Sanctuary in Sewickley

              Sanctuary in Sewickley
Residents Unite to Save the Birds
A light mist was falling on a cool
April evening in 1914 as a small
group of prominent Sewickley residents gathered at the newly refurbished mansion on the bluff overlooking the Ohio River.
Their hostess was Mary Roberts
Rinehart, the noted writer and war
correspondent, but the purpose of
the meeting was not literary. Rather,
it was ornithological — birds!
The impetus for the gathering was
a reaction to the wholesale slaughter
of wild birds. W.E.C. Todd of the
Ornithological Department of Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh had
spoken of the wide variety of birds,
from terns to herring gulls, which
were being killed for food and feathers — the plumage being widely used
for decorative apparel.
The issue had come to the nation's
attention as early as 1886 when
George Bird Grinnell, editior of Forest and Stream magazine, had called
upon his readers to help stop the
By Leo Stember
slaughter and save the birds.
Grinnell suggested that an organization be formed to protect and
preserve bird life. Living in Ohio
near the home of John James Audubon (the famous painter of birds)
may have accounted for Grinnell's
decision to name such an organization in honor of Audubon. Nearly a
decade later, the first official chapter of the Audubon Society was
formed in Boston.
Mary Roberts Rinehart had heard
Todd speak in Pittsburgh on the
matter, was moved to action and
gathered some friends together to
form a group in Sewickley devoted
to the study and protection of birds.
As a result of that meeting, a committee of Mrs. John J. Edson, Walter
C. Miller and George Mark, principal of the Sewickley School, drafted an announcement for the Sewickley Herald, inviting all interested
persons to an organizational meeting to be held on the evening of
April 28, 1914, in Room 29 of the
Sewickley Public School.
It was then that the aims of the
group were formally set forth: to
educate by means of illustrated talks
on bird life, to observe birds on scheduled walks in the nearby countryside, and to protect wild birds in
the community. The officers chosen
at the meeting reflected the reservoir of qualified and capable individuals interested in the natural
world around them. John M. Tate,
Jr. was elected president; Bayard
H. Christy, George H. Clapp, W.E.C.
Todd and Norman McClintock, honorary vice presidents; and Miss
Elizabeth S. Anderson, secretary-
HISTORY ROOl/
On Arbor Day in 1915, the
Sewickley school children
gathered to proudly display
their handiwork — 50 new
homes for birds in the Sewickley Valley.
Sewickley Magazine, October 1984 -Jjl