DHJ:: The Days Before Yesterday

50 Years Ago
Late Summer/Early Autumn 1953
by Maurice Telleen
published in The Draft Horse Journal, Autumn 2002

The jockeying for position was over. The two big political parties both held their nominating conventions in Chicago–at the International Ampitheatre right out at the old Union Stock Yards. I guess things weren’t “as refined,” nor had most of today’s huge convention centers been built. What was left of the old stock yards and its ampitheatre were still good enough.

On July 12 of that year, the Republicans nominated General Dwight D. Eisenhower on the first ballot. Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the son of a former president and the man called “Mr. Republican,” who had coveted this office for years was done in by the WW II commanding general in the European theatre. I suppose you could say there was a right wing and a center–the center prevailed in this case. The eastern or “Dewey wing” of the party was the victor.

For his running mate he chose a 39 year old member of Congress from California, Richard Nixon, who had been a junior naval officer in WW II–far from any lofty command posts. But it was not a case of plucking him from obscurity. Nixon had called a lot of attention to himself with his pursuit of communists in government as a member of the House Un-American Activities committee and then defeated a popular Democrat, Helen Gahagen Douglas, to enter the Senate.

Eisenhower promised to wage “a great crusade”–his second, the first was military and the second was political.

Two weeks later the Democrats moved into the stock yards for their whingding and on the third ballot nominated Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois. The other two chief contenders were Averell Harriman of New York and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Adlai was not totally enthused about the idea but he was President Truman’s anointed. In both parties, the defeated candidates had sought the prize more vigorously than the victors. The victors had to be sort of talked into it.

Down in Argentina a one of a kind woman died at the age of 33. She was Eva Peron, wife of the president, Juan Peron. Peron had come to power via the army. Eva came to power via the bedroom. She met Peron as a budding 15 year old singer and would-be actress. Peron took her as his mistress when he was Secretary of Labor–which was not unusual. What was unusual was that eventually he married her. She grew up in a hurry and was far more popular with the masses than her husband. She learned how to wield power, mercilously at times, and in 1951 “ran” for vice president. That was too much for Juan’s old army pals to swallow and she was forced to quit the contest–at the expense of a nervous breakdown followed by ovarian cancer. She had saved her husband’s bacon in 1945 when he was arrested for treason which was more than he was able to do for her six years later.

In August the Olympics, held in Helsinki, Finland, afforded some relief from the political games and power plays. The Soviet Union, which had been absent from the Olympics for some time, showed up. As with everything at that time, it was another round for the never ending face-offs between the superpowers–us and them. The Russians lost to the Yankees 553.5 to 614. That is not exactly what the Olympics was supposed to be all about. But you had to take your hat off to Emil Zatopek from Czechoslovakia who won two of the long distance races as well as the marathon. He had never entered a marathon before. When it was over he said it was boring. He was simply doing what he was good at. Running.

The hot movie that summer was “High Noon” with Gary Cooper. Very appropriate for 1952. Cooper was no windbag. Had he been asked if making High Noon was boring, he might have responded, “Yep.” He was good at making movies. “Just doing my job, you know.”

General Motors said it would offer air conditioning as an option on their 1953 models. They had tested it in Arizona and Texas. Which seems logical.

By August, our East Coast was experiencing a tremendous drought. I suppose it was “their turn.” But it was no laughing matter for our farming friends in the Atlantic Coast states.

Nixon’s train ran off the track in September when allegations were made that he had misused an $18,000 political fund. That sounds like small change in this age of Enron, but it was a big deal, for a few days, then. He responded with a tear jerker type TV speech, saying among other things “I am not a quitter” and calling attention to the fact that Pat, his wife, didn’t have a mink coat but instead “a respectable Republican cloth coat” and that he would NEVER return the little Cocker Spaniel puppy that his 6 year old daughter, Tricia, had named Checkers.

With winter coming on anyhow Jeannine immediately rushed out and bought a plain cloth coat (with lining) and we renamed our dog Checkers.

(Disclaimer: Jeannine, my in-house critic and editor, was reading this over and pointed out one tiny little flaw. She states, correctly, that we hadn’t even met one another at that time, nor did either one of us have a dog at that time. But, if we had already met and did have a dog–that is what we would have done. So I’m going to let that offending paragraph stand because the rest is not just “made up.”)

