Category: exton pa

1939 Exton, PA, Rabid Dog Bite Spurs Regional Manhunt

Selling Sweet Corn in Exton
Larry Polite working on corn stand signage while daughter, Wanda, keeps an eye on customers. (Early 1940s)

On January 24, 1939, my 3-year-old mother, Wanda Polite, was bitten by the family dog. Earlier in the day, an Exton Dairy Grille customer was nipped on the hand by the same dog. Her father, Larry Polite, suspected something was wrong with the dog and, according to my mother, he killed the dog, severed its head, and drove it to Harrisburg for rabies testing. This was, and remains today, the only way to test an animal for rabies.

A few days later, results showed the dog did indeed have rabies and an alert

Reading Eagle - Google News Archive Search 2019-02-27 11-00-12.png
Tue, Jan 31, 1939, Reading Eagle (Reading, Pennsylvania)

from the Pennsylvania state police went out to the press in the area in search of the man bitten. According to reports at the time, effective treatment must occur within 10 days of a bite. A race against the clock ensued to find the traveler identified only as a likely New Jersey resident — based on Polite’s recollection of the man’s Oldsmobile license plate.

Articles appeared in newspapers in the region starting on January 26, 1939, and were seen as far west as South Dakota and as far south as South Carolina based on searches of newspaper archives on Newspapers.com.

The most dramatic headline appeared in the Reading Eagle: State Police Seek Rabid Dog Victim: Race Against Time ot [sic] Save Man From Death.

Clipping from The Indiana Gazette - Newspapers.com 2019-02-27 11-34-53
Tue, Jan 31, 1939, Indiana Evening Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania) • Newspapers.com

For historical context, some of the “Dog Bites Man” articles shared front-page space with coverage of Hitler’s infamous Reichstag speech the prior day.

Unfortunately, there were no subsequent reports found of the fate of the New Jersey man.

A few more examples of the items found in two dozen newspapers at the time appear below.

Tue, Jan 31, 1939 – Page 13 · The News Journal (Wilmington, New Castle, Delaware, United States of America) · Newspapers.com

Tue, Jan 31, 1939 – Page 9 · The Daily Times-News (Burlington, Alamance, North Carolina) · Newspapers.com

Tue, Jan 31, 1939 – 10 · The Daily Item (Sunbury, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, United States of America) · Newspapers.com

Limited Run Guernsey Cow Prints Available

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West Whiteland Township commissioned Chester County artist Jeff Schaller to create artwork to be hung in the township building commemorating The Guernsey Cow. Funds for the work were originally donated to the township by Gladys and Larry Polite in 1985 for the purpose of restoring the The Cow sign.

Using a combination of graphics from an old postcard, letterhead, a Guernsey Cow ice cream lid, and original paining of a Guernsey cow, Schaller has captured some of the memories of Chester County old-timers. A limited run of 100 prints were created and are available through his Etsy shop.

He also memorialized The Cow in one of the panels he created in the Exton Mall a few years back for The Main Line Health Center on the first floor.

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The Guernsey Cow Ice Cream Social: July 19, 2012

photo: Jess Church

Join friends, family, and former employees at the Exton branch of the Chester County Library on Thursday, July 19, 2012, from 4 to 6PM to celebrate the library’s mural dedicated to The Cow:

A celebration at the Library to recognize Exton’s past history. For years the Polite family ran a local ice creamery and restaurant in Exton that was known as the “ Guernsey Cow”. We now have a mural in the library dedicated to the “cow”. Come out to see the beautiful mural and help us celebrate with ice cream and activities as we remember a part of Exton history.

Event information on Chester County Library’s Facebook page.

Visit The Cow at Chester County Library

Over the past year there’s been a lot of interest in The Guernsey Cow locally and on the web.

My brother, Kevin, measures The Cow

Last summer we helped some folks from West Whiteland Township Historical Commission with piecing together and cataloging the remnants of The Cow sign they have stored in a local barn.

Over the past many months, the Chester County Library main branch in Exton has been undergoing interior renovations. One result of their work is the newly installed wall seen below that memorializes The Guernsey Cow and its place in Exton history. Copy was provided by my brother, Brian at McGlinchey Communications.

Most of the images come from the various bins of material that my grandmother kept over the years. She and my grandfather would be very pleased to see and know that The Guernsey Cow remains in the hearts of many and that lots of new people will be introduced to something they and many others put their hearts and lives into for so many years.

photo provided by Jess Church, the designer at Merje who created the wall.

Stop by the library in Exton, get some books and look for The Cow!

The Guernsey Cow From Above – New Photo

The Guernsey Cow Property ca. late 1940s

Both the beauty and sometimes agony of going through my grandmother’s collection of things she’s saved over the years is that I often find nuggets of gold among things that I wonder why she saved. I know they all meant something to her and she had her reasons for saving either to look at later or to share with me and the rest of the family.

