Coincidence

Strange things can happen when you manage a history museum for a living, own a historic farm, and go trail riding in distant places.

We were traveling from our farm in Cheshire, New York, to Cleveland for a trail ride in the Cayahoga Valley National Recreation Area. I had reluctantly left the museum in the hands of the staff and volunteers for the weekend.

Sandwiched in the stack of reading material I brought along was Katherine Hays’ family history. Three weeks earlier I promised this faithful volunteer that I would review the genealogy her cousin, Sherman Farnham, had recently assembled. I was more interested in talking horse with Vanessa than analyzing family trees.

Then, in an effort to break the silence in the truck after we got a flat tire on Route 17, I reached into my stack of paper, pulled out the genealogy and started paging through it. To my surprise the document was full of old pictures, interesting stories about the family and was amazingly well written. I started reading from it aloud to Vanessa.

“Hey, here’s a neat story”, I said. Katherine’s great uncle, Thomas Jean Hargrave’s love for horses got him in trouble while serving in the U.S. Cavalry during WWI.

The story is told that Hargrave cared for a horse that was beaten, starved and abandoned by a superior officer who called the animal “useless”. The horse under Hargrave’s unauthorized care was returned to health and excelled. The story got better. The young enlisted man adopted the steed as his mount and rode the horse quite successfully during his tour of duty. The abusive officer became enraged at Hargrave’s success and black balled him from any promotions. Eventually, higher ups in the corps heard about the events. They recognized Hargrave’s talent and devotion to horses and made him an officer.

“I like happy endings”, Vanessa concluded.

The anecdote went on to tell that Jean, as his family called him, completed law school after the war and became a successful patent lawyer in Rochester, New York. He became acquainted with George Eastman who convinced him to become the chief Lawyer for his new camera company Eastman Kodak. When George Eastman died unexpectedly, Hargrave was selected to replace Eastman as the company President.

Vanessa interrupted me and said, “ You know, the old families in Cheshire refer to our farm as the Hargrave Farm. I wonder if there is any connection?”

I read on. “ Hey, it says here that Jean Hargrave did own a farm in Cheshire in the 1930’s and 40’s. We looked at each other in amazement and at the same time said, “Small world,” and laughed. We wondered if Katherine’s family had any old pictures of the place. Our conversation continued on the history of our 1831 farmhouse. It created enjoyable small talk for the remainder of the trip.

We crossed a single set of railroad tracks as we entered the Special Events Site along the Cayahoga River. After saying “howdy” and setting up camp, we all saddled up and went out to enjoy this piece of Ohio’s Emerald Necklace. The trails and scenery were gorgeous. The hilly terrain wound through a modern farm museum, along the river and over railroad tracks.

I love trains. So, I was naturally curious about the tracks and whether trains actively traveled them. I know that my horse had never been close to a moving train before. He nearly jumped out from under me when he heard the blast of the locomotive’s horn. I got centered and gripped the reigns tight. We watched the faces of the people in the cars as the shiny orange train lumbered by. The experience with the iron horse made the ride exciting and relaxing at the same time. An hour or so later we returned to camp.

Vanessa offered to take care of the horses while I went to find a telephone to check in with the museum staff. At the phone station there was a literature rack. As I browsed the colorful fliers my eyes focused on one picturing my horse’s favorite bright orange and yellow locomotive. I picked it up and noticed that the President of the operating company was Sherman Farnham, the same name as the Katherine Hays cousin who penned the genealogy. Hmmmm.

The phone at the museum rang twice. The pleasant voice at the other end of the line was none other than Katherine Hayes.

After the formalities, I told her that I had read the family history. Then I asked the necessary question, “What does you cousin Sherman do for a living.”

“He’s retired, but he runs small railroad outside Cleveland as a hobby.”

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