In some respects it seems like a terribly long time ago, and other times it appears that things haven’t changed as much as we thought. This probably makes me a real fossil but one of the few clear impressions I retain from that fall was going to a fairly small town to hear candidate Eisenhower speak, from the back of a train if you can imagine that, to whoever showed up. Truman had “whistle stopped” his way to an upset victory just four years earlier. I think ‘48 and ‘52 ended the train business for presidential candidates.

Some years later we took our older kids in our air conditioned General Motors vehicle (I was in the Buick phase of my life) up to the Twin Cities to board an Amtrak train for Livingston, Montana. There we rented a car, went down to Yellowstone for a few days and hung out in one of those old Teddy Roosevelt cabins. It was great. But it was hotter than hell on that train going out through Minnesota, North Dakota and eastern Montana. The air conditioning didn’t work. Apparently it had not been tested in Arizona and Texas. Progress is always hit and miss.

The draft horse business was slumbering to say the least. It was down to the faithful few. The National Percheron Show at the Ohio State Fair did bring out an entry of 87 head, which was a lot in 1952! Penn State, with Elmer Taft at the helm, had grand champion stallion on Director U.L.C. Sherman Read and his daughter Marilyn (for years now, Mrs. Bob Robinson) had the junior champion on Magic Topper. Leonard Hay and Son (John) showed a 2 year. old, LaRetta–a daughter of LaDon, to junior and grand champion mare, with Penn State claiming senior and reserve grand on Lynda Hope. George Dix was still at it, winning all the reserve champion ribbons in the stallion classes and reserve senior mare. Herb Gibson, Upper Sandusky, Ohio, had the reserve junior mare. All things considered, it was an amazingly strong show.

The morning after the tornado at the 1952 Missouri State Fair. The administration building fared pretty well, while the new brick 4–H buildings went down. Tents didn’t stand a chance.
Courtesy of the Sedalia Democrat, Sedalia, Missouri

One other oddity from that year’s shows is a simple mention that a sorrel stallion was named grand champion Percheron at the Minnesota State Fair. And not just because an old Belgian man, Les Wilson–the manager of Boulder Bridge Farms–was judging. His name was Staynerville King and he was owned and exhibited by Lloyd E. Hanson, Owatonna, Minnesota who championed the sorrel color.

Two grand old breeders who passed away were James Coddington from Lynn, Indiana, and I.H. “Harv” Laverty, from Indianola, Iowa. James Coddington is the father of Ralph, long time breeder and board member from Indianapolis, Indiana. Harv had been a Percheron breeder for 48 years at the time of his death and was a good friend of Jeannine’s father down at Indianola.

The annual Indiana Field Day at Lynnwood Farm, Carmel, Indiana, brought out the faithful. The inevitable judging contest was held and Mrs. Esther Coddington beat all the other female judges. In the youth division, Parke M. Brown won the 4-H judging trophy. He was described as “one of our most enthusiastic young Percheron men” and “as the son of P.T. Brown.” Well, he is still the son of P.T. Brown. He is still enthusiastic–although possibly more controlled about it. He is no longer young. And he is, and has been for many years, a well known and highly regarded Clydesdale breeder and is a past president of the Clyde association. A leopard cannot change his spots, but a man can change his mind.

The Belgian picture was a bit brighter. They even outnumbered the Percherons by a substantial number at Ohio–and it was not their national show. Their national was still being held out at Waterloo, Iowa. So with the exception of Meadow Brook from Michigan and a few from Indiana shown by Charley House and Adrian Buck, there was no overlap of horses at the two shows. Ohio was larger than Waterloo.

Those two premier shows, Ohio and Waterloo, produced the same grand champions. They were the mare Linda, and the yearling stallion, Conquest–both bred, owned and exhibited by Meadow Brook Farm from Michigan. Rather than recite a lot of old winnings from 50 years ago, we will use quite a few photos from that 1953 Belgian Review.

Here is Charley House presenting the House Trophy for grand champion 4-H colt at the 1952 Indiana State Fair to Norma Buck with her yearling filly, Catherine Farceur. Norma is the daughter of Adrian Buck, long time Belgian breeder from Otterbein, Indiana. Catherine also won the open yearling filly class at both Ohio and Indiana and placed 2nd at the National in Waterloo that year.

