62 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1893. 



the village of Oxford, is the locality where, 200 years ago, a colony 

 of French Protestant refugees, called Huguenots, founded a settle- 

 ment, which after an existence of about ten years was abandoned be- 

 cause of molestations from the Indians. 



It was along the banks of a brook, and in its near vicinity, that 

 most of the Huguenot dwellings were erected, and in the vicinity of 

 the village there exists to-day three white oak trees which, from the 

 time of the Huguenot settlers, have been associated with their names. 

 Each of the trio shows evidence of a venerable age, yet each has 

 vigor and life enough to produce a quite heavy foliage and large crops 

 of acorns. Locally the trees are known as the " Huguenot oaks," 

 and there is not a shadow of doubt but that they were contempora- 

 neous with the heroic band of colonists. Every feature and condi- 

 tion of the trees are indicative of great age. From the time of the 

 English settlement of the town, in 1713, the oaks have been alluded 

 to because of their location and connection with the Huguenot vil- 

 lage, and further substantiation of their probable great age is fur- 

 nished by the expressed opinion of the late Prof. Agassiz, regarding 

 a group of oak trees, known as the '• Waverly oaks," near Boston, 

 which he believed to be 800 years old. As to size, the Oxford oaks 

 are but little inferior to those at Waverly. Aged people in the town 

 say that the trees were apparently the same in the time of their 

 earliest remembrance as they are to-day. The trunks of all three 

 trees are freely covered with knurls and burls, ranging in size from 

 that of a hen's egg to a half -peck measure. 



It is said that the oak tree is typical of strength, sturdiness, con- 

 stancy and steadfastness, and the trio in question are unsurpassed 

 specimens of the genuine New England white oak. Their branches 

 are contorted, and their many sprayed twigs are as variously formed 

 as the larger limbs. The bark of each has a gray ashen hue, and 

 each branches quite near to the ground. 



The first of the trio stands within the limits of Main Street, which 

 at this point is nearly 150 feet in width, and directly in front of a 

 residence that occupies the site of a house built by Richard Moore, 

 who was one of the original English settlers, and because of this has 

 an added interest other than that given by its connection with the 

 Huguenots. At one foot from the ground the tree girths 15 feet and 

 14 inches ; at three feet, 12 feet and 9 inches, and at five feet, 11 feet 

 and 9 inches. This tree has very numerous branches, which but 

 slightly diverge from the horizontal, yet possess the characteristic 

 angles, bends and knees, and have a great spread in all directions. 



