ONCE UPON A TIME IN CONNECTICUT

THE HOUSE OF HOPE AND THE CHARTER OAK


A great oak tree fell in the city of Hartford on August 21, 1856.
The night had been wild and stormy; in the early morning a
violent wind twisted and broke the hollow trunk about six feet
above the ground, and the old oak that had stood for centuries
was overthrown.

All day long people came to look at it as it lay on the ground.
Its wood was carefully preserved and souvenirs were made from it:
chairs, tables, boxes, picture-frames, wooden nutmegs, etc. One
section of the trunk is to-day in the possession of the
Connecticut Historical Society. Tradition says that this tree was
standing, tall and vigorous, when the first English settlers
reached Hartford and began to clear the land; that the Indians
came to them then, as they were felling trees, and begged them to
spare that one because it told them when to plant their corn.
"When its leaves are the size of a mouse's ears," they said,
"then is the time to put the seed in the ground."

At sunset, on the day when it fell, the bells of Hartford tolled
and flags draped in mourning were displayed on the gnarled and
broken trunk, for this tree was the Charter Oak, and its story is
bound up with the story of the Connecticut Colony.