{"id":25492,"date":"2025-05-01T11:40:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T15:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=25492"},"modified":"2025-05-01T11:40:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T15:40:57","slug":"the-witness-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/the-witness-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"The Witness Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"position: relative; padding-top: max(60%,326px); height: 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute; border: none; width: 100%; height: 100%; left: 0; right: 0; top: 0; bottom: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23e8e8e8&amp;d=may25_issuu&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=44&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" sandbox=\"allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation allow-downloads allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-modals allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-forms\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p2\">Travel through time in Deering Oaks\u2019s Sacred Grove.<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p3\"><strong>Story by Nancy English<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">When Major Ben Church charged into battle in 1689 against the Wabanaki and their French allies in what is now Deering Oaks Park, the Witness Tree stood on a rise carved out by a historic inlet from the sea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\">Portland was called Falmouth, and Maine was Massachusetts. Campfire smoke alarmed farmers at the Brackett homestead, who alerted the English troops; they had to get themselves and their ammunition across that water. Ten died in battle, including Captain Brackett, George Bramhall, and an enslaved man who worked for Captain Tyng; Brackett, Bramhall, and Tyng have streets named after them in Portland\u2019s West End. And the enslaved person, as of now, remains nameless.<\/p>\n<p><em>Read the full story in the digital magazine above.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-25493\" src=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Deering-Oaks.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Deering-Oaks.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Deering-Oaks-980x513.jpg 980w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Deering-Oaks-480x251.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tour Deering Oaks Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1496],"class_list":["post-25492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-may-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25492"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25524,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25492\/revisions\/25524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}