Please Don't Take My Pony

The Imperial War Museum North is looking for relatives of a little girl who sent Lord Kitchener a letter pleading for the life of her pony.

Young Freda Hewlett wrote to the Secretary of State for War begging him not to call up her 17-year-old pony Betty for active duty at the outbreak of hostilities in 1914.

She appeals to Kitchener's softer side, pointing out that the pony is in foal, reminding him that her family have already given two horses to the Army while three family members have responded to his famous "Your Country Needs You" poster and joined the Navy as the Great War got under way. [Link]

Horse Thief Almost Lost in Translation

The recently departed Alice Claire Lehmann Nelson was a devoted genealogist who took classes in German and French so she could translate historical documents.

Still, when she came across a copy of a newspaper article on her great-great-great grandfather, there was a glitch in the translation.

"She thought there was a distant relative who was killed by being run over by a horse," Don Nelson said. "Then she realized he was really a horse thief. He escaped from jail several times.

"Once she got the correct translation of it, it took her two years to tell my grandmother there was a horse thief in the family." [Link]

Did He Join the Wrong Army?

One of the contenders at this weekend's Kentucky Derby is a horse named for Charlie Curlin, a slave who fought with the United States Colored Troops in the Civil War.

But it was after his honorable discharge from the army that Curlin's story took its most intriguing turn. Charlie Curlin, Union Army veteran, came home from war thinking he was a Confederate, on the side of the people he had fought.

"Charlie Curlin was truly confused about who he was fighting for. That's very clear from stories he told when he got back home," said lawyer Shirley Cunningham Jr. of Georgetown, the man who named Curlin, the horse. [Link]

Time to Get a New Horse

Who knew that you can tell time using a top-hatted man sitting on a dead horse? Colleen Fitzpatrick, Andrew Yeiser, and Sharon Sergeant figured out that the now-famous photo was taken on Sept. 21, 1871, at 4:30 p.m. (give or take a few seconds), having noticed that the shadows in the photograph run east-west—a phenomenon that they say occurs only on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

Considering a top hat and tails are not the proper attire for Sheboygan in March when the average temperature is about 32 degrees, the date the picture must have been Sept. 22-23.

What about the time of day? Mr. Dapper is not only holding down the dead horse, he is also acting as a sundial. By measuring the length of his shadow on the street, Colleen and Andy were able to calculate the angle of the sun in the sky. This told them that the photo was taken at 4:30 p.m. (Time zones were not used until 1918, so there is no need to correct for standard time.) [Link]

The first of two articles on their findings appeared in The Sheboygan Press yesterday, with the second installment coming next week. The team claims to have found a "full-sized steam-belching locomotive" in the picture, but I could find it only if it wore a red-striped shirt.

You can see more clues and join the hunt at Ancestral Manor, or try your hand at the latest photo quiz at Forensic Genealogy.

Previously at The Genealogue:

• You Can't Beat a Dead Horse
• A Very, Very Calm Horse
• Let's Beat That Dead Horse One More Time
• Genealogists Study Groh's Anatomy
• Still Beating That Dead Horse

Still Beating That Dead Horse

Remember that weird horse picture I blogged about here, here, here, and here? Two articles appeared today—one in Sheboygan, the other in Fort Worth, Texas—claiming that the mystery has been solved.

Arthur Perry of Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, believes that the man on the horse is Frank L. Roenitz of the C.T. Roenitz Leather Company.

"Maybe he wanted to lay a claim to that animal for the hide," Perry said.

A picture of Frank Roenitz, found in the Illustrated Atlas of Sheboygan County published in 1902, shows a man who could possibly be the mysterious man in the picture.

Both men seem to have dark and deep-set eyes, prominent noses and bushy mustaches. [Link]

Jim Hodges of Glen Rose, Texas, though, has a different theory.

"That horse isn't dead," said Hodges, a 70-year-old horseman. "Jesse Beery is the man in the photo, and he would lay a horse down like that and usually he would have an accomplice walk around the horse beating on a pan or something to show that the horse wouldn't move."

