Show funeral services held for famous charter oak the tree known as the charter oak famous in american history as the traditional hiding place of the connecticut loyal royal charter was blown down during a storm on au all gust 21 1856 afterward its age was computed to be nearly a thou sand years old states a writer in the cleveland plain dealer when sir edmund andros became governor general of new england in 1687 he went to hartford to claim the charter granted in 1662 under which the colonists had enjoyed a large measure of self government and which the crown maintained had ad been forfeited at a council meeting andros demanded the sur render of the prized document the colonial officials protested and the governor made a lengthy speech which lasted until after dark sud denly all the candles were extin and when they were re lighted the charter had mysterious ly disappeared from its place on the table according to tradition it had been spirited away by capt jos joseph eph wadsworth and hidden in the hollow trunk of the large oak the hiding of the charter how ever did the colonists little imme diate good if andros had no char ter to seize neither had the colo fists a charter to appeal to since the governor general dissolved the existing government and sup pressed their libertis libert fes ks two years later however after king james II 11 had been deposed and andros dis charged from his office the charter was brought from its hiding place and recognized by william and mary as the supreme law of connecticut it was never proven that the char ter was hidden in the oak and the honor was not attributed to that par nicular tree until 1789 more than a century after the visit of andros to hartford however after its destruction st by the storm the historic tree was so reverenced by the peo pie of hartford that a funeral ora tion was delivered in its honor and the spot where it stood marked by a granite monument |