THE HISTORIC TREES OF MASSACHUSETTS 



This oak is 14 feet, 5 inches in circum- 

 ference, 62 feet in height, and 75 feet in the 

 spread of its branches. It has witnessed 

 some stirring scenes, among which may be 

 mentioned the departure of the two com- 

 panies of volunteers, composing "the whole 

 efficient male population of the town" on 

 the day of the battle at Concord and Lexing- 

 ton; and in later years the departure of 

 Company G of the Fifteenth Regiment, 

 Massachusetts Volunteers, at the opening 

 of the Civil War. According to Pierce's 

 History of Grafton, when this later company 

 \\as being formed, upon receipt of the news 

 of the attack on the Massachusetts Sixth 

 Regiment at Baltimore, a soldier of the 

 Revolution, Benjamin Smith, ninety-eight 

 years old, attended the meetings and spoke 

 from the platform of the town hall. A 

 monument in the town square records the 

 names of fifty-nine victims which Grafton 

 gave for the life of the nation.^ 



' Pierce, "Hist, of Grafton," pp. 105-6. 



1:843 



