New Photos of the Granby Oak!

Story by Carol Laun 

      The Granby Oak was a seedling long before the white man came to these shores. Only the Indians and the plentiful wildlife saw it grow. 

      The tree was mature by the time the settlers pushed inland to Windsor, to Simsbury, and finally to Salmon Brook Settlement. The forests were cleared and the land was farmed. But the gnarled oak escaped the woodsman's axe. The struggling band of farmers in Salmon Brook survived. The Indians were pushed west. The settlement grew and prospered. England reluctantly gave birth to a new nation and the Oak was already more than two hundred years old.
      The Oak stood as silent observer of events. Granby became a separate town. There was a war in 1812. There were fires, floods, droughts, panics, depressions, and some prosperity. People of Granby were born, lived their lives, and died. Only the land and the huge old tree stayed the same.
      The war with Mexico in 1846 did not disturb Granby's tranquility.Then came the Civil War. The Oak saw the young men of Granby march off to battle - many did not return.
      The tree on Day Street was three hundred years old when our brash young nation celebrated its Centennial. Another war in 1898. Then came the automobile, World War I, electricity, telephones, radio, World War II - change was rapid now. But the Oak remained constant.
      The dirt roads in Granby were paved. The farms started to disappear as suburbia reached out. The world had gone from man on horseback to man on the moon in the space of a lifetime.
      The ancient tree lives to a different and more primitive tempo. The changeless rotation of the seasons. The miraculous rebirth every spring. The sun, the rain, the wind, in all the different guises Nature can provide. The continuity of life.
      1976. America is 200 years old. The Granby Oak is twice that. Today its branches are heavy with age and touch the ground. But it is alive and healthy, and a magnificent sight.
      The GRANBY OAK - look at it, photograph it, sketch it, admire it, and proudly show it to visitors. But do not damage it in any way. The protection and preservation of this majestic tree can be our gift to future generations.
"To look upon it restoreth my soul."
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EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE OAK
by
Carol Laun 

      Much has been written about the ancient oak tree on Day Street in Granby, Connecticut. It was growing around 1600, long before there was a Granby or a Day Street.
     The land it is on has been in the possession of the Dewey family since 1734, when Isaac Dewey ventured into the frontier wilderness of the Salmon Brook district of Simsbury. He purchased 30 acres on Bushy Hill.
     Eight generations of Deweys farmed the land, and added another 100 acres. When the old homestead was sold in 1976, the family kept a little over an acre of land, which included the Granby Oak.
     The Oak has had a special place in Granby's heart for a long time. In 1958, the women of South Congregational Church, led by the late Christine Loomis Case, commissioned New York artist, George L. Hollrock to make an oil painting of the old White Oak for the Parish House. Hollrock gave an original in sketch of the tree to Mrs. Case, which was later given to the Salmon Brook Historical Society.
     For a number of years, Mary Edwards and her mother (the late Helen Bunce Edwards) quietly cared for the tree. In 1968, with maintenance costs increasing, a grant from the Holcomb Fund and money from the Sow and Reap Garden Club (both from South Church) paid for spraying and pruning. Sow and Reap assumed this responsibility for the next 11 years.
     In 1975, the Town of Granby started using the Oak as a symbol in the Town Seal. A year later, when the farm sold, The Dewey family considered selling the tree, and the Granby Conservation Commission and the Granby Land Trust started a fund drive. However the family decided not to sell. The Oak was too important to them.
     The Sow and Reap Garden Club felt they could not continue full responsibility for the tree as spraying costs increased, along with increased maintenance needs. In 1979, the Conservation Commission was asked to help. After getting written permission from the Dewey family, the spraying came from town funds.
     Money to maintain the tree was raised privately in 1980, with over $300 donated by the Civic Club, Sow and Reap, and two individuals. For the next few years the spraying program was in the Conservation Commission budget.
      In 1984, the tree was cut from the budget, and the result was the establishment in a local bank of an Oak Account, to accept contributions, which the bank generously offered to match, up to $500. The fund was administered by a committee with representatives from the Board of Selectmen, Conservation Commission, Land Trust, and Historical Society.
      A deluge of advice has been offered about the Oak, and few of the experts seem to agree. Should the road be moved or will road work damage the roots? Should the surrounding area be cleared or left natural? should the poison ivy be removed? Should the tree receive deep or surface fertilizer or none? Should the limbs be cabled or not? (They cannot be lifted, only supported.) Should trucks of a certain height be banned from Day Street?
     A yearly spraying program is necessary for gypsy moths, canker worms, and a fungus disease that withers the leaves. Proof that the spray used is not a broad spectrum poison, was the reported nest of wild honeybees in the tree after many years of spraying. Perhaps the best advice was given by UConn Cooperative Extension foresters who said, "Don't over-care for the tree and possibly kill it with kindness."
     All things living are mortal, and as we attempt to achieve a kind of immortaltiy with our children - so it is with the Oak. About 1981, an acorn from the Granby Oak was planted. The tiny seedling was moved to the grounds of the Salmon Brook Historical Society in 1986 to celebrate Granby's Bicentennial. It is thriving, and is spreading out small branches just like the mother tree.