At 400 years old, Topsfield tree enjoys late middle age and looks forward to many more years

TOPSFIELD — The history around here includes artefacts from the 11,000-year-old prehistoric finds at Bull Brook to houses built by the first English settlers around 400 years ago.

But between Essex County Co-op and the Topsfield Police Department on Route 1, there is some living history.

It dropped to the ground as an acorn around the time a great plague wiped out the local Native American population.

It sprouted and grew into an oak sapling around the time Gloucester was established, some 25 years before Topsfield itself was incorporated.

Now an estimated 400 years young and still standing strong, the oak tree passed a routine physical on Thursday and got a wee spruce-up into the bargain.

Facilitated by Kinship Farm of Hamilton, the check-up, which took place on a bitterly cold Thursday morning, included members of the Co-op, the Topsfield Historical Society, and Chris Wood’s team from Heirloom Tree Care.

“It’s really an extraordinary tree,” Wood said. “I don’t know if it’s a state champ, but it might be close to a state champ in terms of girth.”

Unlike trees in forests forced to compete vertically for light, Topsfield’s is a pasture tree. That means it had room to expand sideways.

Wood examined the old white oak, walked around the wide trunk, did a “sounding” to look for cavities, and reported back to the group.

“You can tell it’s completely hollow,” he said as he took a rake and pushed it through a hole in the trunk until the handle was almost all the way in.

History, droughts, moths

But don’t worry! He said it is common for old oak trees to have hollows and that this tree was still healthy.

Although it has lived through literally all of the high and low points of American history, the last few years have been tough, Wood said.

Droughts in 2016 and 2022 were severe, and a gypsy moth outbreak added to the misery, he noted.

Work on Thursday included removing dead wood and raking material away from the base. “What we want to see at the base of a tree is root flare, where it swells out,” Wood said.

It was common in years past for landscapers to build mulch mounds around tree trunks, he said, but that is not done any more.

He estimated that he would carefully remove eight to 10 inches of the top base layer, which felt springy to the step.

Wood recommended that the tree be treated if there is another gypsy moth outbreak. “Ipswich, Rowley got hammered three years ago” and lost a lot of oaks, he recalled.

Noting that the co-op was established in 1917, when the oak was a mere 300 or so years old, general manager Wesley Leavitt said, “It’s extremely important to take care of.”

Leavitt started working at the co-op last September but, he said, “I’ve been coming here since I was four years old. I grew up in Boxford.”

“I wasn’t even aware of it [the tree], coming here over the years. It’s kind of a hidden gem,” he said.

Kinship

Not a traditional farm, Kinship runs a number of community programs. With a deadline of December 25, its Christmas Trees Project takes applications in the Essex County area for new trees, plantings, tree-care instructions, and hands-on tree care.

“We’re farming spirituality, healthy relationships,” said Wendy Roberts, assistant executive director.

But not food? “We have a food program, too,” laughed founder and board member Susan Jostyn.

As for history, Martha Sanders of the Topsfield Historical Society credited board member Bill Whiting for a lot of education around the tree.

“He has this concept of making history more attainable or interesting by linking it to things like old trees. It puts it into context,” she said. “They’ll look at a tree and think about its age and what has happened.”

Whiting helped organize placement of two signs in front of the tree to celebrate its importance.

In a handout with a speech from the markers’ dedication, the speaker noted, “The reason it was not taken down long ago to build a barn in Topsfield or a ship in Essex is that it was an unusually shaped tree that apparently not even worth cutting into firewood.”

Asked about the expected lifespan of the tree, Wood doubted it would see another 400 years. “I’d love to see another strong 50 to 100 years,” he said. “Ultimately, this is an heirloom. It’s an irreplaceable part of the community.”

Meanwhile, the historical society has taken an even longer view. At 2018’s Arbor Day celebration, it planted a white oak in front of the Joseph Gould Barn. Should it live as long, the society said the two trees’ lifespans will stretch over 1,000 years of Topsfield history.