By Sally Quinn.
Originally published in The Review, Spring 2021, Volume 59, Number 1
I admit that I was pulled in the minute I heard that the tree had a trust fund! The tree in question is the huge sprawling oak roughly across from the corner of Lees Hill and Youngs Roads. It is famous as the oldest tree in Harding, though I am not sure how that was ascertained. It is certainly the most impressive!
It is on the property once owned by Warren Kinney, a successful businessman, whose father and uncle founded the Kinney Tobacco Company, which merged with several other companies to become the American Tobacco Company. Warren Kinney’s family lived in Kinnelon (yes, there is a relationship between those names!) but moved to New Vernon in 1924 so their children, Francis and Joan, could attend the Peck School. The farm was over 300 acres, running from a bit beyond Lindsley Road to the Harding Township School and on both sides of Lees Hill Road. He brought with him his Brown Swiss herd of prize winning cows, and the farmhouse, if one might call it that, and its outbuildings still sit on the corner of Lees Hill and Youngs Roads.
The tree is on the other side of the road; a plaque was put on it by Francis and Joan at the time of their father’s death. One grandchild, Anne Kinney Duffy, lives on Youngs Road with her husband, John, and she and the five other Warren Kinney grandchildren are the “tree angels.” Although the tree and the land it sits on is now owned by someone else, an easement was put on that property in 1983 so that the Kinney family “could nurture the tree from time to time.” This group arranges for an annual “wellness visit” by Tree Tech and that bill is split among them. So, no, there isn’t a trust fund, but the stewardship by the Kinney family of this tree is even more impressive, I think. Look for the centuries-old “Kinney Oak” when you travel Lees Hill. Its story is part of what makes New Vernon so special.
[Editors note: It is reported that the tree sustained heavy damage in mid-August 2024. We will update when more is known about the state of the tree.]
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