DHJ:: The Days Before Yesterday

50 Years Ago
Late Winter/Early Spring 1953
by Maurice Telleen
published in The Draft Horse Journal, Spring 2003

(From general news sources of the period and, if you can believe this, the March 1928 Breeders Gazette)

The Cold War was locked in place. The ‘us and them’ mind-set would stay right in place for another 30 or 35 years or more. The threat of mutual destruction was so apparent and real that the Cold War would stand right through several hot wars of a local nature. Like, right at that moment…Korea.

Eisenhower, as promised in the campaign, did go to Korea as the president-elect right after the election and just before Christmas. He came home to say that the trip had provided him “with no panaceas, no trick solutions” to end the fighting. He also warned of the difficulty and danger of attaining a definite victory without expanding the war (to mainland China). Even with those reservations a mere ten days after his inauguration he announced that he would pull the Seventh Fleet out of Formosa to permit Chiang Kai-Shek to attack the mainland. Maybe that was a bluff. As Ike had noted on his return from Korea in December…there were no easy or quick solutions. That was the nature of the Cold War.

The inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower as President of the United States on January 20th, 1953, was probably witnessed (on television) by more Americans than had witnessed all the preceding inaugurations. The transition from Truman to Eisenhower on a personal level was frosty. They were not great admirers of one another.

Just a couple weeks before the inaugural Harry let off a little steam by warning Joe Stalin that in this age of A and H bombs, any war between the two of us would mean ruin for the U.S.S.R.

In March both Eisenhower and Truman got a present…as did the whole world. Joseph Stalin had a stroke and died on March 5. Now they, and other politicians, could start stewing about his successors. At least he was dead. I suppose he was brilliant and certainly merciless and paranoid.

Just prior to his death there was an arrest of “nine Terrorist Jewish doctors,” claiming they had purposely misdiagnosed some big shot members of the Politburo and a top Army officer or two so they could prescribe treatments designed to kill them. This was not your normal malpractice suit. There were other anti-semitic moves about the same time in the satellite states of eastern Europe. Makes you wonder if Paranoid Joe was fixing up his own version of a final solution when he improved the world by dropping dead.

Stalin had been methodically ruthless. Not surprisingly, upon his death his successors granted a general amnesty to all short term prisoners and promised a re-examination of the criminal code. From our standpoint (and many others) things could scarcely be worse than Stalin…now there was a chance they might get better.

Egypt was an interesting case. A fellow named Mohammid Naguib, and some other army officers, had managed to pull off a bloodless coup in July of 1952. By September, Naguib had pretty much taken control and boasted “give me six months and I will rebuild Egypt.” I doubt that included refurbishing the pyramids…this guy was no sentimentalist. He was not concerned with the tourist trade…more with things like the Suez Canal.

His road twisted and turned something fierce in early 1953. He kicked the royal family out (indolent, fat and lazy) but allowed them to leave in style…on a yacht with plenty of servants and stolen money. The departing monarchy probably sailed for the French Riviera. So what. Just get them out of here and don’t do anything stupid to further complicate it. That’s not bad thinking.

Having deposed the monarchy he “cancelled the constitution” and declared Egypt a republic. Just like that. “As of today we are a republic.” So one guy in the crowd says, “what is that anyway?”… “what is what?”… “a republic”… “who knows…but at least that no good king is gone”… and so on. Anyhow, this Naguib was in charge 50 years ago. He had a lot of energy.

Speaking of places closer to us, let us turn our attention to Wisconsin. It is a beautiful place…one of our favorites. Fifty years ago this New Years Day their university got beat by Southern California University 7-0 in the Rose Bowl. Too bad. But there were worse things for Wisconsin than that.

A magnificent political dynasty came to an end. Robert LaFollette, Jr. ended his life with a single pistol shot to the head at his home in Washington, D.C. He served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin for 22 years before being defeated by Joe McCarthy in 1946…a giant step down for Wisconsin.

His father, “Fighting Bob” LaFollette had served that state in the senate for four terms and ran for president on the “Progressive” ticket in 1924. Prior to that run he had been a long time leader of the Republican Insurgents, Progressives, Populists–call them what you want to. Old Bob died about a year after his run for president. In 1938, young Bob and his brother Phil (who served as governor of Wisconsin) made an attempt to resurrect the Progressive party on a national scale. It didn’t work. It was a great family that rendered distinguished public service.

