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It was so named on account of the old oak-tree which stood there, and which is probably better known as…","detail":{"creator_person_id":null,"creator_text":"Samuel Adams Drake","date_created":null,"date_created_text":"1884","detail_type":"Work","folk":{"atu_type":null,"first_print_citation":"Samuel Adams Drake, A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore in Prose and Poetry (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884)","first_print_document_id":"38f21f7a-afce-4833-a000-73a731510003","first_print_year":1884,"motifs":[],"narrative_type":"origin_story","place_id":null,"place_text":"Boston and eastern Massachusetts","summary_text":"IN that part of Boston formerly constituting the town of Brighton, and still farther back forming a precinct of Cam- bridge, there is a pleasant locality called Oak Square. It was so named on account of the old oak-tree which stood there, and which is probably better known as the Eliot Oak. This gigantic relic of the primeval forest was in its day the largest and the oldest tree of its species growing within the four boundaries of the old Bay State, and it was officially declared to be so by a scientific commission which was charged with making a botanical survey of the State. The declaration is made that \" It had probably passed its prime centuries before the first English voice was heard on the shores of Massachusetts Bay.\" Its circumference at the ground was given at twenty- five feet and nine inches, or two feet more than that of the Great Elm of Boston. Through decay the trunk became hollow at the base, furnishing a cavity large enough to serve as a hid- ing-place for the schoolboys who played under tlie shade of its wide-spreading branches. The enormous weight of these, with their foliage, was at last supported by a mere shell of trunk, and as every gale threatened to lay…","variants":[{"citation":"Samuel Adams Drake, A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore in Prose and Poetry (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884)","collected_by":"Samuel Adams Drake","collected_place":"Boston and eastern Massachusetts","collected_year":1884,"source_document_id":"38f21f7a-afce-4833-a000-73a731510003","teller_person_id":null,"teller_text":"unattributed — the collector names no informant","variant_label":"As printed in Samuel Adams Drake (1884)","variant_text":"IN that part of Boston formerly constituting the town of Brighton, and still farther back forming a precinct of Cam- bridge, there is a pleasant locality called Oak Square. It was so named on account of the old oak-tree which stood there, and which is probably better known as the Eliot Oak. This gigantic relic of the primeval forest was in its day the largest and the oldest tree of its species growing within the four boundaries of the old Bay State, and it was officially declared to be so by a scientific commission which was charged with making a botanical survey of the State. The declaration is made that \" It had probably passed its prime centuries before the first English voice was heard on the shores of Massachusetts Bay.\" Its circumference at the ground was given at twenty- five feet and nine inches, or two feet more than that of the Great Elm of Boston. Through decay the trunk became hollow at the base, furnishing a cavity large enough to serve as a hid- ing-place for the schoolboys who played under tlie shade of its wide-spreading branches. The enormous weight of these, with their foliage, was at last supported by a mere shell of trunk, and as every gale threatened to lay it low, to the regret of thou- sands, the brave old oak was through a hard necessity compelled to bite the dust. By an order of the town it was cut down in May, 1855. A little west of this tree was the former site of the wigwam of Waban, Chief of the Nonantums, and he must often have rested under its generous shade. 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