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[59] ‘Deacon's One-Hoss Shay.’ Before the top had touched the ground, the small twigs were broken into inch pieces, and after it had landed, a cloud of dust arose. Old apple trees in the pasture known as Shute's field, on Central street, before it was cut up into house lots, were part of the Rand orchard. A very old apple tree on the easterly side of the street, the one shown in the frontispiece, which was made from a picture taken in ‘war-time,’ is still cared for by a member of the Rand family. Benjamin Rand set out the row of maples next to the street, on the parsonage lawn, some time between 1850 and 1860. Columbus Tyler afterwards set out many others of different varieties on this place. Rev. Augustus R. Pope began the good work of planting trees on the estate on the corner of Summer and Central streets, now owned by Henry Baker, about 1850. When it passed into the hands of Nathan Tufts, about 1860, there were many varieties, forty, between the gate and the front door. These were thinned out in after years, and others were planted in various parts of the grounds by Mr. Tufts. The horse-chestnut in the circle in the driveway was planted in 1844 in East Somerville, and transplanted here about 1860. The tulip tree, a gift of John K. Hall, was also removed a little later. A remark made by Mr. Hall that it would always be in blossom the Seventeenth of June was never forgotten. The larch trees, now so straight and tall, illustrate an old proverb, amended, ‘As the twig is un-bent, the tree is inclined,’ for one of them was tied to a broomstick when small to make it straight. The apple trees in the lower garden were moved from the grounds of N. E. Fitz on Winter Hill. Old apple trees a few steps up Summer street challenge inquiry. One of them, on what was once the Thomas Brackett place, was brought there, a good-sized tree, in 1852-3 or 4. In the fall of 1847, or the spring of 1848, fruit trees and an elm were set out on Harvard street, at the corner of the westerly part of Chestnut court, by Samuel Brackett. They probably came from some nursery. The tree next to the corner was set out by Lebbeus Stetson about 1850. The tree was quite large, and Mr. Stetson was laughed at when he insisted that it could
Somerville. Historical Society. , 1907.
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