There was also some good news in March. Dr. Jonas Salk of the University of Pittsburgh announced the development of a successful vaccine against polio. This crippling disease had been the dread of parents during our childhood. It appeared to be effective against all three strains of the disease. It was still a ways to go until we had quantities of a proven vaccine on the market–but the polio dragon did appear to have been slain.

And now for the second half, or the horse part, for this issue’s 50 Years Ago. I stumbled on to it doing the 75 years ago column but I feel justified in using it here because the draft horse trade in the late winter and early spring of 1953 was not very lively. About the only public things happening were Arnold Hexom’s sale here in Waverly, the 5th annual Indiana wasn’t so much a business as an act of faith and stubbornness.

In the 25 Years Ago segment of the last issue I touched on some of the Belgian families (people families that is) who carried that breed through the valley of the shadow of death… also known as the late ‘40s and 1950s.

George A. Dix in the late 1920s. He was a thin man. My dad and his brothers and most of our neighbors were thin. Most farmers were thin to middling because it was very physical work. Even the two bankers in my home town were thin. Why they were thin I don’t know.

Well, the Percherons had them too. One stands out. He was George Dix of Delaware, Ohio. George died on August 10, 1959, at the age of 73 years. He fell in love with Percheron horses when he was just a boy. He never got over it. He never quit. For the last six years of his life he showed the grand champion mare at the National Show. I never met him but I sure admired him from afar and the handwork of his life. So, while not much was happening in the horse business 50 years ago you can be sure George Dix was a part of it.

Eighteen years ago (Winter ‘84-’85) I wrote up Don Degas, the homebred stallion that George Dix bred and showed to grand champion at the International in 1926 and ‘27. He went on to be a great breeding horse. Just winning a couple of purple ribbons at Chicago would not have justified either making him the feature stallion nor all the time I put in on that tale. I had plumb forgotten about it until I ran into another story about this man and this horse in the March 1927 Breeders Gazette. So I’m going to share it with you here, in 50 Years Ago, because George was still leading champions then too.

And besides, it gives me a reason to bring up someone else…Sam Guard, the long time editor of the Breeders Gazette. Sam’s dead too, for a long time now. It seems I know about as many dead people as living ones. Which brings up that old expression, “the silent majority.”

When you are a little kid big people are either telling you that “children should be seen and not heard”...or, if they were short of time, “for heaven’s sake, shut up Maury” would do. So that is what you think the silent majority means…all us little kids, saying nothing. About 50 years later you figure out that wasn’t what it meant at all. Anyway, George Dix and Sam Guard are now members of the silent majority. I’ve been looking for an excuse to run one of Sam’s stories intact and sort of standing by itself. Now is the time and here is the place. You all should meet him…dead or alive. Here is why:

The Breeders Gazette was a regular monthly visitor in our home when I was a boy. Sam Guard was the editor. I gathered that it had once been a much larger publication and had super duper Holiday issues. So, in the late 1930s, when I was about 10 years old, I wrote to him. I told him how much I admired his paper and asked if it would be possible for him to send me one of those old special holiday issues.

This busy and important adult took the time to write me a very pleasant letter and included a copy of their 1915 holiday issue. It was an act of pure kindness. I treasured that old magazine for years.

But you grow up and life happens…the army, college, a blind alley here and there, marriage and kids (who are rarely silent), etc., etc. There were years when Sam Guard never crossed my mind. George Dix either. I think a well meaning aunt burned the old 1915 Gazette but I never pressed charges.

I finally met Sam Guard in Chicago, during International week, in the early 1960s. I was then secretary/manager of the Dairy Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa, and would make an annual trek into Chicago for the convention of Fair and Expositions managers, directors, etc. It was thoughtfully scheduled during International week out at the stockyards. Sam was in there to make some kind of award. I took the occasion to introduce myself and liked him immediately. I admired his conversational, down home approach to writing. He was a tall, skinny man, with an interesting face and we got on right well, despite our big age difference. It is gratifying to meet someone years later who was a hero to you as a kid…and discover that your respect was not misplaced. I think both Gene Logsdon and Miles McCarry who write regularly for Lynn, have a streak of Sam Guard in their writing styles. Sam, however, was more handsome.

