From Matthies's book: "This elm was set out by David Barber, a tavern keeper, in 1763 and for one hundred and forty-one years stood guard at the southern entrance to Hebron. The Rev. Samuel Peters, clad in his priestly robes on September 15, 1774, was taken from his home by a mob of 'Liberty Boys' to the village Green where he was made to mount the horse block near the tree in front of David Barber's Tavern and renounce his Tory principles or suffer a coat of tar and feathers. It is said Washington passed the tree on his way to Lebanon. Bells were tolled when the tree was chopped down in 1904."