Have You Visited the Old Apple Tree?

One of the first mentions of the large, apple tree that once stood on the north side of the Maumee across from the library in Defiance appeared in the Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812 by Benson J. Lossing, 1869, Chapter XVI.
He wrote of his visit to Fort Defiance about sixty-five years after Fort Defiance was abandoned as a military site.

"I visited the ruins of Fort Defiance on a warm, sunny day late in September, 1860.  I came up the Maumee Valley by railway from Toledo on the previous evening, and arrived at the Defiance station at midnight.  The village of Defiance lying mostly on the Maumee, upon the beautiful plain at the confluence of that river and Au Glaize, was shrouded in a chilling fog.  Warned of the danger of the night air in that valley at that season of the year, I felt as if fever and ague were inhaled at every inspiration while walking a long distance to the hotel.  There was all darkness.  A slumbering attendant was finally aroused, and I was directed by the feeble light of a small candle to a most cheerless bedroom at one o'clock in the morning.

After an early breakfast I went out to find the historical localities of the place, and was fortunate enough to be introduced to Mr. E. H. Leland and Doctor John Paul, who kindly accompanied me to them.  We first visited the interesting remains of Fort (Defiance) on the point of land where the two ruins meet.  We found the form of the glacis and ditch very distinctly marked, the remains of the former rising six or eight feet above the bottom of the latter.  The shape of the fort was perfectly delineated by those mounds and the ditch.  Some large honey locust trees were growing among the ruins.  These have appeared since the fort was abandoned in 1795.  One of them, with a triple stem, standing in the southeastern angle of the fort, measured fifteen feet in circumference.  These ruins are likely to be preserved.  The banks were covered with a fine sward, and they were within an inclosure containing about two acres of land, which the heirs of the late Curtis Holgate presented to the town.

Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812, Benson Lossing, 1869

 We visited the site of Fort Winchester, a little above Defiance, on the bank of the Au Glaize, and found the remains of many of the pickets protruding from the ground.  Across a ravine,just above the fort, was the garrison burying ground.  We returned to the village, crossed the long bridge which spans the Maumee, and from the heights of Fail's Grove, on the eastern side of the river, obtained a comprehensive view of the two streams at their confluence, the site of the fort and the village of Defiance.  The sketch there made is here given...

On our return to the village we visited on the way, near the margin of the Maumee, an aged and gigantic apple-tree, coeval (equally old), no doubt , with the one near Fort Wayne.  We found it carefully guarded, as a sort of 'lion' of the place, by a high board fence, the ground around it, within the inclosure, thickly covered with burr bearing weeds. It was upon the Southworth estate, and access to it might be had only through a small house near.  That tree was a living monument of the French occupation of the spot, as a trading station, long before any other Europeans had penetrated that remote wilderness.  It measured about fifteen feet in circumference eighteen inches from the ground.  The figure standing by it affords a fair criterion for judging of its size, by comparison with the body of a stout man.  We returned to Defiance in time for dinner, and left with the early train for Fort Wayne."
 

Sketch of the apple tree in Lossing's book, mentioned above

 
Hicksville News
Thursday, October 28, 1886
Page 1

"-- Here is a little more history of the old apple-tree, blown down in the storm, two weeks ago:
The old apple-tree, on the north bank of the Maumee, at Defiance, was remarkable for its age.  When the first white settlers cleared the forest along the river, they found a row of apple-trees, which, according to the Indian tradition, were planted by missionaries, prior to the 18th century.

The one just destroyed was the last to succumb to the ravages of time and storm.  It was a large tree, and beneath its spreading branches, Occonoxee, the last Indian chief of that locality, was born.  He died over forty years ago, at the ripe age of 83.

The Indians almost held the fruit trees in veneration, and visitors to old Fort Defiance, have always had pointed out to them, the veteran tree, just across the river, standing like a ghostly picket upon the lines between past and present.

At one time, this tree measured 7 feet in diameter and 26 feet in circumference, and was known as the largest apple-tree in the United States, if not in the world.  Nobody knew the age, but Occonoxee, a chief of the Pottawatonies, who was 80 years old at the time, told one of our citizens, 50 years ago, that he was born under that tree.  From this it can be seen that the tree must have had an age of at least 150 years.

When the sun was at its zenith, its shadow was 50 feet wide, and it had been known to bear as high as 200 bushels of apples in one crop.  Due reverence for such a fallen monarch would call for its being made up into momentoes such as canes, etc."

Today the location of the old apple tree is marked by a stone monument on top of a large tree stump which indicates the size of the tree.  Although the statistics differ, depending on the source, we can all agree it is a great historical reminder of the roots of early Defiance.