of The Casements—John D. Rockefeller’s home in Ormond Beach. An amateur botanist, her special interest was the native wildflowers of South Florida. A tireless champion of historic preservation and natural areas, Butts is credited with first showing David Fairchild the famous oak tree. Legend has it that he liked to sit underneath it, but no proof of this has been discovered. It is also of interest to note that a review of Fairchild’s writings, relevant pocket notebooks and photographs finds no mention or image of the oak. What is known is that Fairchild told Butts that she “must save that tree.” Butts took it to heart and focused her considerable energies on this task. Over the years, she mentioned it in her letters to David and Marian, and even collected its acorns to send to them. Lehigh Portland Cement Co. bought the property to mine coquina in 1955, a year after David Fairchild’s death. As Butts says in an April 1955 letter to Marian, she immediately “wrote to the President of Lehigh and begged for its life. Telling them of what Dr. Fairchild had thought of that superb old tree and so on.” Thinking its local names were too negative, suggesting hauntings and murder, and not persuasive to her case, she renamed it The Fairchild- Ormond Oak and proposed that the Lehigh Company preserve it and dedicate it in memory of Dr. David Fairchild. “It would seem a very suitable living memorial and truly worthy of that bright and beautiful spirit,” she wrote. Happily, Lehigh’s president, Joseph S. Young, agreed with her. In a letter dated April 20, 1955, Butts wrote to Marian Fairchild: “I do hope you will be pleased about the old Ormond Oak, and know that if it could speak for itself, it would ask nothing more than to stand another thousand years, as a tribute to so completely good and really great a man. And indeed it does seem to me that as one of the most perfect and noble trees in Florida, it deserves this honor.” On December 11, 1955, a dedication ceremony was held at the newly preserved area. Butts, joined by many local notables and Lehigh officials, dedicated the oak to David Fairchild and in memory of James Ormond. The inscription on the plaque read: “This live oak tree is dedicated by the Lehigh Portland Cement Company to the memory of Dr. David Fairchild, the American botanist who introduced the soy bean and many other valuable forms of plantlife sic to the United States. As this tree has gladdened men’s hearts for 2,000 years, so will Dr. Fairchild’s legacy enrich the lives of future generations.” fall 2016 61 Previous page The Fairchild Oak today. A photo taken of it in 1975 by Walter Hodge when he visited the Oak with Dent Smith and Eileen Butts was featured on the cover of the July 1975 “Fairchild Tropical Garden Bulletin,” but could not be located in the Garden’s image collection. Photo courtesy Katy Soule O’Day. above Marian Fairchild with Blanche and Oakes Ames at The Whim, March 1939. Photo by David Fairchild. Archives/FTBG Eileen Butts, date unknown. Photo courtesy of The Ormond Art Museum, Ormond, Florida. If you’d like to visit, The Fairchild-Ormond Oak stands in Bulow Creek State Park. Please see the park’s website for information: www.floridastateparks.org/park/Bulow-Creek
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