is dead, long live the King!"