With all the coverage of the dangers of climate change, it reaffirms the importance of trees to our wellbeing. At times it does seem ironic that some green energy solutions meant to help the problem cause the cutting down of so many of those helpful trees. Trees and Rochester have always gone together. At one time, shingle and box mills were the largest employers in town and their woodlots covered many acres. Over the years, furniture made from pine, sometimes referred to as “Rochester mahogany,” has graced area homes.
In 2015, Rochester was designated a “Tree City USA” joining many other towns in Massachusetts. The push to earn this designation came from then Town Administrator Michael McCue. On April 24, 2015 (Arbor Day), the occasion was marked by a tree planting in Church’s Field. To again celebrate Arbor Day, in 2016, 10 new Leland Cypress trees were planted to screen the police station gas tanks. Again, through the work of McCue, Rochester received two ginko biloba tree saplings to be planted in town. These saplings came from the Hibakujumoku “Survivor Tree,” which withstood the Hiroshima bomb blast when everything around it was destroyed. That tree is believed to be over 200 years old.
These aren’t Rochester’s only noteworthy trees. During the Revolutionary War era, Rochester, like many other towns, had a Liberty Tree on the town common. It was an elm like most of these trees, and it succumbed to the Dutch Elm disease that devastated this species in the 1930s. In 2008, Rochester’s Boy Scout Troop 31 planted a new hybrid, “Liberty Elm,” in front of the library.
Another tree species of interest in Rochester is the buttonwood (American sycamore) tree. More than one of these trees is mentioned in the files at the Historical Society. In 1853, George W. Haskell, of the New Bedford Road Haskells, tore down the house built by his grandfather, Jesse, at what is now 575 New Bedford Road. He built a new house that is still there today. In a Wareham Courier article from 1915, it is mentioned that the buttonwood tree that shaded his porch was also seen in a drawing of his grandfather’s house built in 1738.
Another buttonwood tree, the Ancient Buttonwood, shown in the picture, put Rochester on the map. Located somewhere near Leonard’s Pond, it was written up by the President of Boston’s Society of Natural History, George Emerson. At that time, in 1846, it was 11 feet in circumference. Still, around in 1936, it was 14 feet around and was said to be 114 years old. Unfortunately, it is no longer there.
By Connie Eshbach