Elias watched.
Near Concord, Massachusetts
By 1775, the oak was tall enough to shade a horse. Elias, now a young man with calloused hands and a quiet voice, stood beneath it on the night of April 18. A rider passed, lantern swinging, shouting, “The regulars are out!” Elias grabbed his musket—not because he hated the king, but because the king’s men had taken his family’s grain and billeted a soldier in his mother’s kitchen. myworld interactive american history beginnings to 1877 pdf
“You can’t split a tree and call it two. The roots are the same.” Elias watched
In 1870, Samuel died of a fever. James buried him facing the oak. In 1876, the centennial, James nailed a small wooden plaque to the trunk: THIS TREE WATCHED. 1763–1877. Elias watched. Near Concord