I found the negative for this photo with a few other negatives in a pile of Christmas photos from the 1970s. This is an aerial photo of The Guernsey Cow and Sleepy Hollow Hall (aka The Massey House) shot from the South side of the Lincoln Highway (Rte 30). I’m guessing that it’s late 1940s. Perhaps someone with a keener eye for cars can pinpoint it better.

If you click on the photo you can see a larger version and see the shadow of The Cow billboard at the bottom as it appeared at the time.

Note that The Cow billboard was built once World War II ended, so this could have been shot soon after The Cow was put in place. Also note the position of the sign. This was taken before the highway was widened and The Cow sign had to be moved. See the difference in position based on this photo from 1974.

The Guernsey Cow Property circa 1974

For other aerial shots of Exton and The Cow see my previous post.

Making & Selling Famous Cream Caramels

In the mid to late 1930s, when The Guernsey Cow was still known as The Exton Dairy Grill, Larry Polite was already making a name for himself and his place with both his ice cream and his famous cream caramels. Of all the materials both my grandparents saved from The Cow the largest gap consists of the recipes for ice cream and caramels.

Cooked up in huge copper kettles, the caramels became truly world famous as tourists stopped, heading East or West along the Lincoln Highway, before turnpikes and bypasses. When they couldn’t bring ice cream home to places like Michigan, California and beyond, customers brought tubs of the caramels with them. Letters soon followed requesting delivery of caramels from all over. Flavors were chocolate, vanilla and black walnut which seemed to be a the most popular request in the letters we have.

This was an early card that was handed out to customers encouraging long distance orders of caramels and candy. Note the proprietors’ names, “Polite & John”. This was early on when my grandfather had partnered with Jimmy John who later went on to make a name for himself in the hot dog and sandwich business south of West Chester. The reverse side of the card reveals a typical request:

"June 17, 1935 - My wife just found this card in an old purse. Last summer we stopped at your place and found the best caramels we ever tasted. If you still make them please send me a dollar's worth. - Harold C. Brooks - Marshall, Mich."

In September of 1935, Polite had sent caramels to Frank B. Foster’s assistant, Sara Osborne, in Philadelphia. Osborne had been very helpful in the transactions that led to Polite purchasing the business from Foster and she stayed in close contact through the years. My grandfather routinely sent gifts and was also probably, in this case, showing off his new caramel product. Her letter began, “Your caramels are very good, and I presume you are now making these yourself. In fact they are bout the best I ever tasted.”

She then went on to suggest he improve his packaging since they “were received in rather bad condition…” and went on to say, “your paper was too thin and the string too light to carry them.” No doubt this led to the need to proper containers that would travel well and could be shipped as well.

Later, the caramels were sold in waxed cardboard tubs with a die-cut cow head in the top to give it a fun way to dispense the candies. The cow head was an easy reach for small hands but not too small for adult hands either.

In a May 3, 1951 article in The Archive (of Downingtown, PA) celebrating Larry’s 20th year in business, the writer detailed some of the challenges in caramel making:

Two days a week is caramel making day. Recently when he was having trouble getting the candy to the right consistency for wrapping — it was either too soft or too hard — he hit on the ide of plugging in his wife’s hair dryer. Now the caramels can be softened or hardened to the proper degree by pushing the hot or cool air button.

Larry Polite behind the scale and register with caramels on display along with Exton Dairy Grill Coffee

This photo and the other of my grandfather were most likely taken by avid photographer, Jimmy John.

Headless cow spurs a search in Chester County | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/02/2011

I meant to post and a link to the article that appeared at the beginning of June in the Philadelphia Inquirer. For those readers that aren’t local, you can read the whole thing here:

Headless cow spurs a search in Chester County | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/02/2011.

Somewhere Out There

This past weekend, The Daily Local News published an article about an ad hoc committee formed in West Whiteland Township to discuss what to do with the remnants of the The Guernsey Cow sign that was dismantled in 1985 and how best to remember The Cow (I am a member of the committee). Part of that committee’s efforts is attempting to find the head of the Cow that was stolen in the middle of the night Tuesday, July 23, 1985.

As mentioned a few years ago here, the bovine billboard that stood watch over the Exton, PA crossroads for 40 years was being removed in the summer of 1985 since The Guernsey Cow business had closed and the sign was starting to rot and fade. On Wednesday, July 17, 1985, The Daily Local News published an article (written by Michael Rellahan, the same author of Sunday’s article) about the signs impending removal.

In a quote from the article about the Cow coming down, my grandfather said, “It would be a conversation piece, though, if somebody wanted to pull it up. If you want a cow to put on your front lawn, it’s yours.” Within a week, someone took his offer litterally. At some point between dusk July 23, 1985 and dawn July 24, 1985, the head of the cow was stolen.

As the billboard was two-sided, there were actually two heads stolen that evening consisting of light but floppy and unwieldy large panels of sheet metal. As the article mentions, it’s suspected that the team was able to accomplish the mission in the wee hours when traffic was light.

