Avery Oak
The Old Avery Oak Tree was a
By the time the first settlers arrived in Dedham in 1635, the tree was already quite old.
Today, wood from the tree is used in the chairman of the Board of Selectmen's and the
Storms
In the terrible winter of 1723, when the snow lay so thick over the landscape that the residents could not access their woodlot, another Avery chopped off the top of the tree to keep his family from freezing.[5] By the 1790s, the Avery Oak’s gnarled and crooked branches spread more than 90 feet from a trunk five feet in diameter.[5]
Although over 450 other trees, on public land alone, were felled by the
The tree lived until late July 1972, when a strong thunderstorm toppled it.[5][2] Then-police chief Walter Carroll was driving down East Street when it toppled, and the tree very nearly struck his car.[2] Hundreds of people gathered to see the fallen tree, and the police protected it while the Historical Society made plans for how to dispose of it.[2] The tree was estimated to be over 450 years old.[2]
USS Constitution
Designer Joshua Humphreys specified white oak for the hull of the USS Constitution.[5] Timber merchants from New Jersey to Maine scrambled to find old growth trees that had the straight trunks needed to cut long runs of plank, but also crooks and bends that could supply the hundreds of hanging, standing, and lodging knees needed to support deck beams.[5]
The ship builders, presumably Nicholson, made several offers to buy the tree, eventually rising to "the unheard of price of $70," but the owner would not sell.[3][7][8] Local legend contends that it was Avery's wife who spared the tree.[3][5][2]
References
- ^ https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:1r66j353d Avery Oak 1923.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59629-750-0.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Worthington, Erastus (January 1898). "The Frigate Constitution and the Avery Oak". The Dedham Historical Register. IX (1): 1–5.
- ^ "Curious Condensations". Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburg Dispatch. September 1, 1889 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f "A Tree Grows in Dedham". USS Constitution Museum. April 24, 2013. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
- ^ a b "Thunderstorm Damages Old Oak Tree in Dedham, Mass". Freeport Journal-Standard. Freeport, Illinois. 26 July 1972. p. 28 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Famous Trees". The Minneapolis Journal. Minneapolis, Minnesota. October 15, 1905 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Guide Book To New England Travel. 1919.