The Charter Oak

The Charter Oak has always been a subject of great curiosity. The story of how James Wadsworth hid the Charter when the new British Royal Governor came to claim it in 1687 is told in various books and articles.

Anon. The Charter Oak: Its History and Fall. Hartford: A. Collins, 1856. A small pamphlet put together at the time a gale knocked the ancient oak to the ground. There are pictures of the tree before and after its fall in Connecticut Magazine 9(1905)9:563-64.

Bates, Albert Carlos. The Charter Oak. Hartford: Case, Lockwood and Brainerd Co., 1907. Must be considered definitive.

Bliss, Sylvester. "The Charter Oak." Historical Magazine l(January, 1857). Popular.

Gocher, William Henry. Wadsworth: or the Charter Oak. Hartford: W. H. Gocher, 1904. Four hundred pages--more than you want to know, and all without citations or other apparatus.

Hoadly, Charles J. The Hiding of the Charter. Hartford: Acorn Publication No. 2, 1900. This thirty-two-page pamphlet should be considered authoritative, if not definitive.

Moquin, Elizabeth. The Story of the Charter Oak of Hartford. Hartford: Albert Lepper Printing Co., 1945. Popular. Illustrated.

Prendergast, W. H. "The Historic Charter Oak Tree." Connecticut Woodlands 21(September, 1956). Journalistic. Reprinted from Connecticut Circle 21(September, 1965)5:86-88.