When I welcome folks into my home for An Evening with Mark Twain I always encourage them to think about someone they admire who’s been dead awhile, study that person’s life, and bring that person to life through Chautauqua. It doesn’t have to be a famous person, it could be an unknown relative who did something worth remembering. Well, that suggestion struck the flint of a young lady here last night, a recent graduate from Stanford, who told me about her great, great, great Aunt Ada, who hid the Connecticut Charter of 1662 in a tree, saving it from confiscation and revocation by King James.

As she related to me with widening eyes, the legend of the Charter Oak began in 1662 when King Charles II of Jolly Old England granted Connecticut a royal charter guaranteeing representative government and self-rule. “Party On!”

But the party suddenly ended 25 years later, when King James II sent a governor to confiscate the charter and take control of Connecticut. Then guess what? A very smart lady took that charter and hid it in a tree, the hollow of an oak tree to be exact. The newly appointed governor and his men turned the whole town upside down, but never could find that charter in the Oak.

So the new governor returned to the Old World, and Connecticut continued to rule itself, thanks in large part to the great, great, great Aunt of my houseguest, who is relating this saga to me. She even told me she has an artifact of wood at home in Connecticut that was cut from the now celebrated Charter Oak…

Eventually, When William and Mary became King and Queen they restored many of the provisions included in the original charter, and the charter served as the state constitution until around 1818…

Well, I was fascinated, and suggested to her that she become her great, great, great Aunt Ada, tell that story in its entirety in first person, and bring that history to life in the classroom and on the lecture platform. After all, the Charter Oak remains a symbol of Connecticut’s enduring tradition of 1662 even today, and it is no coincidence that the white oak tree remains Connecticut’s state tree…

So in closing, I would again ask the gentle reader to select someone you admire who’s been dead for a good while, study that person’s life, and bring that person back to life in Chautauqua. It will give you another life, and one life is not enough.

Time will tell, but I hope I live long enough to get to hear Aunt Ada tell the story of the Connecticut Charter Tree in first person. I for one, and I know many others, will be spellbound, and possibly forget for an hour or so, that we even own a smartphone…

By the way, a bolt of lightning brought down the mighty Charter Oak back in the 19^th century, but the legend lives on…