OTHER WELL-KNOWN TREES 



one of the main thoroughfares of Winchester. 

 The black walnut at West Medford is four- 

 teen and a half feet in circumference, eighty 

 feet in height and seventy-five feet in spread. 

 There is some local history attached to it, 

 the best summary of which may be found 

 in a short article written by a suburbanite 

 for the Boston Globe of June 22, 191 8: 



ANOTHER LARGE TREE 

 Editor People's Column: 



There is a notably large black walnut tree at West Medford. 

 A brief description of the tree is given on pages 500—501 of Charles 

 Brooks and James M. Usher's History of Medford. According 

 to that description in 1884 the tree measured 19 feet and 8 

 inches in circumference at its base and had a limb which measured 

 9 feet and 3 inches in circumference. For many years previous 

 to the death, in 1799, of Thomas Brooks, his house — which 

 long ago disappeared — stood in front of the tree. When Mr. 

 Brooks' negro slave Pompey slaughtered his master's hogs 

 he used to hang the carcasses on the above-mentioned large 

 limb of the tree. The tree, notwithstanding its extreme age, 

 seems to be still full of vigor, and apparently it is destined to 

 live for a long time to come. The tree is east of and some 125 

 feet distant from that part of Grove St. which is a few rods 

 north of the junction of that street and Jackson Road, being 

 opposite to that part of the street which is skirted by a brick 

 wall, still standing, which Pompey built in front of his master's 

 house about 1765. Of that brick wall, which, as well as the big 

 black walnut tree, is quite a notable historical landmark, a 

 picture is given on page 11 of "Medford, Past and Present," 

 and on an unnumbered page facing 230 of "Proceedings of the 

 Celebration of the 275th Anniversary of the Settlement of 

 Medford." 



Suburbanite 



