Prestons' story told; legacy to be celebrated in park tour
Bob Shott is familiar with the story of Butler Township conservationist couple Frank and Jane Preston.
The storyteller, Polly Shaw, a local expert and author on the county's state parks, spoke recently about the Prestons in a packed conference room at the State Parks Region 2 Office in Muddy Creek Township.
Shott of Penn Township, who knew Preston and his wife, Jane, for more than 60 years, reflected on the history using pictures, maps and bullet points. Shott's father, Alex, was one of Frank Preston's first and longest-tenured employees.
“They saw me grow up because I was always there,” he said. “I worked for them when I was a teenager.”
After going to law school and becoming an attorney, Shott assisted Jane Preston in bequeathing their park property — with special requirements — to Butler Township's care. He said the plantings, landscaping and the energy invested into their property on Eberhart Road made it a great agreement for the township.
“Once she made the decision, she stuck to it,” he said. “Good faith on both sides resulted in a gem.”
Shott's mixture of personal and professional relationship with the Prestons allowed him to act as a fact-checker for Shaw's presentation.
“It was a very good. It was very accurate,” he said. “She's done her homework.”
Preston the naturalist
Shaw, a former Seneca Valley elementary school teacher and Portersville resident, said Frank Preston's birthplace had a lot to do with his discovery of a potential park in Butler County.
Preston was born May 14, 1896, in Leicester, England, which offered a unique education on glacial remnants, according to Shaw. She said Preston's hometown is directly related to his ability to analyze and acknowledge the presence of similar remnants in the Muddy Creek Flats.
“This would have been an idea he would have noted from his childhood,” she said.
As a child, Frank Preston spent a lot of time outdoors, developing a profound interest in plants and animals, especially birds, Shaw said.
“(He) definitely had that strong interest in nature all his life,” she said.
Preston began more serious studies at Wyggeston Boys School in Leicester. He then was articled — a contractual form of apprenticeship — to Henry Walker in Loughbough, England. Preston also took night classes.
“You went, and they taught as you were working,” Shaw said.
While attending school, many of Preston's classmates went to serve in World War I, and many perished.
Preston himself was drafted during his apprenticeship. But he received an exemption due to color-blindness and myopia, or short-sighted vision, despite his contradictory letter to the draft board of his desire to serve.
After serving his apprenticeship and earning three degrees, Preston found a job with Soughton Street Glassworks, working in the development of lens polishing.
He rose quickly to director of research, which led him to Standard Plate Glass in Butler in 1922.
Shaw said he stayed for a few years in his first stint, just long enough to be invited to Slippery Rock one day, for some ice cream. While a co-worker drove North on Old Route 8, Preston first noticed the remnants of the ancient glacier in the Muddy Creek Flats to the East.
“This man can read landscapes,” Shaw said. “He's looking at land a whole way different probably from you and I.”
In 1925, Preston returned to England to receive a doctorate. He then toured the world, visiting various countries and grand monuments.
<b>Preston Labs</b>By the following year, Preston had returned to the area, starting his own glass research business in East Butler. After 10 years, he bought 88 acres on Eberhart Road and built the first of what would become a five-building complex for Preston Labs.Shaw said at first residents didn't understand the purpose of a laboratory or research. In his journals, Preston recalled various accounts of residents' speculations and simplifications of the lab.“The residents of Meridian had no idea what we were doing there,” Preston said “They did not know what research was.”As new buildings and departments were added to Preston Labs — which employed between 20 to 25 scientists — the landscape surrounding the facility also developed. By 1939, most of today's trails around Preston Park had been added for employee use.“On Saturday mornings employees were encouraged to walk paths and mingle with people from different departments,” Shaw said. The landscape and the business further developed with some assistance from Jane Preston, who Frank married on his birthday in 1942, only a few months after his naturalization as an American citizen.<b>Following a dream</b>Frank and Jane shared a love for the outdoors, and they would often take drives together in their free time, which brought Frank Preston back to Muddy Creek Flats, according to Shaw.There he found friends in fellow explorers. Chief among them was Edmund Watts Arthur, whom Preston met in 1946. Arthur was a lawyer, conservationist and amateur geologist. Together the two mapped the area of the ancient glacial lake.Arthur died in 1948.“They only had two years together,” Shaw said. “But, he and Preston, in the time they had, did their exploration together.”On Oct. 21, 1948, less than two weeks after Arthur's death, Preston made the decision to bring their dream to fruition.The pair had wanted to re-create the glacial lake and preserve it and other nature sites, like McConnells Mill. Preston already had a jump-start, since he owned about 300 acres on Whiporwill Hill, which had been turned down by his wife as a potential site for a new home.“By and by, I got the idea of designating the whole valley a preserve, wildlife refuge and state park,” Preston said.Arthur partnered with men like Otto Emery Jennings, a fellow conservationist; Butler County Judge George Kiester; and M. Graham Netting, a director of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, to work with the newly restructured Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to begin preserving local nature parks.McConnells Mill State Park and Jennings Nature Reserve were acquired in the 1940s and 1950s. Acquiring about 3,000 acres for Moraine State Park took about five years, and was completed in the 1960s.Shaw said as the conservancy gained strength and committed to more projects, Preston became less active and hands-on in the park's development.He refocused on his studies, earning more degrees and doing more work in the fields of glass and conservation.“He was writing and contributing,” Shaw said.In 1959, Preston sold his business to American Glass Research, which continues its work today.The dam was completed in 1968, and the Lake Arthur was filled to its full level by 1970.Moraine State Park was dedicated on May 23, 1970. Frank Preston attended with a geology hammer with the “Excalibur” etched into its metal. The hammer belonged to Arthur, and Preston handed the hammer to a park manager with some words of instruction, according to Shaw.She said the hammer was never seen again, but she likened the story to that of the Lady of the Lake in which King Arthur's Excalibur is received from a magical area in the middle of a lake, where the sword is later returned.Preston wrote his own biography from journals he kept throughout his life. The work was published in 1977. Only 12 books were produced, with one being available for careful reading in the Butler Public Library.Preston died March 1, 1989, at the age of 92.<b>Preston Park</b>Jane Preston survived her husband by 19 years. In her will, which Shott helped write and legalize, she gave all 88 acres to Butler Township and donated about $2 million in savings, with the interest-earned to help sustain the park.In 2012, Preston Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places.Anthony Stagno, a volunteer co-leader for the Monday Morning maintenance crew which cares for Preston Park, said the presentation represents the park's history well.“She did a good job. There was a lot of information,” Stagno said. “She told me things I didn't know.”Shaw noted that much of the work being done at Preston Park is done by volunteers. She said the park also offers tours that are open to the public and free.A public tour of the park is slated to begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.Dave Heltzell, the other volunteer co-leader of the maintenance crew, said registration is required, and he appreciates Shaw's support in advocating for volunteers and education on an influential figure.“Our tour is the visuals of the actual park,” Heltzell said. “What she gives is the background for the park.”Shott said Frank and Jane Preston's legacy will only flourish under the storytelling of Shaw and an informed new generation. He said the Prestons only ever wanted people to enjoy the nature that they cultivated.“It's a gift to us, to this generation, and it's a gift that we need to evaluate it and continue with it,” Shott said.
