STATESVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA Historic Simonton Place Home Tour
April 9, 2011
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Saturday April 9th, 2011
2030 Simonton Rd. Statesville 10 A.M. to 2 P.M.
This is a rare opportunity to tour the Pre-Revolutionary Simonton Place, one of the oldest homesteads in Iredell County and site of one of the first county courthouses and jail.

There will be a Home Tour with History of Simonton Family and the home.  All Proceeds to Benefit The United States Equine Rescue League of the Central Piedmont of NC (www.userl.org).  Included in the tour are a Barn Tour, Butter Churning Demonstrations, Spinning Demonstrations, Tea Service, Equine Massage/Chiropractic Demos.  There will also be an opportunity to Meet the Rescue Horses! Concessions will be available.  For more information call 704-872-3388 or visit www.userlcpnc.org.

Advance Ticket Price $10 Adults and $5 Seniors (60+) and $5 Kids (-12).  To purchase tickets, call 704-872-3388.  Admission at the door is $12 Adults, $6 Seniors (60+), and $6 Kids (-12)

Additional Information on the Simonton Home:

Theophilus Simonton, a yeoman farmer in Lancaster, PA, left the property to wife Mary and their son, William, in his will in 1754. William Simonton (1716-1811) was the youngest son of by Theophilus and Mary Simonton. William Simonton and his wife, also Mary, had twelve (12) children. The home was in the hands of their heirs, and known as the Simonton Place until after the Civil War. During the Revolutionary War, William, two (2) of the oldest sons, and their horses, served the Army. The Simonton family occupied the house until it fell into disrepair sometime in the early 1900’s. The Simonton’s and their descendants served as soldiers, community leaders, bankers in Iredell County, and once owned the Simonton Female Academy, now Mitchell Community College.

Simonton Place was used as a courthouse from March 1789 – March 1790. The first County Commissioners met in the Simonton Place when they were deciding things like what to call Statesville and where to put the City on the map. The name “Statesville” was used in the Simonton Place in 1760, six (6) years before North Carolina became the first State to declare independence from England. Perhaps the first seeds of the Revolution were discussed here at Simonton Place.

The original house was a log cabin, much like those built in Pennsylvania at the time. The original home site was 280 acres and was later expanded to 1,780 acres. Today, the home site is 11.5 acres. The Simonton family was one of the largest owners in Statesville following the American Revolution. After 1790, William, then a successful planter, replaced the log cabin with the Federal Style brick home that you see today. The Federal Style home was a very simple design with a porch in the front and possibly a service porch on the back to add to the service of the kitchen. It was a red brick home. The only part of the original log home is the basement, signified by the hand hewn beams and stone walls. The Simonton Place cellar is believed to have provided the county’s first jail cell. There was a steel door, bars on a foundation wall opening and chains and shackles bolted through the walls.

Simonton Place is the oldest known brick house standing in Iredell County. The walls are 1.5’ thick, put together with hand molded brick from the sand and clay from nearby Mallard Creek. The house stands on a granite foundation. When possible, the original alternating walnut and chestnut floorboards have been restored and are the same ones that were walked on 200 years ago. The stairway is walnut, and the wood trim and molding is oak, chestnut and walnut. The original door still hangs in the front entranceway. The mantle in what was once the kitchen (now the den) is original and a close look reveals the wooden pegs used in place of nails. What was once the back door is now the door to the entrance to the bathroom. A kitchen was added in the early 1900s. The current porches were a20th Century additions and the back porch was converted into a modern kitchen in the 1980s.

Ward and Teri Crosier purchased Simonton Place in 1997. Since that time they have turned the 11.5 acres into a sanctuary for rescue horses. Teri is an active volunteer with the US Equine Rescue League (USERL) and has helped directly with the rescue and rehabilitation of several horses. Some of the horses that Teri has saved are here today, Lilly, Abby, Mimosa and her baby Skye, Brandi, Star, and Summer. All of the horses were rescued from neglect and starvation and nursed back to health by Teri. Teri has also rescued a PMU (Premarin Mare Urine) foal, Luke. For those of you that don’t know, the drug Premarin is made from the urine of pregnant mares. The mares are forced to stand in a small stall hooked to a catheter and when the foal is born, it is a useless byproduct and “disposed” of. There are several rescues dedicated to saving the PMU foals.
Donations can be made to:
USERL
P.O. Box 157
Wingate, NC 28174

For more information on how to volunteer, foster or adopt a rescue horse visit www.userl.org or call Teri at 704-872-3388.

Information taken from:
“Family Will Tour Historic Treasure” by Brett Milsteak – Statesville Record and Landmark March 19, 2000
“Home with a History” by Christine Underwood Statesville Record and Landmark March 12, 1997
Article by Minnie Hampton Eliason in the Landmark June 13, 1913
“First Courts Here Held at Simonton’s” by Homer Keever – Statesville Record and Landmark
“Settlers, Water Determines Statesville’s Site” Mac Lackey, Jr. Iredell Neighbors November 29, 1989
Verbal history from Jackie and Vernon Helmke, descendants of the Simonton Family

Contact:

Deb Carl

704-531-4877

dbcarl@bellsouth.net

By Diane Walsh

I volunteer at a non-profit 501C horse rescue/rehab/retirement facility down here in St. Augustine, FL.  We are the only such organization in our region and are currently home to 13 horses at different levels of rehabilitation. We are also home to a very famous mare, Awaiting Justice, who is the great grand-daughter of the Triple Crown Winner, Secretariat!  Why is she so famous? As a filly, she was owned by Garrett Redmond of Kentucky, who legally sought the right to name her Sally Hemmings after Thomas Jefferson’s famous slave and reputed lover. Redmond made international headlines when he sued The Jockey Club for that right but lost the suit. Awaiting Justice went on to race at Churchill Downs, but was eventually sold by Mr. Redmond, sold again and then again until she ended up at a horse boarding facility in St. Augustine area. A boarder at the facility did not want to go to the trouble of shipping her (Awaiting Justice) back home, so the mare was sold to the students for about $1.00, left at the boarding facility.

