Page 44 - The Hunt - Fall 2022

Moving forward, Brandywine Conservancy
has undertaken
a master plan
for Birmingham Hill Preserve. The overarching goals are to honor
the history of Sept. 11, 1777, conserve natural resources,
offer access to the public, and develop interpretative programs.
42 THE HUNT MAGAZINE
fall 2022
pickup to the event,” says Watson, who recalls his early days in dressage, when his mother would judge him in indoor arenas while piping in Beethoven.
Though she came from family money, Odell once sold Avon door to door, driving first husband Henry K. Watson II’s Rolls-Royce. “You’d never know she had two nickels to rub together,” says Watson, son of Henry. “She wasn’t a flashy person and didn’t like flashy things. She was going to die with her boots on at that farm.”
Odell kept the Brandywine Conservancy waiting nearly two decades in an uphill battle to secure Birmingham Hill, the final puzzle piece in a 25-year, $17.3 million quest to acquire and preserve 485 contiguous acres around the Meetinghouse Road Corridor
in Birmingham Township where the fiercest Battle of Brandywine fighting took place in September 1777.
Odell was the last woman standing, adamant in refusing to part with her property. About 20 years ago, other
nearby landowners had bitten the “for
the good of all” bullet for a combined
$8.1 million, working with the conservancy, the local government and what is now Natural Lands. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Brigham protected their 55 acres in 2001. The Spackman Family Trust placed an easement on its 110 acres a year later. Natural Lands now holds those. In 2003, Mr. and Mrs. William Wylie permanently protected their 11 acres, and the Worth Family Trust followed suit, granting an easement on 115 acres. Both families worked with the conservancy.
For federal funds, Brandywine Conservancy sought an earmark secured with the passage of 1999’s Pennsylvania Battlefields Protection Act. The conservancy and partners lobbied, attended hearings and even hosted Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt on
a battlefield tour. Once authorized, three successive appropriations were approved to fund the preservation projects through grants from the National Park Service. Brandywine
JIM GRAHAM