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President Hoover’s turkeys for Thanksgiving
We found another little gem of a photograph for you, but it’s one that could do with a little more clarification, which you may perhaps provide on this Thanksgiving day. What we see is a group of four men who are about to set off from West Duluth, Minnesota to the White House in Washington to hand over two turkeys to president Herbert Hoover. The date is known also: 26 November 1929 - that’s 91 Thanksgivings ago. The car they used to accomplish their 1,200 mile Thanksgiving mission is an Oldsmobile Viking Eight sedan and we’d think it’s safe to say they were sponsored by the Duluth Oldsmobile dealer. Unfortunately we couldn’t find anything on that company.
Still, that makes the ‘what?’ ‘when?’ and ‘where?’ questions solved rapidly, but it does leave us with the two perhaps more substantial questions: Why? And Who? Further searching provided us - to our own great enjoyment - with another picture. This clearly shows three of the same chaps plus two more men, now without the Oldsmobile, but still with the turkeys on what have to be the steps of the White House. The caption here says: “The President’s turkey was raised on the farm of Mrs. August Neubauer, at Lost Lake, near Gilbert Minnesota. In the group left to right: HP McBride, Percy C. Klein, George Ackerson, one of the President’s secretaries, RC Middaugh and Roy Drake.” That’s one too many, isn’t it? Or did they also count one of the men peaking through the windows in the background?
Happy Thanksgiving.
Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures courtesy of Library of Congress.
Publiziert:
Donnerstag November 26th, 2020
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"The one bird is the champion chosen in a contest in which the best birds of eight Minnesota counties participated. The turkey was raised on the farm of Mrs. Augus Neubauer, wife of the county agent of St. Louis county. The turkey, slightly less than six months old weights 20 pounds and was raised under the confinement plan. The other bird was presented to Mrs. Hoover by the Boys and Girls Four-H Club of St. Louis county. It was the first plan to send the turkeys by plane, but because of the cold weather these plans were changed and a Viking car selected to make the trip with the President's Thanksgiving day dinner. The trip was started November 22."
Source: The Morning Herald, Hagerstown, Maryland, Tuesday, 26 November 1929, Page 7
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"Minnesota Farmerette Supplies The Turkey. Duluth, Minnesota, Nov. 25 - Two champion turkeys left Duluth Nov. 22 by fast sedan for the president's Thanksgiving day dinner. The birds were previously accepted by George Akerson, secretary to President Hoover, in a letter to George A. Perham executive director of the Minnesota Arrowhead association, donor of the fowl.
"The run to Washington will take four days. The distance is 1,395 miles. Overnight stops will be made at Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Wheeling, West Virginia.
"The turkey chosen for the president by the Minnesota Arrowhead association was selected as the champion bird of the Arrowhead country, and chosen in a contest Wednesday, Nov. 20 at West Duluth [Minnesota] from the best birds raised this year in eight Minnesota counties.
"The president's turkey was raised on the farm of Mrs. Augus Neubauer, wife of the county agent of St. Louis county, Minnesota, at Lost Lake, near Gilbert, Minnesota. The name of the farm, which specializes in raising seeds and bulbs for the market, as well as fine turkeys, is Lake Shore Manor.
"The turkey, slightly less than six months old, weights 20 pounds, and was raised under the confinement plan invented and perfected at the University of Minnesota College of Agriculture.
"It was originally intended to send the turkey to President Hoover by airplane from Duluth, but when it was decided to send with the presidential bird a champion bird present to Mrs. Hoover by the Boys and Girls Four-H club of St. Louis county, the airplane idea had to be abandoned for lack of crating space. A factor in the change of plans was the advent of a severe cold wave over the entire country at the start of the trip, causing fear for the turkeys safety if high altitudes produced correspondingly low temperatures.
"The trip to Washington is being made by Roy D. Drake, West Duluth Oldsmobile dealer, in a Viking sedan, the back of which contains a large crate for the comfort of the two turkeys. With Mr. Drake will ride Hiram P. McBride, staff correspondent for the Duluth Herald."
Source: The Oelwein Daily Register, Oelwein, Iowa, Monday, 25 November 1929, Page 6
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The other people in the picture in front of the White House: Percy C. Klein (1898 - 1959) was the proprietor of the Wisconsin Motor Company which sold Oldsmobile and Viking cars. George Akerson (1888 - 1937), graduated from Harvard University, and he was originally a journalist from Minnesota before getting involved in politics. Robert C. Middaugh (1883 - 1938) was an employee of General Motors.
It should be noted that Viking was a stand alone brand of General Motors and it was not an Oldsmobile. Manufactured between 1929 and 1931, it was more expensive than the Oldsmobile branded cars. Other GM cars introduced about the same time were the Pontiac (which eventually took the place of Oakland; Marquette, which was a cheaper model of Buick; and LaSalle which was essentially a smaller sized Cadillac.
As an aside, Dr. William A. Billings, a University of Minnesota veterinarian, was widely known as the originator of the turkey "confinement plan" which significantly reduced the loss of turkeys from blackhead disease (Histomoniasis). By creating more sanitary living conditions, clean ground and range rotation, the number of turkeys infected were greatly reduced. Sources: Turkey World, Volume 20, No. 12, (December 1945), Page 13 and Turkey World, Volume 24, No. 6 (June 1949), Page 22