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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 25 |
Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: October 1987 Volume 25 Number 4, Pages 141–148 A Haven of Rest for Elderly Equines For a half dozen years, from 1927 to 1933, the rolling pastures and box stalls of Chesterbrook Farm were the home of thirty or so retired elderly horses and mules that had outlived their usefulness. They were placed there by the Ryerss' Infirmary for Dumb Animals, to live out the remainder of their days peacefully, well fed and well cared for. Ryerss' Infirmary for Dumb Animals was established by Robert W. Ryerss, a lawyer in Philadelphia, under the terms of the will of his step-mother, Anne Wain Ryerss. At that time, horses were still used to pull carriages and wagons and carts, fire engines and street cars, and worked hard. For several years the Ryersses had from time to time suggested that old and tired dray horses and horses that pulled street cars be put out to pasture rather than destroyed, and had even offered the use of their pastures for this purpose. When Anne Wain Ryerss died in 1888, by the terms of her will, she bequeathed $30,000 to charter and establish a hospital for "ill, aged and injured animals", with a trust fund of $40,000 set up for its maintenance. (The will also provided that "if at any time vivisection or any medical or surgical experiments shall be practiced upon any animals therein, said Charter shall be forfeited and the property of the said corporation shall go to the Society of Friends for a home for the instruction of the Indian Race".) Later that same year the Ryerss' Infirmary for Dumb Animals was incorporated as a charitable corporation by the Court of Common Pleas No. 2 of Philadelphia County. The first meeting of the Board of Directors was held on December 8, 1888,at which time a committee was appointed to form by-laws and to act as an Executive Committee "to consider such matters as might be brought before it" pending organization. Its proposed Constitution and By-Laws were approved the following May, and Robert W. Ryerss was elected the first president. (He continued to serve as president until September 1895, when he resigned because of ill health.) The objectives of the institution, as set forth in its Constitution, were "1. To provide without cost to the owners a temporary home for horses, mules and other animals belonging to cabmen, carters, tradesmen, and others, where a few weeks care and good treatment will enable many disabled animals to further work for years. "2. To provide a permanent home for old favorites, whose owners, instead of destroying or selling them, desire to place them under good treatment for the remainder of their days. "3. To provide either a permanent or temporary home for animals, subject to such regulations as may hereafter be established, and both the number and kind of animals shall be determined by the Board of Managers." The Infirmary was located on a portion of the Ryerss' farm, on Krewstown Road at Meeting House Road in Bustleton in North Philadelphia. John Whitely was employed to operate the farm; he was to receive as compensation $40 a month, use of the house (except for "such rooms as now or maybe reserved for the use of or by the Society"), one-third of the eggs produced, the use of the cow, the privilege of raising a pig, and the use of one-half of an acre of ground for gardening purposes. To assist him, Henry Whitely was also employed at $20 a month. It was expected that the farm would be opened and ready for the reception of animals on or about the first of June 1889. (Actually, the first animal, the aforementioned cow, had been received on April 1st "in good condition", a gift from Annie Wain to be a part of the farm operation.) The first horse, "old, blind and weak", arrived on June 11th, while the third arrival was an old dog which died not long after his admission. By April of the following year nine sick horses, eleven old horses, and one old mule had been received and admitted, as well as four dogs. In its early years the institution was operated primarily as an infirmary or hospital rather than as a rest or retirement home. At the end of the second year, in June 1891, it was reported that 56 animals had been placed at the institution altogether since its opening, of which 15 had been returned sound, 12 had died, and 29 were still on the farm. Actually, of the first 100 animals admitted to Ryerss', exactly half were at a later date returned to their owners as cured. From the beginning, Ryerss' Infirmary depended on the income from its trust fund and donations to meet its operating expenses. In 1906, however, the Board decided that when an owner was "able to pay a reasonable sum" for his animal's care he should pay a "$60 deposit for the first year, and for every succeeding year during the infirmary's care of the animal". Nonetheless, for a number of the horses, particularly those sent there by the S.P.C.A or purchased by the Infirmary or its Directors to keep them from being destroyed, there was no charge for their care. (One such case was a horse that formerly had hauled a bread wagon. When it was learned that he was to be