Last year, Marie Matte, the founder of Diamonds in the Rough, received an urgent call from the mother of one of the students who had purchased the mare that she (the mare) was in an advanced state of starvation at the nearby boarding facility. Marie brought the mare back to the farm and provided her with the necessary medical attention, food, shelter and love she so richly deserved. Today, Serafina, as we’ve renamed her, is a happy, healthy and vibrant personality here at the farm. Another member of our farm is a descendant of War Admiral and Man o’ War! Celebrity lineage doesn’t get better than this in the world of horse rescue!

Diane Walsh

Advertising/Admin Assist

The Record

One News Place

St. Augustine, FL 32086

diane.walsh@staugustine.com

July 30, 2010 – Edition 11 – This Unwanted Horse Coalition news summary is provided as an educational service to those interested in the issue of the unwanted horse. The articles do not reflect the opinions of the Unwanted Horse Coalition or any of its employees. The listing of events does not constitute an endorsement of a particular event. If you see an article or event that may be appropriate for inclusion in Media Roundup, please e-mail it to ecaslin@horsecouncil.org.

1,600 Unwanted Horses Receive Spring Vaccinations
This spring the Unwanted Horse Veterinary Relief Campaign (UHVRC) vaccinated 1,600 unwanted horses against critical equine diseases. Established in December 2008, UHVRC provides qualifying equine rescue and retirement facilities with complimentary equine vaccines for horses in their care. To date, more than 4,000 horses across the United States have received vaccines through the program.
Read More…

Horse Rescue Farm Gets Help from Inmates
Even as she toiled at a Woodbine farm Thursday in the relentless heat and humidity, Paula Jordan said she and three other female inmates were grateful to the owners for allowing them “a little taste of freedom.” Jordan, a 41-year-old Baltimore resident convicted of second-degree assault, is a member of a newly formed crew dispatched from the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women to pitch in twice a week with maintenance on the 58 acres of rolling pasture at Days End Farm Horse Rescue.
Read More…

Horse Rescue Organization See Increase in Abandonments
Nadine Hoy has been taking “the worst of the worst” horse cases for the Klamath Humane Society at a rate of 2 or 3 horses a year for the past two decades, but over the past two years, the number of horses brought to her doorstep has skyrocketed.
Read More…

A Void for Horse Rescue in Florida Is Filled
It’s people like Barbi Moline that are the true saviors of the Thoroughbred world and what it represents. Moline was recently named the winner of this year’s Dogwood Dominion Award, which celebrates the “unsung heroes of the racing industry,” and will be recognized for her efforts in spearheading a plan to fund Pure Thoughts Horse Rescue in South Florida.
Read More…

Rescued Horse Strides Down Homestretch
As the other thoroughbreds broke from the gate, dark bay Buck awkwardly started his first race with a jittery hop and wobble that left him running last among the 11 horses. That the gelding’s thundering strides down the homestretch rallied him to a fourth-place finish may not have been the most remarkable thing that day last September at Arlington Park in suburban Chicago.
Read More…

Finding a Future for Horses after Racing Ends
Like a proud uncle, Dr. Richard Bowman can recite the latest accomplishments of the equine boarders who spent time on his North Dakota ranch. One is beginning a career in law enforcement. Another won an event at her very first horse show, after only a few weeks of training. And the one who broke both front ankles, who nearly died right there on the Canterbury Park track, has teamed up with a child to compete in rodeos.
Read More…

The mission of the Unwanted Horse Coalition is to reduce the number of unwanted horses and to improve their welfare through education and the efforts of organizations committed to the health, safety, and responsible care and disposition of these horses.

Unwanted Horse Coalition
1616 H Street, NW • 7th Floor • Washington, DC 20006 • 202-296-4031

Calling all horse lovers to help the ASPCA!  On June 30, a grey filly was found roaming the desert near Round Mountain, an isolated mining community roughly 235 miles southeast of Reno, NV, close to the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA). The two-year-old horse had been the victim of a horrendous act of animal cruelty-the hide of her left hip, where the owner’s brand was located, had been cut off in a six-by-eight inch patch, and the skin removed to make sure the filly could not be traced back to her owner.

NDA officials gently rounded up the horse and transported her to their emergency holding facility, where she was fed, watered and her wound treated by a vet. The mare was later transported to Return to Freedom, a wild horse sanctuary that eventually contacted her new forever home, a horse sanctuary outside of San Diego called Horses of Tir Na Nog. (Both are recipients of the ASPCA Equine Grant Fund.)

Efforts have now shifted from the mare’s rescue to finding the person responsible for her mutilation and abandonment. The ASPCA has joined forces with the Humane Society of the United States in offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the conviction of the perpetrator, bringing the total reward to $5,000.

Says ASPCA President & CEO, Ed Sayres, “Abandoned horses are the result of a struggling economy and the unscrupulous overbreeding of horses around the country. The solution involves educating breeders and owners about responsible horse care.”

Questions regarding this case should be directed to the Nevada Department of Agriculture at (775) 738-8076.

For Twitter Users: What do you think? Tweet on this article. Include @aspca and #AbandonedMare

Photo Credit: Return to Freedom

Read more and find article at: http://www.aspca.org/news/national/07-31-09.html#1