Posting of Colors: By the Nolan Carson Memorial Color Guard
Pledge of Allegiance: Cincinnati SAR 250th Chair Robert E.R. Bowers
Introductions: Village Administrator Ron Hirth
Proclamation: Mayor Greg Schwartzberg
Invocation: Gary Duffield, Cincinnati SAR
Reveal: 2019 Golf Manor Grand Marshals; Past Mayor, Alan Zaffiro & Wife with Assistance of Camp Follower Carrie Blum, Fort Hamilton CAR
Dedication: Michael Gunn, Past President Cincinnati SAR
We the Cincinnati Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution come here today at the beginning of our Semiquincentennial Celebration (250 years) of the founding of our country to re-dedicate this Liberty Tree.
Hence, on this day we pause with grateful hearts to remember patriot ancestors who stood firm on Lexington Green and the Old North Bridge at Concord, Massachusetts; who responded to the call to stand up for given rights. May we emulate what those brave souls began and dedicate our lives to preserving their legacy, which is a free and independent nation known as the United States of America, exampled here by this Liberty Tree that we re-dedicate here today.
God bless America!
• Musket Salute: NCMCG
• Retiring the Colors:
NSSAR Liberty Tree Re-dedications and Celebrations History:
In the years leading up to the American Revolution, a mature elm tree near Boston Common became a gathering place for patriots, where they discussed American ideas of liberty and planned resistance to British tyranny. They called the elm the Liberty Tree. Soon, Liberty Trees were designated in towns throughout the colonies as powerful symbols and gathering places. The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia features a full-scale replica of a Liberty Tree in its core exhibition. At the ground breaking celebration, the roots of the contemporary Liberty Tree were enriched with soils collected from battlefields, encampments, homes and other sites where the American Revolution was fought and won. Often, these soil samples were collected and submitted by members of the SAR.
On 14 August 1765, a crowd gathered in Boston under a large elm tree at the corner of Essex Street and Washington Street, originally called Orange Street, to protest the hated Stamp Act. Patriots who later called themselves the Sons of Liberty had hung in effigy Andrew Oliver, the colonist chosen by King George III to impose the Stamp Act, in the branches of the tree. Up in the tree with the effigy hung a British cavalry jackboot. Grinning from inside the boot was a devil-like doll holding a scroll marked “Stamp Act.” It was the first public show of defiance against the Crown and spawned the resistance that led to the American Revolutionary War ten years later. On 10 September 1765 a sign saying “Tree of Liberty” was nailed to the trunk of the tree.
Whenever the event is held, it is an opportunity to engage in our basic SAR objects: historic, patriotic, and educational. It emphasizes more than most activities the genesis of our most important rights – the freedom of speech and the right to assembly – and how Liberty Trees contributed to our independence from Britain.
The Liberty Tree is a disease- resistant Elm tree which was granted to Amberley Village by the Elm Research Institute in 2009. Roselawn and Golf Manor also received trees. Golf Manor’s tree died after planting and is now being replaced for today’s ceremony.
Attending members of the Nolan Carson Memorial Color Guard:
Mike Blum
Bob Bowers
Mike Gunn
Gerry Knight
Chuck Rogers
George Stewart
Michael Gunn, Event Commander
Gary Duffield
And Carrie Blum, member Fort Hamilton CAR
Research and Event Preparation by: Gregg Ballman & Mike Gunn, past Fire Chief’s Golf Manor Ohio.
