Search Site   
News Stories at a Glance
Michigan soybean grower visits Dubai to showcase U.S. products
Scientists are interested in eclipse effects on crops and livestock
U.S. retail meat demand for pork and beef both decreased in 2023
Iowa one of the few states to see farms increase in 2022 Ag Census
Trade, E15, GREET, tax credits the talk at Commodity Classic
Ohioan travels to Malta as part of US Grains Council trade mission
FFA members learn about Australian culture, agriculture during trip
Timing of Dicamba ruling may cause issues for 2024 planting
Bill in Kentucky legislature could bring Kentucky its first vet school
Ag census: U.S. lost 142,000 farms, 20 million acres in five years
Indiana farmers make trip to Indonesia to talk soybeans
   
Archive
Search Archive  
   
Pardoned by president, turkeys given refuge at a historic Virginia farm


By BARBARA MILLER BEEM
AntiqueWeek Correspondent

LEESBURG, Va. — By now, most of them have met their inevitable doom. Artificially conceived in time for a July hatching, Broad Breasted White turkeys are bred and raised primarily for one purpose, to be the guest of honor on the dinner table of millions of Americans on the fourth Thursday of November.
Overfed to achieve the whopping weight of 40 pounds in just 120 days, these birds, once slaughtered, plucked of feathers, and processed for sale, are at the mercy of nervous cooks across the country, when they will once again be stuffed, this time with ingredients that include breadcrumbs and onions, oysters and nuts.
Every year, two lucky turkeys dodge this fate. For as has become tradition, just before Thanksgiving Day, the president of the United States takes time from his schedule to say a few words, pardon one turkey – while his understudy waits in the, um, wings – and then pose for pictures.
But what becomes of that pardoned turkey?
Even the White House is a bit cloudy on when the tradition of the presidential turkey pardon began. Some sources suggesting that Abraham Lincoln was the first to do so. To be sure, poultry farmers have a long history of gifting the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Both Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy have been credited with sparing a bird, but it is generally agreed that the first official pardon was granted in 1989 by George H.W. Bush.
For years, the turkeys that escaped the butcher’s cleaver were sent from one presidential residence to another, from the White House in Washington, D.C. to Virginia’s Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. There, the turkeys spent the rest of their numbered days living in the style of 19th century poultry. Without modern-day comforts – such as heating – they did not survive the winter.
With this in mind, Teresa Davenport placed a call to the White House three years ago. As the associate director of development and communications at bucolic Morven Park in Leesburg, Va., she offered a home to the birds on the farm that former Gov. Westmoreland Davis once called home.
Born in 1859 to a family that would soon be reduced to poverty after the Civil War, Davis earned a scholarship to the Virginia Military Institute and studied law at Columbia University. He met his future wife, Marguerite Inman, in New York while settling the estate of her father, a successful cotton broker.
Ten years after their wedding, in 1902, the couple purchased a 22-room, 20,000-square-foot Greek Revival home, Morven Park, in the Piedmont region of Virginia. Davis, an attorney by training, threw himself into a second career as a farmer, turning the 1,500-acre farm into a model of efficiency and productivity.
He employed the latest scientific methods of farming and shared his expertise with those struggling to succeed. In 1912, he purchased Southern Planter magazine and used it as a forum for his findings.
Davis took time from his agricultural pursuits and ran for governor of Virginia, serving from 1918-22. He is remembered for fighting for better roads and schools in rural areas and seeking to give farmers a voice in government. Because of his advocacy, he was affectionately called Virginia’s “farmer governor.”
Davis, however, was not a born politician; and after serving one term as governor, there being no provision for re-election in Virginia, he failed to win his party’s endorsement for U.S. Senate. Deeply hurt, Davis retreated to Morven Park and worked hard on his farm. Through the years, his farm was home to Guernsey cows, racehorses, Yorkshire hogs, Dorset sheep and Percheron draft horses.
And turkeys.
Beginning in 1923 with eight turkey eggs, Davis oversaw a poultry operation that grew to 80,000 broiler chickens and 23,000 turkeys, making his operation one of the largest in the country at the time.
His Goldbank Bronze turkeys were said to be “unsurpassed anywhere for either exhibition or market purposes” and fetched $10 or more per bird – a kingly sum in those days.
Winning many awards, Davis’ turkeys were his most profitable farm enterprise.
Davenport considered Morven Park the perfect place for presidentially pardoned turkeys to spend their retirement.
In 2013, it was decided that turkeys named Popcorn and Caramel would spend one last holiday at Mount Vernon before settling into their new home at Morven Park in January 2014. Plans to provide adequate shelter were given an unexpected boost when a Leesburg real estate broker – a poultry fancier who earned the nickname of “the Turkey Lady” – offered to sponsor the project, funding shelter, food and medical attention for the birds, raised for this purpose. A 10-foot by 12-foot house with a 40-foot by 20-foot fenced run – covered overhead with wire meshing to protect the residents from their natural predators such as foxes, coyotes, raccoons and hawks – was built.
Last year, Mac and Cheese moved from the White House directly to Morven Park; inclement weather cancelled plans for a police escort, Davenport noted.
One of the advantages of keeping the turkeys at Morven Park is that the birds are on view to the public year-round, free of charge.
Davis’ will stipulated that his property could only be inherited by blood relatives. Because the Davises were childless, and there are no eligible descendants, the 1,000-acre facility, most of which is in conservation easement and includes the mansion house, a carriage museum, and, of course, “Turkey Hill,” is maintained in large part by the Davises’ trust fund.
And so Morven Park takes its place in history, a modest farmhouse rising to a magnificent mansion, a humble farm growing to a model of good stewardship of the earth, where the toils of poor laborers are remembered.
It tells the rags-to-riches story of a kind and thoughtful politician, an attorney-turned-farmer, who made a difference. A place where generations of nature lovers, as well as those with an eye to the past, can still dream and experiment. And a cushy spot for lucky birds.
Morven Park is at 17263 Southern Planter Lane in Leesburg, Va. For more information, call 703-777-2414 or go to www.MorvenPark.org
11/25/2015