Joseph WADSWORTH, CAPTAIN

                   The Charter Oak
   Brooke Isaacson
My family holds regular family reunions.At some point during every
reunion, we take the time to honor our ancestors by learning something
new about our familys heritage. During our last reunion, a fierce
rainstorm forced us indoors during the afternoons activities. After the
family gathered together, my father handed everyone a sheet of paper that
contained a story of my tenth-great-grandfather, Joseph Wadsworth.
I eagerly followed along as my father told the story. Joseph Wadsworth
was born in 1647 in Hartford, Connecticut, to William Wadsworth and
Elizabeth Stone. Heserved in the military for most of his life. My
father said that Joseph commanded the respect of his fellow townsmen. A
captain and practicing attorney,he died in 1730 having served his
country nobly and honorably throughout hislife. But one particular event
in Josephs life left a deep impression on me.I learned a story about
courageand a tree.
When the colony of Connecticutwas formed in 1639, the people wanted to
ensure that each of the colonys three settlements had equal rights.
Elected representatives from each settlement wrote the Fundamental
Orders, which allowed the colony to govern itself. In1662, King Charles
II gave the Connecticut colony a charter that empowered them with a legal
basis and the approval of the king. As a result, Connecticutbecame an
independent colony with its own government.
Twenty years later,in 1682, King James II wanted Connecticut officials
to surrender the chartergranted by his predecessor so he could unite the
New England colonies. Of course, they resisted the attempts. The king
then directed Sir Edmund Andros, his agent and the governor of
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, to take control and retrieve the charter.
Andros told the Connecticut leaders of the kings decision and set up a
meeting with the governor and other officials of the colony one of whom
was my grandfatherto discuss the matter further.
The Connecticut representatives had all but given in to the powerful
requests of the king on the day Andros arrived in Connecticut, 31 October
1687. As the story goes, at the meeting the Connecticut officials were on
one side of a long tableand Andros and the British were on the other
side. The charter lay in the middle of the table, separating the two
sides. During a heated discussion of the surrender of the charter, the
candles in the room were suddenly extinguished. When the candles were
re-lit, the Connecticut Charter was gone, and Josephwas nowhere to be
found.
On that crucial night in October, with the fate of Connecticut hanging in
the balance, Joseph snatched the charter from the table, left the room
without a trace, and ran down Main Street. Joseph hid thecharter in what
he knew would be a safe placea hollow oak tree, now known asthe Charter
Oak.
Joseph kept the charter in his possession until May of 1715, when the
government was stable enough to ensure its safety. The tree wasdestroyed
on 21 August 1856 during a great storm, but not before the story of
Joseph Wadsworth and the Charter Oak became legendary.
Andros knew that without the charter, he would have no hope of gaining a
political hold on Connecticut. He was right. The charter was not turned
over to the British that night, and Connecticut was the only one of the
original thirteen colonies to maintain self-rule until the American
Revolution.
As my father finished tellingthe story, he pulled a quarter out of his
pocket and showed us how the legendlives on today. The Charter Oak is
engraved on the new Connecticut quarter,the fifth of the fifty U.S.
Commemorative Quarters that are being released over the next ten years by
the United States Mint.
He handed each of us a Connecticut quarter so we would have a daily
reminder of our past. It was then that I realized my family tree has deep
roots in