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At first glace,
this tree appears smaller than it should for being around since the
1850s. Located about six miles SE of the current county seat of George
West, this tree shaded a committee of Irish settlers wanting to
form their own county in early 1856. Six months later, after getting
approval of the Texas Legislature, it witnessed the swearing-in of
the first county officials. The tree itself is likely the namesake
of the county.
First called Fox’s Settlement, the colony, a breakaway group
from San Patricio
County, was renamed Gussettville
and became the new county’s seat of government. Gussettville,
with its church and picturesque cemetery are about all that’s left
of the town, but this tree is what historians call “a witness tree”
to the formation of the
county. |
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Getting
There
Directions from the book Famous Trees of Texas (1971) may have been
simplified over the years, but they are given as follows: “traveling
seven-tenths of a mile east of the Nueces River bridge on Highway
59, turn south on FM 799 [and travel] about 3 miles to a narrow dirt
road. Going west on that road 4/10th of a mile.” |
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