Almost 30 years later, personally, the story of the theft, more than vengeance or the pursuit of justice, is what drives my desire to track down the heads and the current owner(s). I’d love to hear the story behind the scenes. Were these teenagers that, on a spur-of-the-moment challenge, dared each other to a daring middle-of-the-night raid? Were these West Chester State College kids stuck in town for the summer in need of fraternity house decorations? I’d also love to see the head and where it rests, whether in a local field, overgrown with weeds, or in some former teenager’s — now middle-ager’s — basement.

Later in 1985, my grandfather donated the remaining portions of the billboard to West Whiteland Township since they had expressed such interest in preserving it and using it in a public space.  Since then, the billboard, minus its head, has sat in storage, in pieces, paint flaking while the township has occasionally talked of what to do with it but never gotten far beyond the talk.

Now they’re talking again. It would be nice to see something done for real that would be some sort of testament to what The Cow meant to the community all those decades, whether it’s small or as larges as a 35-foot-tall Guernsey Cow. It would be nice to do that with at least one of the heads or the story behind their disappearance.

—

If you know someone or heard about a guy who knows a guy who knows who took the sign, help us connect the dots. The statute of limitations is up on this incident so it’s more for the story now than anything else. Let’s solve this cold case! Email me at busboy at theguernseycow.com — your information will be treated with the utmost confidence!

Meet You At The Cow

I just passed by the pile of newspaper clippings and paper in The Guernsey Cow bin and this card caught my eye. I read it and realized it has a little more ‘story’ and ‘hype’ than an earlier version of the history of The Cow that appeared on the back of a menu.

Permit us to welcome you to “The Guernsey Cow“, at Exton, where the Lincoln Highway (U.S. 30) crosses Route 100, just three miles south of the Downingtown interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Whether you be a neighbor from a nearby town or city, or a guest from Maine, Florida or California, call again, and again.

No matter where you travel, you will never find ice cream with better flavor or cream caramels as smooth and of more healthful content than that served here, amde with dairy products from tested Guernsey Cows.

The Guernsey Cow has been under the same management since 1931, and during that time we have taken great pride in serving the finest of Foods and Dairy Products. The manufacture of our own ice cream and famous cream caramels is done right on the premises, using the finest ingredients available anywhere. A majority of the many and unusual Guernsey Cow Ice Cream flavors are originals, not to be found in any other dairy store in the country. Our cream caramels are nationally and internationally known and are regularly sent all over the world, while our ice cream is occasionally flown to Europe to satisfy customer appetites.

The store building originally was a barn, and the stones in the building, today, are part of that old structure. Through the years, since its construction, the original building has gone through many internal changes. From a produce stand, to a fluid milk dairy, through a wholesale ice cram plant, and an ice cream mix plant, The Dairy Grille finally emerged in 1931. By 1941, the original Dairy Grille was changed to The Guernsey Cow, a name which was adopted through the insistence of our customers. Anywhere you might travel today, you can usually find someone who will understand the phrase, “MEET YOU AT THE COW“.

The residence on the property is one of the oldest in this vicinity. The back part of this house was apparently built in 1685 by people who moved into this valley, following the lines of migration north from Chester on the Delaware River, the oldest settlement in Pennsylvania. About 1740, an addition was built to the original small house by a George Massey. Mr. Massey was a great friend of George Washington, and he, Mr. Washington, was a frequent visitor and guest of Mr. Massey. This information was given to us by the Historical Society of Chester County. In 1820, the front part of the house was constructed. This contains excellent examples of mantles of that period.

Well-marked roads to Valley Forge, the great shrine of American patriotism, branch to the left of Lancaster Pike as you go to Philadelphia. Near Paoli is the site of the Paoli Massacre, where the British Troops surprised Mad Anthony Wayne, whose birthplace and grave ar just beyond, near Devon.

Visitors from a distance will enjoy a rather interesting trip by taking the road to West Chester and going on to Brandywine Creek, where one of the early battles of the Revolutionary War was fought.

Visit The Guernsey Cow as often as you can. Tell your friends. Come out any time. Bring the children.

When traveling East, stop in to see us, just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike at the Downingtown interchange.

THE GUERNSEY COW
on the Lincoln Highway
seven miles west of Paoli, at
“The crossroads of the World”
Exton, Pennsylvania
Phone: (215) 363-9796

The Philadelphia Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was completed in 1950 which would have included the Downingtown interchange. The emphasis on the proximity of The Cow to the Downingtown interchange was probably a response to traffic that the turnpike drew away from what had been the main East-West corridor: the Lincoln Highway aka Lancaster Pike aka U.S. Rte 30.

I like the phrase, “The crossroads of the world” to describe the intersection of Routes 100 & 30 in the center of Exton. I don’t know if that was something my grandfather created or whether other folks thought the same. I know we grew up thinking that’s what it was — and that the world thought the same.