88 NATURAL HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF GROTON, MASS. 



SHADE AND ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



Governor Boutwell kindly furnished me with a copy of 

 his paper on "Shade and Ornamental Trees in the Village of 

 Groton," which he read before the Groton Historical Society, 

 on November 8, 1894. His familiarity with the neighbor- 

 hood during three score years, aided by a keen eye for ob- 

 servation and by a retentive memory, rendered him a most 

 competent person to write on the subject. The paper will 

 have an increasing interest, as the years roll by; and it is 

 as follows : — 



It will be sixty years the fifth day of March next since I became 

 a resident of Groton, and in no respect has the town been more 

 improved than in the multiplication of trees on the sides of streets 

 and highways, and in the grounds around the dwellings. 



In the year 1835 ^he following streets did not exist, viz. : High 

 Street, Pleasant Street, Champney Street, Willow Dale, Court Street, 

 and Station Avenue. The trees upon those streets have been 

 planted from time to time as the streets were establshed. In 1835 

 there were no trees upon the Common by the Chaplin school-house, 

 and with the exception of an elm by the Mansfield house there 

 were none on Hollis Street above the cottage now occupied by Mrs. 

 Simeon Ames. 



The old graveyard was bare of trees until 1846. In that year I 

 was elected chairman of the board of selectmen, and while in office 

 I directed Eliab G. Bolton, who had usually mowed the weeds and 

 grass, to save every growth that promised to make a tree. From 

 that order have come the trees now growing in the cemetery, with 

 the exception of a small number that have been set by friends of 

 persons buried in the grounds. 



Going northward on the road towards Hollis and Dunstable 

 there were no trees unless the large and beautiful maple by the 

 Champney house may have been an exception. The elms by the 

 Dr. Chaplin house [now Mr. Woolley's] had a very considerable size 

 at a time as early as I have any recollection of them. 



There were also one or two elms of considerable size in the rear 

 of the house now owned by Mrs. George Blood, but then owned by 

 Daniel Shattuck. 



Passing on to Main Street, the first tree of notable size was a 