As for general commentary, it seems to me that the benefit to the breed of having two of their great pre-war hobby stables, Meadow Brook and Water Cress, both from Michigan, carry on through those lean times is hard to overestimate. The ownership of both farms did not bail out as did most wealthy owners in the ‘40s. They kept right on breeding horses as though it mattered and they set a high standard for others. The men in charge of both places, Don McKarns at Water Cress and Harold Clark at Meadow Brook, kept right on making matings carefully and presenting their horses to the public as though the country depended on them to do it well. Those two outfits did much to maintain the pride necessary to keep the draft horse business going. All the breeds are indebted to those two Michigan stables for carrying on through that time as though the future depended on them. It did. There were many others too, of course, but it helps to have a couple of real battleships like that in your fleet.

Being somewhat hung over yet from doing that Earle Brown thing in the last issue, I paid a little more attention than normal to the Minnesota State Fair results. I was surprised to see that the Gluek Brewing Company of St. Paul was still showing what amounted to a full string at Minnesota. They seemed to have home bred mares in about every class. Les Wilson, the manager at Boulder Bridge Farm at Excelsior–just a few miles from the fairgrounds, was judging. Boulder Bridge had given up on the Belgians by then. Boulder Bridge was real quality–like Meadow Brook and Water Cress. I don’t think Gluek lasted much longer than 1952. The days of having two millionaire Belgian stables, Brown and Boulder Bridge, right close to the fairgrounds were over.

While on the subject of Minnesotans, I was surprised to see that Elmer Jones, LeSueur, Minnesota, was doing so much hitching at Waterloo –and doing well. He even won the team class–and my guess is that he beat all those geldings with a team of mares.

As previously mentioned, we will “do the Belgians from ‘52” with a group of pictures from that 1952 show season. As for the Clydes, they have no breed publications to go back to. The only thing I have are the 1952 Iowa State Fair results where 33 head of Clydes were shown. Charley Willhoit from Batavia, Iowa, won most everything in the stallions and John Brown from Earlham and Frank Martin from Plymouth, Indiana, divided up the mare goodies. All three were sort of farmer/breeder types–although Frank was a county sheriff. The only serious money person entered, Nathan Goff from Clarksburg, West Virginia, never showed up. The only Clyde presence in the harness classes was in the cart and team classes. The fours and sixes at Des Moines were all Belgians.

This picture of Porath’s four-in-hand appeared in their 1953 BELGIAN REVIEW ad. The mares in the lead and the geldings on the wheel had both won their respective pair classes at the American Belgian Show at Ohio in the fall of ‘52. Spartan, the off gelding had also won the single cart in both ‘51 & ‘52 and been reserve champion halter horse in ‘51. Wolverine, the near wheel horse had been the 1952 reserve champ and he was going to the Indiana Sale in 1953. Marletta Farceur, the near lead mare, who had won the yeld mare class at Toronto, was also headed for the 1953 sale in Indianapolis.

Perhaps the most surprising thing you can pull out of the numbers from 1952 is that the classes for foals and yearlings were large. They weren’t quitting. And they weren’t kidding themselves into thinking those colts would make ‘em rich either. They kept on raising them because it gave them pleasure and that is what they did. That is the sort of mind set and logic that would drive a budding stock broker nuts.

That particular state fair must have been snake bit with damaging storms in the early 50s. We have already mentioned the tornado of 1952. We figured that was enough storm damage for one fair to have to suffer through. Then, from the Sedalia Public Library, comes this report of another one just two years later.

On the closing night of the 1954 fair a windstorm ripped through the fairgrounds at 6 P.M. The following is from the Sedalia Democrat of Monday, August 30, 1954.

“Several persons were injured, one critically, as a result of the high wind. The stage show was delayed about a half hour when the wind whipped the scenery from the stage in front of the grandstand and destroyed most of it so the show went on with a bare stage.

“Joe Kenna, Hollywood, Calif., master of ceremonies of the stage show was struck by a flying object and suffered a severe laceration on his right arm. He was treated at the hospital on the fair grounds and returned to the show”.

He probably wasn’t the first master of ceremonies struck by a flying object . . . but this one wasn’t thrown. At any rate, he carried on in the best “the show must go on” tradition of show business.

A large diesel generator caught fire on the carnival grounds. It was definately an exciting closing night at the Missouri State Fair.

Next year, when making out your show schedule you might want to consider Missouri. If you are looking for a little extra excitement.