http://www.boston.com/dailynews/203/region/_Tree_Root_That_Ate_Roger_Will:.shtml

'Tree Root That Ate Roger Williams' rests quietly in basement

By Lisa Lipman, Associated Press, 7/22/2001 10:11

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) From the outside, The John Brown House looks like a gracious, stately home. But make no mistake: in its basement lurks The Tree Root That Ate Roger Williams.

As any Rhode Islander knows, Roger Williams was the man who founded Providence in 1636 and the first Baptist church in America in 1639. When Williams died in 1683, he was buried in his back yard.

Years later, his body was disinterred in order to be placed in the tomb of a descendant. When his simple casket was opened, however, a long apple tree root had grown through the remains.

''They found that the tree root looked to be in the shape of a body,'' said Barbara Barnes, a staff member at The John Brown House. ''So we say it's the tree root that ate Roger Williams.''

What does a town do with a tree root that grew through the corpse of its founding father?

That's always been a perplexing issue. It's not exactly the pride of the Rhode Island Historical Society, which turned it over to the John Brown House Museum for safekeeping. Oddly, Roger Williams has no relationship to John Brown, a patriot and entrepreneur, or the 1786 mansion he built. But that's where the historical society keeps many of its artifacts that are not on display.

Instead, the roughly 5-foot-long root rests uncovered in a dark corner of the house's basement. The branched root looks like a person's body and legs, yet each section has a circumference only as large as a woman's wrist. None of Williams' remains are still attached to it.

''It's really kind of anticlimactic for all the hoopla people around here give it,'' said Sandy Lemieux, site manager for The John Brown House.

In 1936, Williams' remains were dug up once again and sealed within a bronze container. They were set into the base of the monument erected to his memory, which still stands on Prospect Terrace.

Lemieux said that the Historical Society is hoping that the root will eventually be displayed in the as-yet unopened Heritage Harbor Museum that aims to be the first statewide heritage center.

But a bond issue that was put before the city last November to raise money for the museum didn't pass, so it may be a while before the museum is established. Only $29 million of the necessary $59 million has been raised.

Al Klyberg, the executive director of Heritage Harbor, said that people who have heard about the root have traveled from places as far away as Guatemala to see it. But he says that in his opinion, Williams should be remembered more for his role in separating church and state than the tree root that grew in his coffin.

''Of all the things connected to Roger Williams, it's sort of an incidental curiosity,'' Klyberg said. ''It's not one of the more notable things about the man.''

-- Anonymous, July 22, 2001