Does your lawnmower have a name?
Before lawnmowers had motors, horses pulled the machines that cut the grass.
Mary Baker Eddy had a lawnmower named Jerry. He wore leather booties over his iron horseshoes, so he didn’t make hoof prints in the velvety green lawn.
Mrs. Eddy loved horses. Nelly, Jean, Jerry, Prince, Duke, Princess, Dolly, and Major helped at her houses at Pleasant View, in New Hampshire, and at 400 Beacon St., near Boston. In the 1800s, there were no such thing as snowblowers, so Jean and Jerry pulled a wooden plow to clear the sidewalk and the pond at Pleasant View. Before there were refrigerators, ice kept things cool. Workers cut blocks of ice out of the pond. Jean or Jerry pulled them to the icehouse, where they were covered with straw or sawdust and lasted all year.
Two horses pulled Mrs. Eddy’s carriage for her afternoon rides. This gave her a break from working at her desk all day. John Salchow, a helper, held the reins while she got in the carriage. He remembered that she wore hats with fluttering flowers, ribbons, or feathers, and always white gloves. Sometimes she brought little bags of candy or peanuts to give the children they passed.
Clara Shannon, another helper, remembered that when Jean and Jerry brought her home, Mrs. Eddy thanked them. When she patted Jerry, who was closest to her, Jean looked over Jerry’s neck as if to say, “Me, too!”
Mrs. Eddy loved sleigh rides. When it snowed, Mr. Salchow put runners on the carriage instead of wheels. They had strings of bells to put on the horses, to “jingle all the way.” Mrs. Eddy didn’t mind the cold. She grew up in New Hampshire, where it gets very cold in winter.
Mrs. Eddy said, “I have uttered some of my best prayers in a carriage.”1 She always prayed to bless people. A student wrote to ask her if it was OK to pray for animals, too. The answer was yes.2
Once, the horses were startled by something they saw or heard and took off running. It could have been dangerous. But Mrs. Eddy opened the window of the carriage and talked to them, and they settled right down.3
Another time, she noticed that a different horse than usual was harnessed to her carriage. “‘Where is Jerry?’ asked Mrs. Eddy. ‘Jerry is lame,’ was the reply. ‘Put Jerry in the harness,’ said Mrs. Eddy. The coachman obeyed. The carriage came up the driveway, with Jerry limping at each step. ‘Jerry,’ said Mrs. Eddy, ‘mind your own business.’” Jerry was healed then and there through Mrs. Eddy’s prayers, and stopped limping.4
Jerry’s business was to take Mrs. Eddy on a carriage ride so she could have a little break, pray, and give treats to children. Pretty nice job! No wonder he felt better.
Maggie Lewis Thomas is a children’s writer and a guide at the Mary Baker Eddy Historic House in Amesbury, Massachusetts.
Unless otherwise noted, the anecdotes related in this article are from “The Reminiscences of Mr. John G. Salchow” (The Mary Baker Eddy Collection, The Mary Baker Eddy Library, Boston, Massachusetts), and Clara Shannon’s “Golden Memories” (Longyear Museum Collection).