The oldest resident in Richland Township is probably 425 years old. In 1598 (when it likely took root), the township was designated hunting ground for the Iroquois Nation and subsequently for Delaware Indians in the 18th century. Little did Native American hunters who walked by that white oak sapling know it would still be standing in 2023 as the oldest tree in Allegheny County.
University of Pittsburgh botanists made this declaration.
Joe Stavish, education director at Tree Pittsburgh, went further recently, stating Richland Park’s majestic oak “is possibly the oldest tree in all of western Pennsylvania, until proven otherwise.”
In 1987, local resident John Redman submitted to the Allegheny County Bicentennial Tree Committee an age application that used a tree age estimation formula. His estimation would make the tree 395 years old today (1628 took root date). The committee not only gave this white oak an Allegheny County Bicentennial Tree title (living at the county’s 1788 establishment), it also granted it the more prestigious Penn Tree title, meaning Richland’s gigantic beauty was living in 1682 when William Penn claimed land for the Pennsylvania colony.
The 1988 Tree Committee also designated today’s 268-year-old First Presbyterian Church of Bakerstown sugar maple and today’s 263-year-old Ben Miller Road red oak as other Richland Bicentennial Trees.
Richland Park’s Penn Tree survived the 1936 St. Patrick’s Day flood and numerous lightning strikes, but a 2001 Davey Tree assessment noted that “it is showing its age.” It had been in declining health after a 1986 lightning strike caused a major split in one of the main trunk arteries. That split resulted in the complete detachment of about 1/3 of the tree in early 2003. With actual trunk rings exposed for the first time, 1598 was determined to be the “took root” date, rather than Redman’s earlier estimated year of 1628.
Nancy Hugo, author of “Seeing Trees,” said that a white oak’s lifespan can include “200 years of growing, 200 years of living and 200 years of dying,” but any damage will shorten its life. While Richland’s tree likely will not reach 600 (another 175 years), its longevity might be extended if it is treated with utmost respect – by not climbing it, providing animals with food/water near its trunk nor disturbing its bark or surroundings.
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Penn Tree sits on property once known as Depreciation Land. The fledgling, cash-strapped USA purchased this land from the Iroquois Nation in 1785 and intended it for payment to Revolutionary War soldiers in lieu of cash. Few colonists dared settle here before General Anthony Wayne ended the Indian threat in 1784’s Battle of Fallen Timbers. Consequently, most Depreciation Land was taken originally by Philadelphia land speculators, who sold to other Eastern seaboard speculators, most of whom never settled here. Richland settlement did not commence until the very early 19th century.
Based upon extensive research using land deeds, earlier writings and numerous farm maps, the Richland History Group presents this never-before developed chronology of most-likely owners of the land on which Richland’s Penn Tree took root:
• 3500BCE-1500AD, Mound Builder native Americans (Calusa, Adena and Hopewell cultures)
• 1500-1656, Erie Iroquois
• 1656-1785, Iroquois Nation
• 1785, USA
• 1786, Pennsylvania
• 1786, Joseph Dean
• Pre-1810, Thomas Pascal
• Pre-1810, James Moore
• 1810-1828, Thomas Baker
• 1828, Sarah Baker Brittan (Joseph)
• Pre-1831, Dwight Thompson
• 1831, William Brickell
• 1868, Elizabeth Brickell Wilson
• Pre-1898 Mrs. James Wilson
• Post-1898, Thomas A. Wilson
• Pre-1933, Richard Morro
• 1933, Frank Morrow
• 1946, William Stirling Jr
• 1969, Richland Youth Foundation
• 1975-present, Richland Township
Of interest to Steeler Nation may be ownership by late Steeler fullback (1950-1957) Fran Rogel’s family of farmland adjacent to Penn Tree, which served as a boundary marker. It was reported that 25 of Fran’s cattle would shade themselves under Penn Tree’s massive canopy shadow and that Steeler teammates and high school players he coached would bale hay on the Rogel property.
Consider visiting Richland’s oldest resident while it is still with us by walking a quarter mile long path in the woods, starting on Van Velsor Drive, across from Richland Park’s soccer fields.