A Land Trust Jewel in an Out-of-Way Place
The Jennie Vedder Tract
by David Anderson

Looking for a new spot and a small adventure to include on a walk this Fall? (Fall is, of course, the best time for nature walks - no bugs, crisp air, bright leaves.) A short side trip off the Stony Creek Trolley Trail will take you to the Jennie Vedder Memorial Stone. It rests atop a cliff overlooking a wide expanse of marsh land with Long Island Sound and the Thimble Islands in the distance - a striking vista.

The massive polished Memorial Stone has a story to tell about the extraordinary woman who gave the Land Trust most of the marshes and woodlands on Pleasant Point.

Jennie Vedder was born and raised on Pleasant Point. She was the second of six sisters in a family in which her mother read aloud from the Bible each night. Her father, a fiercely independent man, earned a modest living building and repairing boats.

After attending the local schools and earning a degree from the State Normal School, Jennie returned to teach in Branford for the next decade. Then, in 1925, at the age of 33, she suddenly pulled up stakes and moved to New York City - a single woman, knowing no one there, or what job she might get. Moreover, she moved straight to Greenwich Village - the haunt of artists and writers. As it turned out, she quickly adapted. She lived and thrived there for the next thirty-eight years.

She got a job as a secretary with the American News Company, and over the years rose to an executive secretary position. She enrolled in night classes in nearby New York University, and eventually earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in English Literature. She was elected to membership in the Men's and Women's Honor Society of NYU, an organization she stayed active in for many years.

All during this period, her ties to her family and to the land never weakened. She made frequent trips back to Branford. Whenever a part of Pleasant Point came up for sale, she somehow found the money to buy it - once even borrowing money from her boss to do so. To her nieces and nephews, Jennie became the fairy godmother. She brought them down in ones and twos to see the sights of New York, including the 1935 World's Fair.

As a side activity, Jennie taught language to immigrants, and late in life, just as she turned 70, she earned a second Master's Degree in Reading Instruction. She also wrote poetry, although she never told anyone she did until very near the end of her life.

Her poems reflected a life of many facets, which surprised family members who thought they knew her well. She wrote of the joy she found in cities, especially New York City; of love at middle age; of falling down stairs (mocking herself for often doing so). But most of all, she wrote of nature, sometimes as parable, sometimes as songs of joy. These were poems accessible to a wide range of readers. There was enough sustained interest in these poems among friends and neighbors that, two years after Jennie's death, a volume of some fifty poems was published, together with photographs of places and people who were part of her life.* Requests for the volume exceeded expectation and the initial printing was soon depleted.

In 1963, Jennie retired from her job in New York and moved back to Branford into her childhood home, which remained much the same as it had been in the 1920's. No radio or television (but lots of books); an oil stove in the living room heated the whole house; there was only one light bulb up stairs, in the bathroom. Jennie, again, adapted easily.

At this time, she now owned all the undeveloped land on Pleasant Point. She could have sold it for a million dollars or more and lived a lavish lifestyle. Instead, she chose a lifestyle not greatly different from her early upbringing, and continued in it for the final two decades of her life.

In 1980, Jennie deeded the bulk of her property, 27 acres, to the Branford Land Trust, but retained a lifetime interest in her estate. She was supported in this decision by her relatives, who were aware of how intensely Jennie felt about preserving the land.

In 1981, Jennie's health began to fail rapidly, and she could no longer live alone. She lived the final months of her life in a nursing home, dying at age 90.

The Land Trust believed that what Jennie did to acquire and preserved the land she cherished was such an inspirational story that it could not be allowed to fade away. It had something important to say to anyone considering preserving land in its natural state. The Land Trust arranged for a Memorial Stone, which gives a brief description of Jennie's donation and what she did to make it happen.

Stony Creek Granite Corporation donated the stone, a huge piece of polished granite. The New Haven Trap Rock Co. (now Tilcon) provided heavy equipment and engineering skills needed to bring the stone to the dra-matic site selected for the Memorial.

We sincerely hope you will pay a visit to the Vedder Stone this Fall.

* Copies are available at local libraries.