From Matthies's book: "The Middletown Burying Ground was laid out in 1650 on the banks of the Connecticut River. A large elm stood in the yard under which one or more Indian chiefs were buried. Tradition has it that the first sermon in Middletown was preached under this elm. The tree measured in 1832, at two and one half feet from the ground, twenty-six feet in circumference with a spread from north to south of one hundred ten feet and from east to west on ninety-five feet. It was taken down in 1843 when its age was estimated, from the measurements and from the rings, to be three hundred and twenty-five years. The tree was quite noted for its grandeur."