Before the days of air conditioning and largely indoor living, old trees were an integral part of our lives. They were shade on a hot day, a spot to sit and talk, eat or even hold a prayer meeting when the heat inside was too much. People told each other how to go from place to place, using trees in their directions. Before the land was settled up, big trees were even used as post offices. They were also a place to return borrowed items and sometimes as a place to stash unauthorized possessions.
Mike McClatchy of Brownwood told me a tree related story regarding some of his ancestors who might have been involved in the infamous fence wars that took place in this area in the late 19th century. When confronted by a representative of the law during what could have been a fence cutting expedition, McClatchy’s predecessors were ordered to place their wire cutting implements in the hollow trunk of an old tree, which they did. I wonder how many such orders were carried out over the years, and if any of the trees still hold such things? I don’t think it was a coincidence that a hole in a tree was used as a place to deposit such things, it seems like trees were utilized in public life a lot more then than they are now.
An April 1978 edition of the Coleman Democrat-Voice recounted old timer Woodrow Jameson pointing out old live oaks in the area that were ‘blazed’ in order to mark the way along the stagecoach lines, and also used to send off mail. “Two blazed trees were found between there [Whitechapel] and the location on the open prairie pointed out as the site where the house had stood which had the ‘mail slot’ for the starting of outgoing mail.”
A blazed tree in the old days was not the same as a surveyor’s mark today. These trees were cut in a certain way to indicate directions or to fulfill a purpose. “During the following 12 or 13 years after reading about the travelers along the stagecoach route, Woodrow Jameson walked the hills and valleys. He searched for, and occasionally found, trees marked by the trail blazer’s ax. Nearly all of the blazed trees remaining in 1978 are huge live oaks. On the northwest area of the trunk of the trees, there is a seam approximately 30 inches long where the bark has grown back leaving a central scar in the bark.”
The article goes on to describe how trees acted the part of mailboxes for some. “People of the area or travelers were able to put their letters in the ‘mail slot’. The next time the stagecoach came by, the driver picked up the mail and started it on its way to its destination.” I guess rain could have been a problem in using this system, but the silver lining would be it doesn’t rain all that often out here.
Trees were also used by Native Americans, and in our area the Comanche, to mark trails, water crossings and important meeting sites. Some are called ‘marker trees’ and some types ‘story trees’. They can be recognized by their age, location, and sometimes by a distinctive bend in the trunk pointing the traveler in a certain direction.
We have very few of the old guard trees left. These ancient markers, gathering sites, post offices, and sometimes receptacles for contraband wire cutting tools, each have stories all their own. Some of the oldest I think are the pecans and live oaks in Riverside Park, and those in Fabis Park as well. A few months ago, I went out to visit one of my favorite old trees, which grew near the intersection of an old military road and the Grosvenor Road, possibly along the stage route. To my shock, the old general had been cut down by the highway department. It was perfectly healthy. I’m not sure why it was on their hit list, but I would have tried to stop it if I had only known. The few old trees we have left are worth saving. Not only are they a part of history, but they have their own form of gentle wisdom that simply can’t be replaced.
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Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns appear Thursdays on BrownwoodNews.com. Comments regarding her columns can be emailed to [email protected].
