Historical Name: Keeler
Common Name: White Oak
Latin Name: Quercus alba
The massive Keeler White Oak grows along Petticoat Bridge Road outside of Columbus in Burlington County, NJ. The tree’s name is derived from the Keeler family that farmed the land for five generations. The tree was a witness to a Revolutionary War skirmish on December 22, 1776. On that day Continental troops engaged Hessian soldiers under the command of Count Van Donop at Petticoat Bridge. The Continentals won that day, but on the next day the Hessians were the victors and marched up the road passing under the limbs of this tree. Legend has it that Colonial women dismantled the bridge to prevent the passage of the Hessian troops, and that is how the bridge and road received their names. It is a great story, but probably untrue since the bridge and road appear in Burlington County road records that predate the Revolutionary War.
Another interesting bit of history connected to the Keeler Oak involves James H. Birch, who spent part of his boyhood on the Keeler farm. In 1862 he founded a carriage factory in Burlington, NJ that became world famous and made him wealthy. By the early 1900’s Birch employed hundreds of workers in his 15 acre factory and was producing 100,000 carriages a year. He developed mass production techniques that caught the attention of Henry Ford. Ford asked him to manufacture the bodies for his automobiles. Unfortunately, Birch believed that automobiles were a passing fad, and that nothing would ever replace the horse-drawn carriages he made. He declined Ford’s offer. Birch’s carriage factory was out of business by 1918. Birch always admired the Keeler White Oak under whose shade he spent many hours as a child. When he died, his family wished to line his grave with the leaves of his favorite tree. It was late autumn, and the only leaves left on the tree where high up and out of easy reach. A public utility company volunteered their linemen to scale the tree and gather enough leaves to honor the wish of this local celebrity’s family.
The Keeler White Oak in UCNJ’s Historic Tree Grove was grown from an acorn collected from the original tree, and planted into the Grove in 2005. The original tree is no longer surrounded by farmers’ fields. Suburbia has developed around it in recent years, but the tree has been protected and seems to be thriving.