disposed of, the customers along his route had him sent out to the Infirmary, where he passed his last days in contentment. And there were others like him.) Beginning in 1910 this group also included a number of old Philadelphia police and fire horses, special legislation in that year making it possible for the City to retire them rather than sell them to the highest bidder. The minimum age for admission to the Infirmary was usually 18, but there were exceptions for some horses. In 1909 the Ryerss' Infirmary bought two small farms along Valley Forge Road in Tredyffrin Township from the Morris Refuge Association for Homeless and Suffering Animals for one dollar. The larger of the two, containing ten acres and sixty-three perches, had been deeded to the Morris Refuge Association by the prominent Devon physician Dr. Richardson B. Okie, and his wife Mary G., in 1902, while the smaller one, containing eight acres "be it more or less considered the same", had been purchased by the Association in 1900 for $700 from the Rev. Thomas J. Aiken, the pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Berwyn. (The Morris Refuge Association was founded in 1874 by Elizabeth Morris to provide shelter and humane care for stray pets, particularly cats but also dogs. The Francis Vale Home and Cemetery on Upper Gulph Road in Radnor, incidentally, was originally established in 1899 as a "country outpost" of the Association. The particular reasons for Dr. Okie's and the Rev. Aiken's interest in the Morris Refuge Association would make an interesting research project.) The two farms were immediately rented out and made a source of income, the rentals netting Ryerss' several hundred dollars a year. (The income from the two properties in 1910 was $224.80; a decade later, in 1921, they produced an income of $302.36.) In 1918 an offer of $1700 for the smaller farm, described as "Farm #1", was turned down "as being entirely too small"; while in January 1921 another offer, for both properties, "by an agent, Mr. Smith by name, for an unknown purchaser, for the sum of $300.00 per acre or $5400 for the entire 18 acres" was similarly refused. But in the following month, on February 3, 1921, the two farms were sold for $6000 to Louise F. Browning, the wife of Edward Browning, the deed dated June 1st of that year. (They are now a part of the Jenkins Arboretum.) In the meantime, thirty acres of the farm at Bustleton had been purchased by the City of Philadelphia for $18,355.50 for use as a City Park. Despite these sales, Ryerss' Infirmary was having its financial problems, particularly in the face of needed repairs to the house and barn and other buildings and to the fencing in the pastures at the Bustleton farm. It was reported to the Board in December 1924 that the walls of the house were leaking, the sheds were out of repair, the porch posts were falling, the roof needed repointing and recoating, and the summer kitchen needed to be rebuilt. The problems became even more acute with the death of the president, Mrs. Frederick Thurston Mason, in early 1925. In May of that year it was proposed that the Treasurer, on behalf of the institution, place before the S.P.C.A. the possibility of its taking over the charges of Ryerss' Infirmary, and that "if this should prove impossible, and the finding of future officers [also] prove impossible, the farm would revert by will to the Society of Friends, [and] the horses would be returned to their owners or peacefully put to sleep". (Again, by the terms of Anne Wain Ryerss' will in 1888, under these circumstances the property would also become "a home for the instruction of the Indian Race".) With the election of a new president, however, Ryerss' Infirmary was able to continue in operation as a haven for old horses. In the meantime, there also had been several reports that the "farm was not properly caring for the animals" and that "liquor was being used on the premises [despite Prohibition]". When the Inspection Committee of the Board visited the property, however, it reported that conditions on the premises were "favorable at present." To ameliorate all these problems, in March 1926, a committee was appointed "to consider the advisability of selling the present farm [at Bustleton] and buying in a cheaper location." At a special meeting of the Board two weeks later, the advisability of purchasing "the McPhillips farm" at the Leopard in Easttown Township as a replacement for the Bustleton farm was considered. The McPhillips farm, it was pointed out, contained 157 acres, with two small houses and a large barn, and was situated on "a main road". At the same time, it was noted that a decision to buy the property would have tobe made promptly, and that as yet no offer had been received for the farm at Bustleton. The probable cost of the Easttown land was estimated to be $400 an acre, while two real estate experts, it was reported, had estimated they could sell the Bustleton property for $1200 an acre, though one of them was "not willing to put same in writing". After discussion, a motion was made to sell the Liberty Bonds held by the Infirmary and to use the proceeds to buy the McPhillips property if it could be bought for $60,000, but it was defeated by a seven