A couple of years later Jeannine and I had this brainstorm to start a draft horse quarterly. By that time we had accumulated most of the old Gazettes, going clear back to the early 1880s. So I wrote to Sam for a second time…about 30 years between letters. I told him what we were up to and asked if it would be possible to use the old Gazettes as a resource. He answered with a go to it, somebody needs to, godspeed, type of letter and gave us carte blanche to use whatever we wished.

Now I run into this story by Sam in the March 1928 Breeders Gazette about George Dix and his Percherons. It is very different from the one I wrote in 1985. So we are going to run it here. I’ve just told you why. I think most of you will enjoy it and most of you would have liked both Sam Guard and George Dix.

Oh, one more thing. You start dropping names and it is like sneezing…you can’t stop. So let’s throw Monroe Miller from eastern Ohio into the mixmaster too. About 12-14 years ago Doc Neumann and I were escorting a busload of Colombians through Ohio and Indiana inspecting horses for export to South America. One of our stops was at Monroe Miller’s at Dundee/Berlin, Ohio.

I bought a gray colt. When we got back on the bus I told Jeannine. She said, “I thought this was to sell horses to South America, not buy them for ourselves.” I don’t remember what I said. Anyhow the colt needed a name. I knew that George Dix and Monroe had been good friends. I suggested we name him Maury Degas, and that is how Monroe registered him. He turned out to be a very good horse. As for George Dix…ask Monroe. He will tell you what a good person George Dix was, as well as a wise old counselor when Monroe was a young man.

And now, on with Sam Guard’s story about George Dix and his Percherons that appeared in the March 1928 Breeders Gazette. This one is not a mixed drink. It is Sam Guard…straight up. Some liked him and others didn’t.

Sweepstakes Stockmen III
You can find them around any livestock show if you know where to look
Thirty Years From Old Grey Mare to International Champion
by Samuel R. Guard

Robert and George Dix with Don Degas in the April 1941 PERCHERON NEWS. Bob was by then in his early to mid-20’s. He succeeded Elmer Taft as the horseman at Lynnwood Farm, Carmel, Indiana, in the 1950s. By the time I met Bob (in the 1960s) he was a fieldman for the Ayrshire Cattle Association. Their national show was held in Waterloo where I was the manager. He and I would visit in the ring during the show about Ayrshires and Percherons…not necessarily in that order. So far as the career change from horses to cattle is concerned, Bob said, “there wasn’t much choice to it. The handwriting was on the wall.”

Old Bonnette at 18 years.

GEORGE A. DIX, a farmer who breeds and shows his own grand champion Percherons, is a typical Sweepstakes Stockman. He cinched his claim to the title at the last International, when he brought Don Degas back and for the second time set him into the grand championship of the greatest livestock show. That took nerve, and faith—qualities which quiet and sedate George Dix has demonstrated in more than one crisis such as comes along in every going-ahead breeder’s career. When it came to showing five stallions all in a row at Chicago, George swept the stakes literally on horses of his own breeding.

International triumphs alone would not entitle a man to Sweepstakes Stockmanship, but George Dix has been a consistent winner with horses of his own breeding at the Ohio State Fair, the Indiana State Fair, and the Delaware, Ohio, Pumpkin Show. You may laugh at that last one, some of you Iowa or Nebraska breeders, but just go over there by Ohio Wesleyan and try to take a prize away from them!

George A. Dix has been one of the powerful and sound supports under the Percheron breed in time of depression. Indeed he has been a prime mover in bringing the draft horse back to its place in the Sunup. He has helped turn the eyes of the horse breeding world to central Ohio, he has made the sales which started the ball rolling again for draft horse producers, and he has come to a place in the front row of America’s constructive breeders of livestock through his own efforts, on his own farm, by his own hard work.

It was back in April, 1897, when George’s father bought one three year old purebred Percheron filly, afterwards to become known at Pentoila Stock Farm as “Old Moore.” The senior Dix had been raising a good class of grade drafters of Percheron stock and buying and feeding the better class of market horses for which his locality held a reputation as old as draft horse history in the United States. Old Moore was purchased for $80, I think, which was about $10 more than she would have brought for market had she been of shipping age. Mr. Dix bought her to take the place of a gelding sold out of the harness. She was a steel grey filly, possessing pronounced draft qualities, wide and deep of body, rugged of bone and foot, and with a disposition that was eager and prompt, a trait that has persisted through five generations that followed. She died in her 26th year. Of her daughters, Bonnette died at 24 and Pauline at 18, foaling.

