A spreading giant White Oak marks the N.W. Corner of the cemetery of the Methacton Mennonite Meeting House in Worchester Twp., Pennsylvania. It is estimated to be more than 300 years old. It would have already been quite large when the first burials of the Mennonites and soldiers of the Revolutionary War took place under its branches.
It is considered to be a “Charter Oak” because it was already growing when Wm. Penn asked the King of England, in the early 1700’s, for a charter to establish an American colony to be called Penn’s Sylvania (meaning Forest Land).
This Magnificent tree has lived through the time of the Native American tribe, the Leni-Lenapes, the arrival of the early colonists, the establishment of an agricultural community to today looking out at the many new houses being built on former farmland. It is in good health and should continue on for many years.
Story and art by Joan Landrey, Sarasota, Florida
Treewhispers 
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