Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
EATON — On Friday, Oct. 11, the Commodore Preble Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution held a commemorative ceremony at Fort St. Clair, honoring the nearly 250 year old “Whispering Oak” tree which was brought down when the remnants of Hurricane Helene blew through the region last month.
The group placed a small wreath within the hollowed base of the tree’s trunk.
“Today is the National Day of Service for DAR and we thought we could do no better service than to honor this tree that has protected our area for maybe as long as 300 years or more. If it could tell us stories, we would all probably sit here and cry. I’d like to start with Martha House, who has a short poem to read to you guys,” Sandy McGuire welcomed those who attended.
House read the poem, Trees, by Joyce Kilmer, and Sandra Robbins followed with a prayer.
DAR member Barb Cox shared a history of Fort St. Clair and the tree.
“I’m going to start out with us thinking about the Fort, and the times we know that’s been our history in Preble County for a long, long time,” Cox said. What we don’t realize and know that after the Battle of the Fort, this was empty land. It became farm land for a long time. Now, the war took place 222 years ago. This did not become a park until about 100 years ago. Now, in my digging of history, which I love, I ran across the very first president of the historical society. And the reason he came to be the president of Historical Society was he was an archaeology major from Earlham. He was born in New Paris, grew up in Eldorado, and knew the importance of this land, so he gathered some of the local power folks together, and together, they acquired the land to become a park. Eventually, it was sold to the State of Ohio and it became a state park. In 1992, the State of Ohio said ‘We no longer want to take care of this place.’ And then the city took it over, and they’ve maintained it beautifully.”
“Thanks to Karen Murphy, she prints old newspaper articles, which I love to read, and when the Whispering Oak fell, she found two or three articles, one of which I absolutely loved, because it describes the feeling of this tree. It was written by Margaret Allers, and I suspect it was when it became a state park. And she calls her article ‘Whispering Oak, and I’ll just read it directly.
“It is a magnificent tree, tall and thick of girth, ring closely by slow growing through considerably more than a century,” Cox read. “It is a graceful tree, and appears to lift its branches like arms toward the sky, even without its summer garb of green leaves, the oak is strangely beautiful as it stands there, whispering to its younger neighbors about things seen in former years on the ground. Near the rugged trunk of the great tree is a small bronze marker, which states briefly that the Whispering Oak was a witness to the tragic event which took place at the stockade of Fort St. Clair shortly before daybreak November the sixth, 1792. On that morning, the tree saw Chief Little Turtle lead a band of 250 Mingo and Wyandot warriors to attack the fort, which was one of a series of such stockades erected between Fort Washington, which is at a site down along the Ohio River, and it was to go up through to the headwaters of the Maumee River.
“The tree had watched the major of the militia of the territory direct his men in the building of the fort, and saw too how the soldiers suffered in the intense cold of the winter 1792 and 1793 as they worked steadily to complete their task, the oak saw that they had neither fire nor covering of any kind, and were at the mercy of every sharp wind, and when the Indians swooped down upon the fortification, they were met by stern resistance from a core of riflemen who fought bravely to keep the enemy from plundering the fort and seizing the horses.
“The Oak saw the wild confusion during which many of the frightened animals broke from their fastenings,” she continued. “It heard the blood curdling yells of the Indians and stood helpless as a scalped one man who was first stunned by a sudden blow from a war club. Later, the tree looked down in compassion as his soldiers were buried, their six comrades, Lieutenant Joe Hale, Sergeant Matthew English and privates Robert Bowling, Joseph Clinton and Isaac Jett and John Williams. Today, the tree has grown to majestic size. It looks down upon the six small American flags that flutter in the November chilly winds. It has dropped its rich leaves once more upon these graves. And upon the side of the old fort, which is surrounded by natural woodland purchased by the state of Ohio in 1923, 150, years have passed, and in the silence of a peaceful scene, the giant oak still whispers what it knows of endurance, of courage.”
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