In 1900, George’s father bought the nucleus of Pentoila Stock Farm. It was named after his own father’s farm in Wales.

By the time he was 20 years old George Dix had determined to learn all he could about breeding farm animals, especially draft horses. He enrolled in the agricultural course at Ohio State University. Here his native livestock instincts were stimulated by Prof. C. S. Plumb’s enthusiasm and encouraged by the wise and kindly counsel of David M. Fyffe and Prof. F. R. Marshall.

Carnot 66666 – This is the 1909 International champion that a very young George Dix fell in love with–but couldn’t afford. He settled for a son of Carnot named Jehovah. This was about the time that the Laet horses from nearby Woodside Farm in central Ohio came to the fore. George and many of his neighbors blended the two bloodlines with great success. It was referred to as “the golden cross”… and with good reason.

In the fall of 1909, George began his showring career at the Iowa State Fair. He was a groom with the J. Crouch & Son’s stables from Lafayette, Indiana. Carnot was introduced to the American tanbark on this occasion by the Crouch firm. George got to lead out this imported horse once or twice anyhow. He had to leave Crouch at the Illinois State Fair and return to Ohio State for his junior year. He won a place on the International judging team, a year early.

Then came tragedy. At the close of the first term of his junior year George returned home for Christmas vacation with a heavy cold. It developed into pneumonia. His mother’s health broke while caring for him and she succumbed to pneumonia on January 9. Three weeks later his father died. His college ambitions had to terminate. He assumed the active management of the farm as soon as he got out of bed.

This earnest boy had a farm of 90 acres in one tract at home and 60 acres 6 miles away, which he later sold so as to buy land adjoining. The stock consisted of a small flock of Shropshires, all descended from two purebred ewes bought by George at a neighbor’s sale, a few commercial cattle, four brood sows and their offspring, and six Percherons—Old Moore and her two daughters, two granddaughters and one stallion foal.

Today Pentoila Stock Farm consists of 408 acres, 35 purebred Percherons, a small herd of Shorthorns, a few dairy cows, a small flock of Shropshires and about 10 purebred Poland-China sows. All the work of preparing the ground, cultivating and harvesting 125 acres of corn, 75 acres of wheat and oats and 100 acres of hay is done by the brood mares and stallions.

In 1910, when George assumed active management of the little herd, he rode Pauline, a three year old mare, 25 miles to be bred to Moreri, a noted stock horse (imported by Mark Dunham) that was at the head of Charles M. Jones’ stud, but at that time owned in Marion County. This mating produced Moreri D’Or, George’s first state fair entry and winner.

In the spring of 1911, Delaware County was all astir because a prominent breeder from Illinois had come over to pick up a few outstanding brood mares to mate with Carnot, just starting to make Percheron history at Gregory Farm. Mr. Corsa offered George a cool thousand in cash for one of Old Moore’s fillies named Bonnette. It took a lot of courage to choose between one grey mare and that amount of cash just at that time. But George chose “Bonnie,’’ and she has more than repaid him for his confidence in her. He has received $11,117 in cash for Bonnette’s offspring, and many thousands more for the colts of her daughters. Instead of selling Bonnette, George shipped her to Mr. Corsa’s to be bred to his old friend, Carnot. The result was Lady Carnot; she won the Eastern Percheron Futurity in 1913 and over $700 in prize money as a yearling, two year old and three year old.

Maybe you will think old “Bonnie“ was luck. Whatever she was, George Dix had sense enough to keep her in the face of a thousand dollar temptation to sell. Moreover, he could take a hint from a recognized constructive architect of Percheron pedigrees like Mr. Corsa, and do for himself what Mr. Corsa wanted to see done. Which reminds me that this horse Leahovah, first-prize three year old at the 1926 International and second prize four year old at the 1927 International, sold by Mr. Dix to go to Canada last December for $2,400, is a grandson of Bonnette.

Now you will remember that in 1911 Pauline had a foal at her side named Moreri D’Or. George wanted to breed her to Diamant and Diamant belonged to Charlie Jones. So George loaded Pauline and Moreri D’Or in a wagon and hauled them 21 miles to Mr. Jones’ Pleasant Valley Stock Farm. The next spring Pauline had Velorus by Diamant at her side. And the next fall, while Lady Carnot was winning the filly class of the Eastern Percheron Futurity, Velorus stood second in the stallion division.

