Hereford Cattle
New Ipswich Historical Society
Marion Davis Audio-Tape Transcriptions
Sometime before her death in 1986, Marion Davis recorded her memories at the encouragement of her brother, Walter Buck. The recordings were transcribed by a secretary.
The Friends of Wapack have made these available to the Historical Society. Marion was born on February 8, 1894 in Fitchburg, MA.
Frank buys a bull
About this time the milk business was going on the fritz too so Frank went out of that. We went up to Meredith, N.H. and bought some Hereford cattle. I think we had 12 head that he bought. There was a young bull there which he wanted pretty much, but he said "I haven't got the cash." I said, "Well, I've got some money; I'll pay for the bull". Anyway we got them. He was to come down on the freight with those cattle to West Rindge several days after. He went up to Meredith; Mable and I were to meet him the afternoon that he left Meredith. He never got in to West Rindge until o'clock that night. Well, you couldn't take cattle out of a freight car and drive them over a road that they didn't know anything about so late in the day. Frank had stayed right there with them in the car, and he was miserable with a sick headache. So he and Mable went home and left me at Deacon Weatherby's at West Rindge to look out for the cattle. The railroad men said that they had got to be watered. There was water right beside the tracks so I got a pail and lugged water up there, but there wasn't one of them that would drink. I stayed at the Weatherby's that knight, and I'd go down to the car about every 2 hours. Just about 1 or 2 o'clock when I went to the car I could hear one animal "oh-h-ah, oh-ah", gasping for breath. The bull had stepped over one of the cows, and she had got up under his rope, and it was choking him. I looked at the situation and I didn't know just what to do at first but finally I decided I'd got to get in beside that cow and untie her and move her over. Frank, Mable and Leon showed up the next morning about 7:30, and we drove then down to the farm.e.
Photo Archives
Theatrical couple. It would nice to know the story behind this photo.
James Roger diary entry & pullet count (6)
27th December 1912
Snow all day till 3 p.m., wind northeast. David choring round and helping Lonie in afternoon to fix teams. Dr. Jones called in forenoon, prescribed some medicine only for some of it to be doubled in quantity. Got letter from May last night and from Hamish today, who is still helping the Ex. Co. (company) at Schenectady. Pullets 6.
Marion was a courageous woman with excellent instincts when it came to managing uncooperative or injured animals, misguided men, and uppity children. So glad she decided to settle in New Ipswich. I wonder if her parents were sorry she left home. Young people today could greatly benefit from her example. It would be good for school kids to act out dramatic scenes from Marion’s life. Everyone would enjoy watching. Her recorded accounts are far superior reading to the mindless crap and spiritual poison that are broadcast for youngsters in today’s TV and online media.
More kids today should be reading these recent postings of Marion's life. Unfortunately, I think most of them are clueless and don't know how good they have it. I suspected that Frank was out of the dairy business. My grandfather used to scold us if we stressed the cows in any way because they would produce less milk. My neighbor has 700 milking cows that never leave the barnyard. They spend most of their time in a covered area on concrete. They get milked 3X/day.