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If I chance to fall below
Demosthenes or Cicero,
Don’t view me with a critic’s eye,
But pass my imperfections by.
Large streams from little fountains flow,
Tall oaks from little acorns grow.
David Everett (1769-1813), from “Lines Written for a School Declamation.”
Lois Nixon, Charlene Jones, Michael Rubes, Kerry Mead, Teresa Sothcott, Denise Tally, Jennifer Adams, and Fran Brocato, of the Friends of the Page-Walker, along with Richard Carroll and George McDowell, plant a historic and notable tree under the watchful eyes of a Red-shouldered hawk and hundreds of bluebirds, goldfinches, and Carolina wrens feasting on seeds from the Longleaf pine savanna re-creation across the greenway from the tree's site just off the path of the White Oak Greenway.
The tree they plant is a second-generation direct descendant of the Henry Clay Oak. The acorn that formed this tree fell from the first-generation descendant of the actual Henry Clay Oak. That first-generation tree grows on the grounds of the Page-Walker Hotel, Cary's historical society. Lois Nixon acquired the seedling from the original Henry Clay Oak and planted it on the Page-Walker grounds soon after the original tree fell.
The tree that grew in Raleigh for hundreds of years before finally succumbing to the elements and disease in 1991 was the original, and under which Henry Clay sat when writing what came to be known as the "Texas Letter" in 1844. The letter's contents are said to have cost Clay the presidency. The full story is told on this site.
Following the planting, the Friends toured the Archive and viewed other historic and notable trees which the Henry Clay Oak descendant has joined. They saw descendants of the Angel Oak, the Davie Poplar, the Wye Oak, the Swamp oaks that guard the voids where the Twin Towers stood in the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Oklahoma City Bombing Survivor Tree, and the endangered Dawn redwoods that flank all three entrances to the Archive.
More images will be posted as I collect them.