Wood from Massive Oak Tree at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and The Mark Twain House & Museum Will Be Used in Restoration of Mayflower II

MEDIA ALERT

Through Special Arrangement, Wood from Massive Oak Tree at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and The Mark Twain House & Museum Will Be Used in Restoration of Mayflower II at Mystic Seaport.

Media contacts:

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center: Vivian Nabeta, vnabeta@stowecenter.org; 860-522-9258, ext. 309

The Mark Twain House & Museum: Jennifer LaRue, jennifer.larue@marktwainhouse.org; 860-280-3152

April 6, 2018: On Monday and Tuesday, April 9 and 10, workers hired by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center will take down a 150-year-old red oak tree at the Stowe Center whose canopy also straddles the property of The Mark Twain House & Museum near Forest Street in Hartford.

The massive tree measures 187 inches in circumference and runs 35 feet to its first branch. Failure of the tree’s root system requires that the tree be removed. Through a special arrangement between some of the region’s most prominent museums, the ample, knot-free wood will be used to build a capstan (a large wooden device used to raise a ship’s heavy anchor) for the Mayflower II, which is owned by Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts and is being restored at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport. The 61-year-old wooden galleon is expected to be ready in time for the 400^th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims in Plymouth in 1620.

Katherine Kane, executive director the Stowe Center, said “This stately tree was alive during Stowe and Twain’s time. We are deeply sad to see it go, but the Stowe Center is happy that it will find new life in the Mayflower II at Plimoth Plantation.”

Pieter Roos, executive director of The Mark Twain House & Museum, said, “It’s always a shame to see a wonderful old tree come down. But the fact that this tree can continue to educate visitors at both Mystic Seaport and Plimoth Plantation is a great testament to the way a whole group of museums can work together to the benefit of all involved.”

Restoration of the Mayflower II began in December 2014 after the ship was towed from Plymouth, Massachusetts. The reproduction of the original Mayflower was built in the United Kingdom and sailed to the United States in 1957. Visitors to Mystic have been able to visit the ship during reconstruction.

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Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.