The Friendly Beasts: Life on the Family Farm

Many of my favorite Christmas carols when I was a child were those that told the story of Jesus' birth with a large cast of humble and gentle animals; they appear in The Little Drummer Boy, where "... the ox and lamb kept time," as well as such traditional ones as the English The Friendly Beasts, and the French (but with Latin words) Hez, Sir Asne, Hez. For one thing, they tell you something about people's familiarity with domestic beasts for hundreds -- well, thousands -- of years. It seemed only natural that these creatures should take part in an event as important as Christmas. They wee part of the family; we took care of them, and they took care of us.

The Three Kings on exotic steeds

Though traditions could get quite exotic; my aunt had a lovely creche which included not only the humble oxen, sheep, and and donkey, but the Arabian stallion, camel, and elephant that the Three Kings rode in on! I've seen others with a cougar, a raccoon, and a coyote, and one with zebras, elephants, and giraffes!
Like most people, most of my forbears were farmers who knew how to live off the land, and make the most of everything that grew, grazed, and laid eggs, and had intimate knowledge of working animals. My mom's parents, Maggie McGillivray and Will Carpenter, both grew up in rural situations, combining small businesses with small family farming, with their own chickens and kitchen gardens, home-made bread and vegetables put up every summer. My grandfather's family also kept a lot of draft horses, to be used not only on their own farm, but also to be hired out whenever neighbors needed heavy haulage.  My grandfather's grandfather, Simeon Carpenter, and his son, Tyler Carpenter, were well-known in their hometown of Sutton, Massachusetts, as expert team drivers and in fact usually won the "Large Draft Team" hauling event at the annual farming exhibition there, with enormous draft horses and even oxen.

It's been a bit of late 20th century worldly wisdom that a successful working farmer needed to be unsentimental about animals;  beasts in the field were given to us to work and make themselves useful, and if they failed in that, there was no place for them. Well, on the evidence of my grandfather's own words, I don't think so. When he was in his eighties, my mom wrote down some of his reminiscences of life on the farm. And from a distance of more than sixty years, he remembered with much affection the working horses he knew, not just their names, but the appearance and personality of each one!

These are Will Carpenter's own words:
"I have always been a great lover of animals, especially horses, and I may say there was one mare of Morgan descent that I loved especially. She was handicapped by reason of a serious barbed wire cut on her right foreleg, on the upper part of the arm and below the shoulder. We had named her Dollie. There was another filly named Jessie. Dollie was a spirited animal, and when there was a running contest she was the one to be in the lead!

Her injury was quite a while in healing, and Dollie never did get perfect control of that injured leg. But she was the smoothest one to ride on that we had.

There was another horse that we called Old Blind Charley. He was much lighter in color that bay, what you would call a fawn color. Then there was Old Nell. She had a balky streak in her make up.

Then there was Little Nell, of Morgan ancestry, a very energetic mare and a very good roadster, and there was another named Nettie. She was dark brown with a white star on the forehead and three white feet. Little Nell was a beautiful bay. She and Nettie were driven together quite a lot and Nettie was always willing that Nell should lead off.

Then there was a gelding by the name of Prince; he was a little lighter in color than a bay. He was an easy rider on the lope, but quite jouncy on the trot.

Nett was the mother of a brown colt that we named Dick. He had a white star on his forehead and two white feet.

Then we had a gelding named Ben, who was brown in color, and not very big as compared with the other horses, but was very tough for his size. I remember one time I had him weighed and his weight was 835 pounds, not much for a full grown horse. He was a sporty sort! He liked to tease the other horses when they were running loose together."

He mentions an injured horse, who never fully recovered, and a blind horse, who were kindly cared for despite their limitations. This certainly undercuts the image of farmers grimly determined to view their working animals as cogs in a machine!

The active young farm boy that Will Carpenter was admired and valued traits like spirit and energy in the creatures that he worked with every day. As a man, these were qualities he encouraged in his children, live wires all, and grandchildren, too!

He and his wife of more than 65 years, Margaret McGillivray Carpenter, also loved cats. Below is a photo of them in their later years -- they are both holding kittens:

Margaret McGillivray Carpenter and William Waters Carpenter