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Adoption of the Illinois Native State Tree
Rochelle, Illinois (population about 10,000) is located in north-central Illinois about 95 miles west of Chicago and about 25 miles south of Rockford. It's about 170 miles north of the state's ca pital city, Springfield.
It was in this Ogle County town, in 1907, that Mrs. James C. Fessler began her campaign to establish an official state flower and an official state tree to represent Illinois. Her idea was to put the selection process in the hands of the state's school children and so she approached the local Superintendent of Schools.
Her idea caught on and, in November of 1907, Illinois school children voted for their choice of a flower and a tree to represent their state. In the state tree category, the oak tree garnered the most votes followed by the maple tree and the elm tree.
- Oak - 21,897 votes.
- Maple - 16,517 votes.
- Elm - 5,082 votes.
To make the results of the statewide referendum official, a bill had to be written, submitted to and approved by the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield. State Senator Andrew J. Jackson, of Rockford, introduced the bill to the General Assembly, proposing that the native oak tree be declared the official state tree. By an act of the Illinois General Assembly, the native oak tree was approved as the official state tree of Illinois on February 21, 1908, effective July 1, 1908.
However, depending on your source, there are around 17-20 species of native oak in the State of Illinois. The 1908 law declaring the state tree specified the "native oak". It did not specify a particular variety of native oak tree. Thinking that clarification was in order, Illinois school children (about 900,000) were consulted again. In 1973, 333, 964 school children chose to specify the white oak as the state tree. The northern red oak placed second with 142,247 votes.
In 1973, the 1908 law was amended to name the "white oak" as Illinois' official "native" state tree. Though the 1973 legislation was also less than definitive, it is clear that the General Assembly were referring to Quercus alba, present in all Illinois counties, in their legislation.
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