Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Charismatic Cows and the Pyne Connection

Drive east on Herrontown Road, and as you emerge from the forest of Herrontown Woods and Autumn Hill Reservation, a rural landscape opens up--land connected to one of the great historical Princeton families. The farmland was owned until 1961 by Agnes Griswold Pyne, daughter-in-law of Moses Taylor Pyne, Sr., who called Drumthwacket home and had a profound influence on Princeton University.

Agnes was married to Moses Taylor Pyne, Jr., and lived at Drumthwacket, but in the summer she'd live out in the Herrontown neighborhood, in this lovely home that still bears the name Clearbrook Farm.
The pasture across Herrontown Road from the house has for years been the grazing ground for two charismatic cows. Here's cow #1,
and cow #2.

Our newly formed nonprofit, the Friends of Herrontown Woods, is working with local entities in an effort to preserve this farm and potentially engage youth in its care.
The Pyne's horse barn remains in excellent condition, albeit without the horses the Pynes used to ride.

In the Pynes and Veblens we have two of the most influential Princeton University families of the early 1900s living side by side. Add in the characters of Jac Weller and the first owners of the Veblen House--the Whiton-Stuarts--and the periodic visits by Veblen's colleague Einstein, and we get a landscape with a rich and colorful past.

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