Published: October 31, 2009 10:35 pm         

Jackson/Schnyder Nature Preserve dedicated

TERRE HAUTE — Land with a story now has a name. Two names, in fact.

“I think that, first of all, we were all quite pleased with how that all worked out,” Paul Newport said Saturday after the dedication of the Jackson/Schnyder Nature Preserve, woods once owned by his grandfather. “Grandpa Schnyder loved that property.”

Roughly 20 acres west of St. Mary-of-the-Woods College are now under the protection of the Oubache Land Conservancy, an outgrowth of the Sycamore Trails Resource Conservation and Development Council. Donated by Marion Jackson, a retired ecology professor at Indiana State University and St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, it will serve as an outdoor laboratory for science classes, nature lovers and students, officials said.

“It’s a really nice natural area and hasn’t been timbered for probably over 70 years, at least,” Phil Cox, vice president for the OLC said. Large trees and native wildflowers adorn the area, making it a nature student’s dream, he said.

And to many, that seemed fitting for land which once fulfilled the dream of an immigrant boy.

Julius Schnyder was born Aug. 1, 1889 in Switzerland. His grandson recalled that Schnyder was between his second and third year when both parents and his siblings left for America, leaving him in the care of a neighboring family. He was 15 years old when he came to America to join his family, all of whom shared the dream of becoming “men of property.”

“Because they weren’t that in Switzerland,” Newport noted, emphasizing the importance his ancestors placed on the status of being landowners. His grandfather became a U.S. citizen in 1909, married and had five children. He bought the wooded property in September of 1929, just before the stock market crash which preceded the Great Depression. Over the ensuing decades he used the property as a home while running a dry goods store in the nearby village of St. Mary-of-the-Woods.

Newport said his grandmother died in 1968. His grandfather, turning 80 himself in 1969, was forced to sell the property after 40 years there due to declining health. The sale, Newport said, broke the old man’s heart as he felt he was no longer a landowner, left with just “a bunch of money.”

But for the dozens of descendants gathered at the dedication, memories were awash of Memorial Days past spent listening to radio broadcasts of the Indianapolis 500 over picnics. “And we have memories of that property that are just great,” he said.

Schnyder died a year after the sale on his 81st birthday.

The land was purchased by a young college professor, Marion Jackson, who remembers Schnyder as “a very nice gentleman.”

For 40 years, Jackson, who taught ecology at ISU and St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, used the property as a “personal retreat” and outdoor laboratory for his students. The land, which hasn’t been timbered, contains an older growth forest and wide selection of plant and animal species, he said.

Now 76 years old himself, Jackson said he wants to ensure the property remains protected from development.

“Well, I’d had this in mind for some time,” he said of the conservancy. “I thought that when we formed the Wabash land trust a few years ago, that’s what I’d have in mind.”

Jackson said his acquaintance with one of Schnyder’s daughters and sons-in-law led to the original purchase, and said he was quite impressed with the family turnout Saturday. He added that he hadn’t realized until lately that both he and Schnyder owned the property for the same number of years, but had long felt it fitting to include both names on the preserve.

Cox said a handshake agreement had existed between the two men to not harvest live trees on the property. The honoring of that agreement has increased its value to future students, he said, noting Jackson’s work editing “The Natural Heritage of Indiana” and authorship of “101 Trees of Indiana.”

Newport said he and Schnyder’s descendants are likewise happy with the arrangement and look forward to bringing future generations of the family to see their ancestor’s name on the plaque.

“Now,” Newport said, “he’s a man of property forever.”

Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.