Tree honors King, Tumwater pioneer Bush

JOHN DODGE; The Olympian | • Published April 25, 2009

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OLYMPIA – A butternut tree from the former homestead of Tumwater black pioneer George Bush was used to link Bush and United States civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a National Arbor Day celebration Friday on the Capitol Campus.

South Sound historians at the noon dedication worked for years to recognize the legacy of Bush, an African American who came to Tumwater by wagon train on the Oregon Trail from Missouri in 1845, by adding a scion from a tree he brought added to the Capitol Campus landscape.

The original tree still stands south of Tumwater as one of the largest butternut trees in the nation.

State Sen. Rosa Franklin, D-Tacoma, and other leaders of the Seattle-Tacoma black community worked for years to have a tree planted on the Capitol Campus in King’s honor.

The state Department of General Administration attempted to meet the desires of both groups in a project that state agency officials conceded they mismanaged.

Problems began nearly a month ago when a General Administration crew transplanted the sapling from the home of Tony and Marilyn Sexton, owners of a home and a 5-acre parcel that is all that remains of the Bush homestead. The Sextons donated the tree, assuming it would be dedicated to Bush. They were not aware of plans to use it to honor King, too, Tony Sexton said.

“I still kind of feel like the George Bush tree was hijacked up there on the campus,” Sexton, a former Thurston County undersheriff, said Friday after boycotting the ceremony. “This is nothing against Martin Luther King; I’m as big a fan of his as anybody.”

Emotions ran strong in the South Sound historical community in the weeks leading up to Friday’s event. Eventually, Franklin, state agency officials and local historians agreed on a ceremony to honor both men’s lives.

“I regret that more discussion hadn’t occurred earlier, and with more people,” General Administration’s Sharon Case said.

Both black leaders were well-represented at the ceremony.

Rev. Samuel B. McKinney, a friend and college classmate of King’s and a longtime Seattle civil-rights activist, recalled King’s only visit to the state in 1961 to speak.

“At that time, King was considered crazy, bad and violent,” McKinney said. “While Dr. King was a man of peace, he was not afraid to confront violence. He was the right person in the right place at the right time to do the right thing.”

South Sound historian Winnifred Olsen noted that Bush’s father arrived in the U.S. on a slave ship, and Bush brought his family west from Missouri in 1845, in part because Missouri was a slave state.

“He figured there would be more freedom and opportunity for his sons in the Pacific Northwest,” Olsen said.

It took an act of Congress for Bush to claim his land under the 1850 Donation Land Claim Law. In 1983, Congress approved a federal holiday in honor of King, who was assassinated in 1968.

“Centuries apart, here we are, in memory of two great men,” McKinney said.