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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. |
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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.
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.” |
The
Live Oak County Charter Oak Historical Marker
Photo
courtesy William
Beauchamp, 2011 | |
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