THE WYE OAK TREE IN MARYLAND
(photos forthcoming)
One day I was sightseeing near where I lived in Maryland and came upon an old Mill and Schoolhouse. It was the Wye Mill and Schoolhouse. As I was exploring inside I chanced to look outside and saw the largest tree I've ever seen. I nearly ran for it, and why I don't know, but something grabbed me right by the heart. Once outside and walking around this massive giant I read a sign which stated that it was the Wye Oak Tree and was over 500 years old.
My heart skipped a beat.
The Wye Oak Tree. Could it be? I wondered. Was this the tree I sang about as a kid after seeing a movie about the Sons of Liberty? My God but I sang that song non stop. I even drove my family crazy with my wild singing. I felt as though I had been one of those Sons of Liberty...the true blue patriot of days gone by.
There before me, as I gazed up and up and higher still, the canopy of green towered over me as though it was the mighty arm of God protecting me from the clouds and deep blue sky above. I wanted to cry. Why I don't know, but it had the most powerful and unusual effect on me, and I will never forget it.
"The Wye Oak tree, oh the Wye Oak tree,
we are the sons, oh we are the sons,
the Sons of Liberty!"
I wish I could find all the lyrics but I can't yet.
Someone else had that same love for that beloved tree because over the years they had used massive cables to strengthen and stabilize the enormous limbs against its own mighty weight. And I could tell that they had done it with much forethought and care so as not to harm the Gentle Giant.
As I stood there it felt as though I was right in the middle of a powerful natural force of energy. I still cannot explain it. It was awesome. It was humbling. It was downright emotional.
And since starting on this genealogical trek through time and DNA I have thought of that beautiful Giant many times. The Wye Oak has stood as sentinel during every war and strife that has slammed this great country since 1500. I felt as if it had stood watch over my family during their tenures in America's Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and many more wars both on and off this continent. 500 years of watching over America. 500 years of standing proud, tall and strong, being the role model for the Sons of Liberty even. My, my, my, I could go on and on about this.
So, today I thought of it again as I was finally creating pages for this website, and I tried to find my photos of that Awesome Giant but they were packed as we have just moved. I looked on my computer hoping I had scanned them, but nothing. Then I decided to find a web photo to put on this page until I could find mine. That's when I was nearly struck dumb!
"The Wye Oak Tree was struck down by storm in 2002"
I got so stupidly emotional. I felt like I had lost a loved one, a grandfather, a guide....gee I don't know what I had lost, but I felt I lost it. It was a horrible feeling. Article after article that I read talked about that majestic tree and its impact on people.
I read that personnel from Maryland's Dept of Natural Resources quickly rescued all the leaves from the felled Wye Oak and preserved them, as well as all the acorns it had produced, and naturally more DNA from it than anyone would ever realize. The bronzed leaves are available for adoption (sale), which of course I have my order in already.
In April 2002, an infant white oak, cloned from the original Wye Oak, was planted on the grounds of George Washington's estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
Here's the links for more information and articles. I hope you visit them and even consider adopting a leaf. The sites will explain more about that project.
Adopt a Leaf of the Old Wye Oak Tree — http://www.wye-oak.com/
About the Wye Oak Tree — http://www.dnr.state.md.us/forests/trees/giant.html
About the Wye Oak State Park — http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/eastern/wyeoak.html
And did you know about the Charter Oak of Connecticut? One of the most famous White Oaks in America is the Charter Oak of Hartford, Connecticut, the subject of a legend nearly as old as the colony itself. The tree now makes up the reverse side of the Connecticut state quarter.
Charter Oak incident
The name "Charter Oak" stems from the local legend in which a cavity within the tree was used in late 1687 as a hiding place for the document that embodied the colony's charter.
This much regarding the charter is history:
* King Charles II, in 1662, granted the Connecticut Colony an unusual
degree of autonomy.
* His successor, James II, consolidated several colonies into the Dominion
of New England, in part to take firmer control of them.
* He appointed as governor-general over it Sir Edmund Andros who stated
his appointment had invalidated the charters of the various constituent
colonies, and presumably seeing symbolic value in physically reclaiming
the documents, went to each colony to collect them.
* Andros arrived in Hartford late in October 1687, where his mission was
at least as unwelcome as it had been in the other colonies.
According to the dominant tradition, Andros demanded the document and it was produced, but during ensuing discussion, the lights were doused, concealing the spiriting of the parchment out a window and thence to the Oak by Joseph Wadsworth, ancestor of Jeremiah Wadsworth.
Two seldom cited documents, one contemporaneous and one from early in the next century, raise less dramatic possibilities, by suggesting that a parchment copy had been made of the true charter as early as June, in anticipation of Andros's arrival:
*
It has been suggested that the copy was surreptitiously substituted for
the original (and the original secreted in the oak lest Andros find it
in any search of buildings), and that Andros left believing he had succeeded.
* Logically, such a copy (whether hidden in the oak or not) might instead
have been the one kept, for the value it might have in propaganda, for
morale, or in petitioning for its reinstatement.
The Museum of Connecticut History (a subdivision of the Connecticut State Library) credits the idea that Andros never got the original charter, and displays a parchment that it regards as the original. (The Connecticut Historical Society is said to possess a "fragment" of it.)
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