From Matthies's book: "This tree, measuring twenty-seven feet at the base, is estimated to be from three to five hundred years old and in 1703 it doubtless saw the women from Windsor, who started out to find their husbands who had left weeks before, mount a gigantic boulder and scream with fear of the wolves. About 100 years ago thirteen maple saplings symbolizing the thirteen original colonies were planted in a row to the left of the oak by David Gillette, owner of the property. In 1829 a bell for the new edifice of the First Congregational Church was sent to Middle Haddam Landing from Boston. Hebron men with yokes of oxen brought if from the Landing and, unable to restrain restrain their eagerness to hear the bell, hung it over a branch of this oak. The oak heard the last peal of the bell when the church burned in 1882. The tree is still in a vigorous condition, showing no signs of decay."