History 101
Purposeful “Pets” of the Past Article Aimee Pellet | Photography Provided
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y husband and I just brought home a 4-year-old Aussie mix rescue dog last month. Amidst all of the challenges that come with a new furry family member, it made me wonder just a bit about the relationship of pets in our local history. I’m sure they didn’t spend hours, as we have, combing through PetSmart looking for just the right dog bowl or worrying whether emergency surgery will be necessary to dislodge that piece of a chew toy that she chewed just one minute too long. They probably didn’t have bumper stickers that said, “Dog is my co-pilot” or “Who adopted who?” If veterinary services were available at all, I’m sure they didn’t offer lifetime wellness insurance. Additionally, I certainly can’t imagine a 50-pound ball of fur camped out in the bed between my great-grandparents after a hard day’s farm work. When Lewis & Clark navigated the terrain that is now Chesterfield, Lewis was accompanied by his beloved Newfoundland, Seaman. Testament to the fact that Seaman was indeed a treasured pet – surgery was performed on Seaman during the Expedition. Despite the group being hungry enough to eat thousands of other animals along the way, Seaman was not a culinary option, even when there was literally no other food available. I’m sure there was no talk of “clicker training” or “to crate or not to crate” with Seaman. Let’s be realistic – I’m sure even the most rough and tumble of men feel a bit more secure with a 150-pound dog in tow. What about the ordinary farm families in Chesterfield? I grew up surrounded by many animals on our Hog Hollow farm. But by the time I came along, our farm was mostly a grain farm. The animals we had were for the pleasure of having canine, feline or equine companionship. My Dad had state-of-the-art farm equipment so there was no need for animal labor and we never raised animals as a food source. With the exception of the produce from my Mom’s massive garden, we shopped at Dierberg’s or Schnucks just like most of you. I never really heard any of my relatives talk about animals as pets. A look at my great-grandmother’s photos shows that they did have numerous animals and most had names. But perhaps they didn’t make a distinction between pets and farm animals, because every animal on the farm – just like humans – had a job to do. Kittens that were cuddled and played with by a farmer’s children grew up to be good “mousers,” keeping small rodents out of the barns and homes. Man’s best friends, while a great companion, would also serve as hunting dogs. Children would ride their horses out to the fields to take lunch to the field workers. I also remember hearing that my great-grandfather kept geese on our farm, but they served a purpose. The pair was named Mike and Ike. They were a male/female pair and their wings had been wounded during a hunt and my great-grandfather nursed them back to health and kept them at the farm. They could no longer fly because of their damaged wings, but during the following hunting season, this pair would call in entire gaggles of geese, allowing the local hunters a fruitful and easier hunt. While this may seem a bit cruel, consider the fact that meat was not as commercially available as it is today and no holi24
Chesterfield Lifestyle | November 2014
day meal was complete without a Christmas goose. Even though there were many grocers during that period, such as E. W. Zierenberg’s market at the top of Hog Hollow Road and Dierberg’s, which had started in 1854 near the intersection of I-270 and Olive Street Road, they were still dry goods grocers, selling primarily “dry” products including lamp oil, flour, sugar and hardware items. Dierbergs’ first store in the Chesterfield area, the Four Seasons location, didn’t open until 1967 and Schnucks came along even later. So a farm family was still on their own for fresh vegetables and meat. I can recall my great aunt, Lois Bulan, telling me the story of a fire on the farm. She held a bit of resentment because her mother had yelled, “Save the ham!” seeming to the young Lois that her mother was more interested in saving dinner than saving her. But a ham, while undoubtedly less important than the family, was not just something she had purchased thoughtlessly at the store, but rather the symbol of the hard work of raising something that had been part of the farm and had taken years to grow into that dinner course. The “disconnect” we have today between the raising of animals and our food table didn’t exist for Chesterfield’s farm families. Food was the center of a farm family’s existence, whether they were consuming it themselves or selling it for income. One of my grandfather’s friends, Norman “Dux” Dauster, who lived near what is now Thies Farm recalled in an 1973 St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview, “A group of neighbors would get their hogs together – maybe 200 hogs – and they would drive them to town down Olive Street Road. That would have been around the turn of the century. Some of the men would ride horses and some would walk. They would take the hogs right down the road. The first day they would reach Olivette. The second day they would stop at some pens near Eads Bridge. On the third day they would drive the hogs across the bridge to the stockyards in East St. Louis.” This may be another reminder of why farm families never became too close to their animals, as I’m sure any modern farm family would say. If we think about it, pets and animals serve as a historical marker in our lives – remembering a certain event because it was when a specific animal was part of our world. Clearly that is something that hasn’t changed, even if the role of pets and animals has shifted a bit. So give your dog – or cat, rabbit, ferret or horse – a big hug and remind them how lucky they are to be in our lives simply to bring us joy! If you have memories, comments or suggestions for future topics, please email Aimee at aimee@thehistorychick.com.