This piece was originally published in 1931 in the Montgomery Advertiser.
God willed that even trees should have an individuality. In the world’s history, there is the “Charter Oak” and there was the “Washington Elm,” and in Athens, Ga., a tree has a deed to its own plot of ground. Most of us have heard of the “Cedars of Lebanon,” and, too, the gopher trees which Noah used to make history’s first sea-going boat have had their place in the passing of time.
Some Alabama Trees I Have Known
In Alabama there is the “Jackson Oak,” at Daphne, under which, tradition says. “Old Hickory” slept while on his way to meet the British at New Orleans. There is the “Gorgas Oak” which marks the home on the university campus of Mrs. Amelia Gayle Gorgas, long time the dearly loved librarian of the University of Alabama. There are also the olives which Napoleon’s “Old Guard” planted at Demopolis, and on the grounds of the State Capitol are trees from Belgium, and from battlefields and historic points throughout the country. The laurel at the window of the Treasurer’s office, brought by Henry W. Hilliard from Belgium in 1844 and placed there when we built a new Capitol in 1851, is notable. The two magnolias at the south front, brought from Judge Ephraim Kirby’s burial place at Fort Stoddert on Mobile. River by Col. Sam Will John in 1908, to shade the newly erected south wing, are likewise of interest.
The “Tuckabatchce Oak”
The “Council Oak” at old Tukabatchee town site, where the Creek Indians met for their deliberations, has passed on like the red children who gathered there generations agone. It withstood the fires and the winds until two years ago, but even God’s created things do not withstand the ravages of time. A boulder of granite, with a tablet of bronze to tell the story, is there now and we may hope that these will preserve that story for coming generations.
The Flora at Mount Vernon
In North Mobile County at Mount Vernon are yet those trees planted by Josiah Gorgas to make attractive that rendezvous of Uncle Sam’s guardians of the military supplies stored there. That Lieut. Gorgas well succeeded is apparent. The laurel-bedecked mountain ranges of Northeast Alabama, the evergreen coves and vine-covered natural bridges of Northwest Alabama, the rolling grass-carpeted prairies of our western counties, or the sand-crusted flower-strewn stream banks of the Chattahoochee Valley, are no more beautiful than this enclosed mile where Alabama’s negro insane are given soliciting care. Old Mount Vernon Arsenal Reservation is truly beautiful to look on in the dewy mornings of the Springtime when the bees are gathering in the nectar of those flowers.
At Fort Mitchell
No one locality in this State has more trees of individual historic interest than has Fort Mitchell on the Chattahoochee in Russell County. Great water oaks, four to six feet in diameter, today shade the grass covered embankment which held the stockade in 1811. The family record says that the Crowell’s came to the fort in 1816 and that Thomas built a store house on the side of the Federal Road which passed that point. He planted a magnolia tree at the front and he set a cedar at the rear of the little building. You may see today those same trees in the splendor of their 115 years of growth. The passing of time enhances the shapeliness of these attractive specimens. In no wise do they look venerable and they are ever green in their vigor. If you stand at the cedar and look northwest you will see two rows of tall junipers which lead to a knoll half a mile away where a gnarled old red oak marks the site once occupied by the U. S. Indian Agency. Col. John Crowell, Alabama’s only Territorial Delegate and her first Congressman, was appointed the U. S. agent among the Creek Indians by President James Monroe in 1821. When he was moved the headquarters of the Agency from Flint River, Ga., to Fort Mitchell in the Nation, he planted an avenue of these cedars from his house to the store of his brother located only a stone’s throw from the stockade. That same avenue is clearly outlined today.
The “Duel Locust”
To the west front of the embankment is a much weathered old honey locust tree. It has often been pointed out to me by the old negro who, as a slave saw the last duel there. It is the “south stand” of the “dueling ground.” The “north stand” was in the public road. Several men have been killed under this tree. On Jan. 5, 1828, George Washington Crawford killed Thomas Edgehill Burnside beneath the spreading branches of that locust. Mr. Crawford was attorney-general of Georgia. Naturally, it being against the laws of that State to fight a duel and having been offended by abusive remarks, he sought elsewhere to secure satisfaction. A severe attack on him by an anonymous contributor was made in The Augusta Chronicle and Advertiser and he demanded satisfaction of Mr. Burnside, who sponsored the statement, though it was said to have been written by a prominent woman of East Georgia. The two men were leaders in opposing political factions in Georgia led by Gov George M. Troup and John Clark. They traveled, with their seconds and their physicians, together in the same stage from Milledgeville. This place as a dueling point is obvious. It was out of Georgia and not in Alabama, for it was in the Creek Indian Nation and when one principal stood in the Federal Road, no State had jurisdiction.
Crawford Shoots Burnside
After the first fire, Mr. Thomas Tripplet, of Wilkes County, Ga., originally Mr. Burnside’s second, proposed that as both had missed that “satisfaction” had been gained. Mr. Burnside was not willing to apologize, so they fired again. Neither hit this time. On the third fire, Mr. Burnside was shot through the heart and died immediately in the arms of his physician, Dr. Collins, of Columbia County. He was burled in a nearby plot and a cedar planted to mark the spot. That beautiful specimen is today a living monument—for there is none of stone shading the bones of that promising young lawyer. Mr. Burnside was a close personal friend of Col. Crowell and where they put him was chosen by the Colonel as his own last resting place. Now the family cemetery is filled with shafts and slabs and a strong iron fence protects them, but none are more impressive than the silent tree in the corner of that section where the visitor is told Mr. Burnside was buried.
Mr. Crawford was subsequently a member of the U. S. Congress, after serving in the Georgia Legislature. He was twice Governor of his State. He was secretary of War- in the cabinet of Zachary Taylor, and he served as president of the Georgia Secession Convention of 1861. The widow and the three young sons of Mr. Burnside were objects of his solicitude during his lifetime.
The Camp-Woolfolk Duel
Just a few years later that same locust tree shaded another tragedy. Major Joseph T. Camp, a citizen of Columbus, Ga., killed Gen. Sowell Woolfolk. In this case Mr. Woolfolk’s remains were carried to Columbus, but in another “affair of honor” by the side of this tree, the loser was buried in the old military graveyard on the hill overlooking the fort. This little wooded section where the soldiers and “Indian Countrymen” were placed, contains the bones of two Revolutionary soldiers and several who served in the war of 1812 to 1815. Bob Walton, as a boy was present when Gen. Saint Clair was defeated on the Lakes, near the beginning of the American Revolution. He was lame to the day of his death from the wound he received there. Tom Carr, the Englishman, father of Paddy who was Col. Crowell’s interpreter, was in the Revolutionary War, but he served on the side of the British. Both are in the shade of the trees on Fort Mitchell Hill. Walton was the warm friend of Col. Benjamin Hawkins, long the Indian Agent. Tom Carr was he who fell in the well while LaFayette was being “received” on the hillside in Montgomery town in 1825. Both served with the Georgians against the Indians in 1813.
The “Ball Play” Oak
West of the Federal Road is an old tree which marks the place where the natives played ball, and where later, on the organization of the Confederacy, some of Alabama’s volunteer soldiers were mustered into service. The Fifteenth Alabama Infantry and Waddell’s and Bellamy’s batteries of artillery were among those drilled near this old tree. Here in 1825, Lafayette watched Chilly McIntosh play ball. In late years it has stood a silent sentinel awaiting the inevitable.
The Federal Road long since ceased to pass this way and the visitor to the shaded glens of Fort Mitchell is rare today.
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