Boxing Champ Freddie Welsh and the Long Hill Health Farm

Contributed by Patricia Wells, Chatham Township Historical Society

In 1917, World Lightweight Boxing Champion Freddie Welch purchased the 162-acre Palletreau farm and mansion on the southeast corner of the Fairmount Avenue and Meyersville Road intersection across from what is now the Fairmount Country Store. Welch was planning his post-boxing career and poured most of his wealth into the property. He installed a gymnasium, tennis courts and a golf course, and refurbished the pool. In August 1917 he opened the Long Hill Health Farm for successful, but stressed businessmen who wanted to relax and learn how to eat and exercise properly.

Freddie Welsh with his wife Fannie and their children Elizabeth and Fred, Jr. c. 1918

Courtesy of Chatham Township Historical Society

Unfortunately, he had few clients, so he gave exhibition boxing matches to raise money for the Red Cross to support their war relief efforts in Europe. With the business struggling, Welch enlisted in the army in September 1918 and was assigned to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. to help rehabilitate injured soldiers. Discharged in February 1920, he returned to the Township.

He decided to attempt a comeback in the boxing ring but achieved only moderate success. He again retired in 1922 after a miserable defeat. Beginning in 1920, a few noteworthy professional boxers started coming to Welsh’s Health Farm to train. Although they brought attention and business to the Health Farm, Welsh still wanted the elusive wealthy businessmen as clients. In 1923 Welsh decided to return to the army and asked his neighbor Madame Hranoush Bey if she would run the Health Farm. Bey was a good businessperson; she welcomed boxers of any nationality or color. The business boomed.

Long Hill Health Farm at the southwest corner of the intersection of Fairmount Ave. and Meyersville Rd., c. 1917-1927

Courtesy of Chatham Township Historical Society

One of the boxers was a hard-partying black Senegalese boxer called “Battling Siki”. Madame Bey insisted he abide by her rules and strict regimen, which he did. When Welsh heard that Siki was training at the farm he called Madame Bey and demanded that Siki leave or that she would have to. Madame Bey and all the boxers decided to move the training camp to her farm a mile down the road. The Health Farm’s short heyday was over.

By 1927, Welsh could no longer pay the mortgage and the property was sold for a fraction of its worth. Several months later Welsh died of a heart attack, and three months after his death the mansion burned to the ground, one of several arsons in the area. But the boxing camp that Welsh had inadvertently started would become the famous Bey’s Training Camp just a mile down River Road.

Want to know more? Check out “Madame Bey’s: Home to Boxing Legends” by New Providence author Gene Pantalone. It’s in the Library of the Chathams and can be purchased online.

The Red Brick Schoolhouse Museum located at 24 Southern Blvd. has information and photos of the local boxing camps. It is open the first Sunday of every month from 2-4 p.m. Visit Chathamtownshiphistoricalsociety.org.

650 Shunpike Road, Chatham ~ 973-410-1400 ~ www.smithsacehardware.com