The Ox Gad Tree

Benjamin Sumner, a native of North Carolina (or possibly South Carolina, researchers differ), was one of the first permanent settlers in Christy township, Lawrence County, Illinois. He came to this area in 1817 and built a small round-log cabin. He was married three times.

According to family legend when the Sumner family left the Carolinas, The first Mrs. Sumner placed a setting of eggs inside a slab of bacon and covered them over with a pillow to keep them warm. The eggs hatched about the time they arrived in Illinois and Mrs. Sumner was ready to go into the chicken business.

About 1827, Mr. Sumner built an ‘incline ox grist and flax mill’ on his premises. This was the first mill built in the township. He afterward kept a small general store on his place. He was a careful, industrious farmer, never spending any time in hunting or sporting of any kind. His industry was rewarded by large acquisitions of land which before his death, occurring on Christmas Day, 1878, he divided among his children.

In a Christy Twp Lawrence County History published in the Lawrence County News March 27, 1918,  P W Sutherland notes Benjamin Sumner’s peculiarity in naming his children of whom there were fifteen (or eighteen according to some family genealogists) taking the letter beginning his surname as the letter to begin their names as follows: Selia, Starky, Sandy, Samuel, Simpson, Sophia, Simeon, Sullivan, Schuyler, Steuben, Sarah , Sabina, Smiley, Sophronia, and Susan.

The family custom of naming each of the children with a first name beginning with the letter S made each one's initial “SS”. It has been said by the family that the selection of a name for a new arrival was made by tossing a group of names into a hat. Two sets of names were used, one for boys and one for girls. A slip was drawn from the hat, and the newborn had a name.

 According to family stories, at one time, when Mr. Sumner was away from home, his wife Elizabeth, who was an expert in the use of the rifle, shot a deer, and had it dressed and put away, on his return. (Well, of course she did, she had 18 children to feed and her husband “never spent any time hunting” . . . )

On January 17, 1835, Benjamin Sumner advertised his farm for sale in the Western Sun and General Advertiser, a Vincennes Indiana newspaper. The farm for sale was situated seven miles west of Lawrenceville (the town of Sumner wasn't incorporated until the 1850's) on the St Louis Road containing 250 acres, 65 acres of which were in cultivation. On the premises was a good Brick house, log kitchen, smoke house, barn, stables, and milk house. In the deal he also offered an ox tread mill for grain and the manufacturing of linseed oil. All the buildings were in good repair, and there was plenty of good water, and first-rate timber. No price was given but the property would be sold on good terms.

According to descendants of the Sumner family living in the community, one of Benjamin’s sons, Smiley Sumner, (and I thinking here that whoever put that name in the hat must have had a real sense of humor) returned home from Evansville, Indiana, one day in the spring of 1860, using a team of oxen. He stuck his ox whip into the rain-soaked earth and left it there. It grew into the tree locally named the “Ox Gad Tree.” It was said that the tree that stood on the old Sumner homeplace, about 3 miles east of Sumner, once appeared in Ripley’s Believe It or Not column.

During the first organization of Sumner Centennial celebration in 1954, a club was organized by some of the local women, and it was named the Ox Gad Ladies Club. There were various rules set up by this club including the wearing of Centennial dresses on Tuesday and Saturday of each week. (No information as to whether the ladies raised chickens or were expert shots….or stuck “ox gads” in wet earth.)

Photos of the Ox Gad tree taken in 1981. Does anyone know if it stills stands?