Hodges said that it was 50 years ago, or more, when he became familiar with Beery. "He used to advertise in all the old horse magazines and farm magazines. You could buy some of his training pamphlets. I bought them and there were a number of photos just like the one in the paper. He was doing the same thing, always in a top hat and black suit."

Hodges concluded, "That's him, I'm sure of it." [Link]

Genealogists Study Groh's Anatomy

Maureen Taylor and Sharon Sergeant have a new theory on the identity of our dapper horseman. Sharon has posted the new clues at Ancestral Manor.

It turns out that brothers George and Edward Groh lived in the Sheboygan neighborhood in 1880, that both were photographers, and that George was similar in stature and appearance to the man atop the supine equine. Moreover, George was just the sort of person one might expect to find posing in formal dress aboard a dead horse.

Carrying a walking stick, a flower in his lapel, either wearing a bowler or top hat, he was easily recognized as he sauntered down 8th St., peering into shop windows or stopping to talk with a lady.

He was considered one of the best-groomed men in the state in his earlier years, George Groh was.

For even more compelling evidence, see this photograph of George astride a soon-to-be-dead horse.

Does He Know He's Adopted?

People ask the strangest questions in the Genealogy category at Yahoo! Answers.

Let's Beat That Dead Horse One More Time

If you're still intrigued by the dead horse mystery I blogged about here and here, you can read about Sharon Sergeant and Colleen Fitzpatrick's investigations over at Ancestral Manor, with some input also from Maureen Taylor.

A Very, Very Calm Horse

Forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick has taken a stab at explaining that weird horse picture I mentioned last month.

She has unearthed the possibility that there was a traveling horse and pony show in Sheboygan in the summer of 1900, and that a storm might have disrupted the show and allowed some of the horses to escape, she said.

She also examined the appearance of the street in the picture and thinks there may have been some kind of natural disaster.

"I think … there is something wrong with the street," she said. "It looks like there's been a flood — it looks like the pavement has been removed." [Link]

Someone else has suggested that the animal had been trained to play dead, or had been given an "elixir that calms the most nervous horses."

You Can't Beat a Dead Horse

The Sheboygan Press needs some help figuring out what this photograph is all about.

A print of the photo was submitted to the Historical Research Center several years ago, said Kathy Jeske, but there was very little information attached.

"I don't think we have any idea," Jeske said. "There's no name on it, nothing."

The photo does say, on the back, that it was taken at Eighth Street and Indiana Avenue, and that it's of a man sitting on a dead horse. [Link, via Boing Boing]

Sounds like a job for the Forensic Genealogy folks. My own theory: This was an early merry-go-round prototype.

Jefferson-Hemings Controversy Settled in Court

From The Kansas City (Mo.) Star of Sept. 27, 2005:

Judge draws line at naming horse after Sally Hemings

Now politics is getting into horse racing — but in a strange way.

A federal judge in Lexington, Ky., has dismissed a lawsuit by a Thoroughbred owner who sued to name one of his fillies after Sally Hemings, the slave who was reputed to be Thomas Jefferson’s mistress.

[snip]

The mother of [Garrett] Redmond’s 2-year-old filly is Jefferson’s Secret, whose sire is Colonial Affair. Redmond thinks the name “Sally Hemings” would be a natural for a horse of such lineage.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Hey, It's For Horses!

From East Bay (R.I.) Newspapers of Sept. 1, 2005:

Who's buried in Westport's old unmarked cemetery?

[By Peggy Aulisio]

WESTPORT - Nine months have passed since ELJ Excavating was charged with removing 20 unmarked headstones from the woods off Charlotte White Road. But the town is no closer to finding out who's buried here than it was last fall.

[snip]

Before it ever broke ground, ELJ was supposed to do a survey of the burial site. According to police, the engineering firm ELJ hired -- and where Christine Matrone, the daughter of ELJ owner Everett Francis, worked -- said it is most likely an old horse cemetery. Ms. Matrone, Mr. Francis, and his son Christopher Francis all face charges of removing headstones with the intent to destroy them.

Clifford Hancock, whose family owned the land for many years, said, "I've never heard of anyone burying horses."

Even if they did, would they bury 20 horses side by side?

"I don't think you'd bury horses three or four feet across," Mr. Hancock said.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]