Historical Period: Republic of Texas (1836-1845)
Historical Topic: Frontier Settlements, Sam Houston
Species: Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)
County: Lee
Public Access: Yes, the Old Evergreen Tree is located on FM 1624, halfway between Hwy 77 and Hwy 21, near the town of Lincoln.
This long-lived live oak was once the center of Evergreen, one of Lee County’s earliest settlements. The town was founded on land granted to Abner Kuykendall by Stephen F. Austin in 1831. During its prime, this early pioneer village had stores, hotels, and a church. It also had its own school, which was built directly across from the Old Evergreen Tree. When Austin
became the capital of the Republic of Texas in 1839, Evergreen’s location near the new road connecting Houston to Austin (now FM 1624) brought it plenty of visitors. Evergreen proved to be a popular and busy stop on this new stagecoach route. Reportedly, General Sam Houston stayed at Evergreen’s Stockton Inn, located near the tree.
The little town first encountered difficulties in 1871, when the Houston and Texas Central Railway built a line connecting Houston to Austin. This new line put Giddings on the map and made the stage stop at Evergreen obsolete. Many of Evergreen’s residents, along with pioneers from other neighboring communities, moved to nearby Giddings. Evergreen managed to hang on until about 1890, when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway bypassed Evergreen, and put a station in nearby Lincoln to connect Yoakum to Waco. After the remaining residents moved to Lincoln, the town’s mass exodus was complete.
But this amazingly durable tree left an impression, long after Evergreen had permanently disappeared. Writer Julia Jones, in her 1945 book Lee County, Historical and Descriptive, waxed poetic about the Old Evergreen Tree, comparing it to other great historic trees: “Equal to any of those trees in age and beauty is Lee County’s live oak, ‘Old Evergreen,’ still serene and resplendent as when the Indians roamed the nearby forest.”
This tree is still serene and resplendent—and almost all that remains of the ghost town. A notable exception is Lee County’s oldest burial ground, located just a short distance from the ancient live oak. The Old Evergreen Tree’s state historical marker, dedicated on November 26, 1967, also remains. The well-publicized dedication ceremony attracted about 150 people and brought the community of Evergreen back to life—just for a day. State Representative Gus Franklin Mutscher was one of the keynote speakers, along with many descendants of early Evergreen settlers. The gathered descendants shared stories connecting their families to the ground where the Old Evergreen Tree still stands.
The marker dedicated that special day notes how the tree was the site of the area’s pioneer court trials, and how it also sheltered French-Canadian explorer Louis Juchereau de St. Denis (1676–1744) in 1713, when he surveyed El Camino Real, later known as the Old San Antonio Road (now State Highway 21). Though the town of Evergreen is no more, this tall tree lives on as a shrine to early Texas life. As one former resident noted: “What history it has seen!”