The Fleming Oak

“Woodman, spare that tree!”

Uncle Mart Fleming kept “progress” from destroying an old oak tree at Comanche, Texas, that he credited with saving his life.

Long ago, Comanche, Texas was in the very heart of the Indian country and from the savage tribe, the Comanches, received its name.  U.S. Highway 67/377, on which the town is located, passes directly across the attractive public square.  At the southwest corner of this square stands a huge oak which was in a grove—the center of the original settlement of Comanche.  Today it stands alone and why it was left makes an interesting story.

Many years back the city made the decision to pave the square and when the work began on the project, one by one the trees of the original grove fell before the axe, that is, all but this one.  When its time came, the workmen were confronted by one of Comanche’s old settlers, Uncle Mart Fleming.  He stood beside the old oak with a rifle in his hand.  “I’ll protect this particular tree with my very life,” he assured the workmen.  Surely the scene must have reminded many who heard him of the famous poem which begins, “Woodman, spare that tree!”

The workmen listened respectfully to the determined Uncle Mart as with his white hair and beard ruffled by the breeze he told them a story about the tree, a story that dated back to the Indian days.  He was being pursued by savages and just as the Redskins were closing in on him, he took refuge behind the great oak and held them off.  “To that tree I owe my life,” he assured the crowd that had gathered, “and no axe will ever touch it.”

The crowd was so touched and so interested that it was decided to leave the tree as a reminder of the colorful past of the vicinity.  Now it stands alone as a monument to the days before civilization came to make the vicinity the prosperous section of Texas that it is today.

It is hard to imagine that once the Indian war cry rang over the city and camp fires burned like so many fire flies in the vicinity.  That great herds of buffalo roamed the hills, that antelopes grazed on the lush grass, and wild mustangs thundered through the square - but the silent old tree attests that this is so.

— “The Cattleman” March Issue, 1962

 NOTE:  In April 2006 TxDOT finished a major highway improvement on US Hwys 377/67—right through the middle of our town—and next to the tree.

Mart Fleming's Oak was preserved—and still stands proudly on the square.