to four vote. At the same time, the George F. Sales real estate agency was given sixty days in which to sell the Bustleton farm at $1500 an acre, $5000 in cash and the balance within 90 days. Although it was unable to find a buyer at that price, in June it reported that a firm offer of $1200 an acre had been received from H. B. Pierson. This offer was accepted, and the farm at Bustleton was sold for $94,244.46; $2500 at the signing of the agreement, $28,900 in cash at the time of settlement, and the balance under a mortgage to be paid in five years with interest at 6%. Arrangements were also approved in June for the horses and other animals in the Infirmary "to be placed temporarily in board at the Packard Laird Place, Berwyn, while the Inspection Committee and the Committee on Real Estate look about for another farm." Thus, the use of Chesterbrook Farm by the Ryerss' Infirmary for Dumb Animals began. At the time the sale of the place at Bustleton was completed, early in November, there were fourteen horses at the farm, one of them in such poor condition that he had to be put to sleep. The remaining thirteen were taken to their new home in Tredyffrin, where they were soon joined by a number of new arrivals. By the following April there were 23 horses on the farm, and in January 1928 the by-laws of the Infirmary were changed to raise the number of horses that could be accepted from 25 to 35. Among the newcomers were "Dick" and "John", the last two horses used by the Philadelphia Fire Company at Haverford Avenue and Preston Street, who were retired from pulling Chemical Engine No. 1 in December of 1927; four horses from the United States Navy Yard in Philadelphia; and a brown mare with a white star on her forehead, named "Nellie", who was owned by a Colonel Ellis and had served in Texas and Mexico during the border campaigns of 1916. (She was suffering from cancer on her left forefoot, and was put under the care of Dr. J. C. Bartholomew, a veterinarian in Berwyn. Although "everything possible" was done to care for her, she had to be destroyed four months later.) The newcomers also included several "old favorites" that came from nearby stables and some of whom had enjoyed outstanding careers as show horses, race horses, or jumpers. At least once a year, usually in May or June, the Board of Trustees of the Infirmary held one of its meetings at Chesterbrook Farm. ("I spoke to Mrs. Laird," R.A. Colgan, the farm manager, wrote to Miss Agnes Chase, the secretary of the institution, in the first summer, "about your holding your meeting here on May 10th next. She requests me to inform you that she will be very glad to have you hold the meeting on her lawn on that day. Also to have you use her house if so desired, in fact you can consider that Chesterbrook belongs to Ryers[s] on that day.") The perennial entries in the Minutes following these meetings, incidentally, are a testimonial to the care given to the horses by the farm, with such comments as "horses and fields are in unusually fine condition"; "condition of horses is excellent and, as usual, everything about the farm most satisfactory"; or that the horses were "in excellent condition and high spirits." But perhaps an even better indication of their care is reflected in an exchange of correspondence between Miss Chase and Mr. Colgan in early 1928. On February 4th Miss Chase wrote to Mr. Colgan: "My dear Mr. Colgan: "I have just had the pleasure of reading a charming little letter to Mrs. Tull by her horse "Sorrel", to thank her for some Christmas sugar. "I knew that Chesterbrook had had an excellent effect upon the general health of our horses, and now I see that it has developed not only their originality, but their sense of humor as well. I am sorry that I have not a 'Sorrel' there myself to send me such delightful letters." A few days later she received the following reply: "My dear Miss Chase: "I have just been informed that you are sorry you have not a 'Sorrel' to write you a letter. Well, you have not only a 'Sorrel' but 'Grays', Bays' and 'Browns', and when I informed them all of your feelings, they appointed me a committee of one to write and thank you for the interest you take in us all, so I am writing to express to you our deep appreciation of your kindness. "You must not think I do not know you. I recognize you every time you come here, I remember only a short time ago seeing a delightful young lady leading a pretty little black dog through our stables, or perhaps the dog was leading the lady, but at any rate I recognized you and that dear lady, Mrs. Easby, also -- please tell her that 'Duffy' sends his regards, and that her [name] plate has been put on his stall, and that he wants to see her soon again and not to forget to bring some sugar and carrots. "We all join in sending you our best wishes, and hope to see you soon again. 