"At
the time I found the farm, I was driving in a car with my friend Liza Hitchens...
'Hitch,' as I called her, had an Arab at that time. I believe we were on
our way to see Roy Dean’s Arabs. (He owned Hanraff.) 'Hitch' was at the
wheel. I remember very clearly saying to her, 'This is the road where Said
Abdullah galloped Wadduda from Morris Plains to Denville.' I was looking
out the window off to the left (which I think of as being to the West)
and up at the tree tops dreaming (which has been a lifelong relaxing habit).
I suddenly spied through the tree tops the peak of a barn roof with a green
star and crescent painted on the white barn near the peak. In an excited
voice, I said 'Hitch, stop!' I told her what I had seen! By this time we
had passed too far for my friend to see what I had seen. I said 'This must
be the old Davenport Farm; because #1, who would in this day and age paint
a green star and crescent on their barn unless they have an interest in
Arabs and #2, we are on the road from Morris Plains to Denville, the road
where Said Abdallah galloped Wadduda (this fact I remembered either reading
or hearing). Hitch turned into the driveway. The place was overgrown with
shrubs and underbrush. They had grown so thick around the old faded white
board fence you could hardly see it.
"It
was obvious that the place had its original coat of paint. The house was
not a mansion but certainly had its antique value, a farm house with plain
white clapboard siding, windowsills close to the floor, wide boards on
the floor. The windowsills on the south side of the house overlooking the
porch contained the autographs of various celebrities who had visited there.
One autograph I remembered was that of a Wendall Corey. At the time Hitch
was more into these autographs than I. They seemed to be very meaningful
to her. I was always on an Arabian horse 'trip.' I wish now that I had
paid more attention to the signatures. As I recall there was also a porch
on the north side of the house where we entered right off of the driveway.
It was not as large as the porch on the south side.
"The
barn didn’t seem to be too far to the west side of the house. Near the
barn were some broken down chicken runs. In the barn was a stair case leading
to the loft. The ceiling of the loft was quite high. In the southwest corner
of the loft was a panelled room of darkly stained tongue and groove. When
I saw the room I grew very excited because I knew that this was the room
where Said Abdallah slept/spent a lot of time. Outside the room on the
loft floor was an old trunk with contents of signs saying 'Peafowl.'
"The
south side of the loft was very lightened by an unusual amount of window
area for a hay loft. It was on the outside of this south side of the barn
that the green star and crescent appeared at the peak above the windows.
"As I write this account I wish that I could go back. But it is gone
forever except in my mind. It seems more precious to me at 66 than at 24....
"It was a modest farm. I wish I had paid more attention and had spent
more time exploring but Hitch and I were on our way to Roy Dean’s.... A
couple of years later, I heard that the Warner Challott Laboratory had
purchased the farm and torn down the buildings."
Editor’s note: A number of details in this account fit in with what
we know from other sources of Davenport’s farm: The autographs on the siding
of the house are a matter of record. The trunk with signs saying 'Peafowl'
and the chicken runs fit in with the collection of exotic fowl for which
Davenport was noted.
We are
fortunate that Mrs. McCarthney chanced upon this farm so many years ago
and that she has kept the recollection for us. What a shame that the place
was not more widely known: There were Davenport people in the actual immediate
area at the time of her discovery. We could have had supplementary photographs
and detail if only we had known. Other precious opportunities for knowledge
have been lost, too. It turns out that Ameen Zeytoon, Davenport’s translator
on his desert expedition of 1906, was in this country and still alive at
about the same time. Also, at the time customs records of the importation
were still in existence, and what details of the horses they could have
had! Those informational opportunities are now gone. Too bad. But the truly
precious information about the Davenport venture is encoded in the horses
which we still have. Our problem is in deciphering it.
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