Jehovah, the long awaited Carnot son that George finally secured in 1917. He wasted no time in showing him off to his Ohio neighbors. He was Reserve Grand at Ohio in 1917 and Senior and Grand at the same show in 1918. In 1919 and ‘20, he was Senior and Grand Champion over at the Indiana State Fair.

Don Degas – Grand champion stallion at the International in 1926 as a 2 year old and again in 1927 as a 3 year old. He was the first ‘bred by exhibitor’ stallion to win this honor. The usual picture shows him in 2 year old form. Here is a photo of him as a 4 year old. He weighed 2,300 pounds at the time. Withheld from the individual classes at the 1928 International, he headed Dix’s 1st prize group of Stallion & 3 Mares at that show.

George was getting a lot of mares on hand. He needed a herd sire. He heard that a two year old son of Carnot out of an outstanding show mare of the 1910 show season had just been imported. Isn’t there an unusual lot of individuality back of that colt Jehovah? thought George. He made a trip to the Illinois State Fair to see this horse. He followed him to the International. George Crouch held him at $4,500, which was more than any Ohio farm boy had at that time. Jehovah was sold to a company in Illinois.

But George Dix couldn’t get this horse out of his head. When the company was disbanded in 1917, George was right there for the horse which he had wanted since he first saw him in 1911. He still owns Jehovah and has made a distinctive sire of him. His first crop of foals raised at Pentoila began to make their marks in the award books, winning second, third and fifth in the filly class of 1919 Eastern Futurity. His offspring have been consistent winners at leading fairs since. You see Jehovah’s name in the get-of-sire groups now. The 1927 champion group of five stallions at Ohio, Indiana and the International was composed of four sons of Jehovah and one grandson, Leahovah. Don Degas is his son.
Degas

George Dix’s triumphs have been brilliant, yes. But his disappointments have been plenty too. Gosh, he’s game. I’ve seen him lose a place in the line-up that he might have had without a whimper or even a harsh look. In fact, he never says a word. He just grips his whip a little tighter, trots his horse out of the ring, and at the gate looks back as if to say: “We’ll be back again!“

George Dix has to make his farm pay. His persistence and faith in the horse business thus became striking and dramatic. He could compete with moneyed men, and do it successfully. In 1925 he began to get clear up top of the ladder when Don Degas won the blue in the two year old class at the Ohio State Fair, and was made reserve champion of that show. It was not until the 1926 International, when Don Degas was made grand champion of all the Percherons, that the goal line was crossed. Then to repeat in 1927 sets a mark that has never been approached by any other Percheron breeder, namely: to breed, raise, and exhibit a grand champion stallion at the International for two years in succession.

Here I will tell something out of school. George Dix and Jimmie Edmonds are close friends of long standing. Uncle Davie Fyffe raised them both down at Ohio State. So a few of us who stood around at the last Ohio State Fair could understand the play of emotions when the judge, Prof. James L. Edmonds of the University of Illinois, turned down Don Degas for the grand championship. No man would say it wasn’t right. George never said a word. Some of his friends did. They advised him to retire Don Degas in his International purple. He had lost the grand championship at Ohio; what could he expect at the International? George acted just like Abe Lincoln. He took the advice and did as he pleased! He bravely brought Don Degas on to Chicago and his idea was sustained.

As you go around among the horse barns at the show, every man, big or little, master or groom or a farmer with only two mares, is Dix’s friend. He has helped them all to show, sell or buy a good draft horse.

Many and many a Percheron has been shipped out of Delaware Co., Ohio, because George Dix had generously turned a hand to help a fellow horseman make a sale. They have a real cooperative selling society down there, but they don’t call it that. It is the Delaware County Percheron Breeders’ Association. It was started back in 1913 by the unselfish efforts of Lewis Slack (now dead), George A. Dix, Otho H. Pollock, and such like. This cooperation was responsible for the Delaware County Breeders carrying home from the last International three out of four of the Percheron championships. All three of these champions were bred within a radius of two and a half miles of Pentoila Stock Farm.

Back of a big blanket of ribbons, purple, red and blue, and the array of cups and medals and plates and silver pitchers, enough to start a jeweler’s shop, all brought home from the fairs, there is a quaint and quiet little co-partner–Grace Dix. If George has the courage of a squad of men, she is an army with banners. And when Robert, 14, Elsie, 12, and Dorothy aged 6 come rushing in, they must be glad–Grace and George–that they never flinched when there was nothing else but grit to go on.