The Buttonball Tree

This is an old family photo from 1952. It is a historic gathering, not because of the people, but because of where they are standing. The family farm was called "Buttonball Farm" because of a number of Buttonball trees that surrounded it. The largest of these trees was so rotted that it needed to be cut down. When they did that, it was discovered that the center of the trunk was hollow. And, it was more than seven feet across! So to mark the occasion, my father, at right, and his brother, center and my grandfather, and a bunch of us kids stood on what was left of the trunk and had our picture taken. I have a book called "Old Guilford" with drawings of the farm done before 1939, and the tree was huge then. So perhaps this tree may be 200 years old. I posted a larger than normal image, so click on it to see a larger version so you can study the details.