'SORREL'" Upon its receipt, she, in turn, wrote "My dear Sorrel: "I was very much pleased to receive your delightful letter, and the assurance that not only you, but the other horses as well, hold me in pleasant remembrance. You are quite right, it is the pup that does the leading and not I when we go out together, and the people in Rittenhouse Square say 'How well that dog exercises his mistress every morning.' We are both sorry we do not have a chance to 'exercise' in the country more often, and we enjoy our little trips to Ryerss very much. "I showed your letter to Mrs. Easby so that she might receive your message at first hand, and she liked it so well that I think she made a copy of it to show Chief Davis of the Fire Bureau. "Please remember me kindly to Mr. Colgan, and give my love to the horses as well as yourself. Sandy and I both hope to see you soon." It was the practice of the farm to have the horses out of their stalls as much as possible. As Mr. Colgan explained in a letter to Miss Chase, in the winter they did not "turn them [the horses] out in the early morning or on wet days, but on dry days when the sun is shining, and the temperature is above 20 degrees, I consider it beneficial for them [to goout]; if kept in the stable constantly they would soon get off their feed, their legs would get stocked up, and they would likely catch cold and develop pneumonia when they were turned out", adding "as it is they are all good and healthy and have good appetites".
Card admitting "Charlie" aged 24 to Ryefss' at Chesterbrook Farm As the numter of horses boarded at Chesterbrook increased, so too, of course, did the costs of their boarding. As early as in 1928, with the annual cost to Ryerss' for board almost $6800, it was suggested by the Board that the rates might be reduced, particularly for the horses not on full pasture, so that the Infirmary could place more horses from its waiting list there. Mr. Colgan, however, pointed out that while he too would like to have more horses from the Infirmary, he could not see his "way clear to make any reduction in our present rates and [still] give [the] horses the same care they are getting now". Nevertheless, the rates for boarding were eventually reduced in October 1932. With the Depression, however, the Board in April of the following year found it necessary to pass a resolution not to admit any more horses until there was "some improvement" in the Infirmary's financial picture. In the meantime, the purchaser of the Bustleton property had been "in consistent default" in his payments, taxes, and interest. In January 1933 the Trustees of the Infirmary voted to foreclose on the mortgage. A committee was appointed to inspect the property and to make "an estimate of [the] cost of repairs and alterations [needed] to put the grounds and buildings in proper condition so that the place may be used by the Corporation's infirmary for dumb animals". In late May, at a special meeting, the Board further noted that the Corporation's reduced income made it "impossible to keep horses at Chesterbrook at the present rate [about $6105 a year] of board" and that the "sense of the Board" was to return to the farm at Bustleton. (A technical question had also been raised as to whether boarding the horses at Chesterbrook Farm legally and morally fulfilled the original intent of Anne Wain Ryerss' will establishing the Infirmary.) The expenditure of "up to $3000" was authorized to put the Bustleton farm into proper condition for use by the Infirmary, and the work was started. By that fall, James Ritchie had been engaged as the new farm manager. Of the 31 horses and mules at Chesterbrook in November, a home was found for the lone mule, "Sally"; four horses were returned to their owners; two were destroyed; and the remaining 24 were sent to the Bustleton farm. The Ryerss' Infirmary for Dumb Animals continued at Bustleton for twenty-three years. As housing developments began to encroach upon the site, however, it was decided to look for a new location. In May of 1956 the Bustleton farm was sold to Solomon Brownstein, a builder and president of the Webb Grant Corporation, a large-scale real estate developer, at a price of $441,550. For its new location, the Infirmary purchased for $100,000 the 135-acre farm of Thomas J. McKelvey, on King Road in West Whiteland Township, west of Morstein. Since McKelvey had been a dealer in horses, the farm was already equipped with many of the facilities needed, and the move to the new site was made that summer. Additional facilities were later added, and additional land leased from Immaculata College, so that Ryerss' now had sufficient crop land, pastures, and barns and stables to accommodate 45 horses, mules and donkeys. The haylofts in the barn had a capacity for 200 tons of hay. Even so Ryerss' continued to have a sizeable waiting list for admission. The farm is operated by Eugene Lafferty and his wife Anne, who show the same care and affection for their charges that R. A. Colgan did when the horses were boarded at the Chesterbrook Farm. Upon admission, the shoes are removed from the horses, and they spend their last years with no more work to do, well cared for, and well fed in the pleasant and restful environment provided them by the Ryerss' Infirmary for Dumb Animals. TopNote A special "thank you" is due to Mr, and Mrs. Eugene Lafferty and to Mr. William A. Cave, the current president of the Ryerss' Infirmary for Dumb Animals, and his wife for making available the Minutes of the Corporation and other information, and for their cooperation and assistance in every respect. |
