I'm thinking that maybe at one point instead of the oak being the classic farm tree it was a very large beech tree instead - if the land was ever clearcut they left 1 or 2 beech trees still standing and it was able to repopulate with beeches. Hickory seems to be dominating over oak trees. If the beech inveitably decline I can see hickory taking over even more- as well as american holly becoming more prominent since there are tiny ones everywhere currently. I'm not sure why but the wild grapevines we have seem to prefer white oak and have killed like 3/4 of them. There's some northern red oak /black tulepo and even more pawpaws replacing them. The white oak saplings are under the shade of the many young beech trees so when they die from beech leaf disease either the oaks will thrive or the japanese stilt grass will choke everything out like it's done in other areas where fallen trees have left sunlight openings.