This young gentleman is a family friend, Henry M. Spiker (1862-1936), and the photograph itself from my maternal grandfather's collection. Henry specialized in the breeding of draft and utility horses on his English Township farm and was married to Barbara Molesworth, a widely known Lucas County school teacher.
So I was entertained this week, while doing the research for Chariton Cemetery Heritage Tour scripts, to come upon a little story about Henry in The Herald of May 8, 1890.
The subject of the research was Dr. Thomas A. Bown, one of Chariton's pioneer veterinarians and with his partner, Addison McCollough, Iowa's leading buyer and seller of horses and mules for eastern markets from the mid-1890s until World War I.
This little news item isn't about Dr. Bown, however --- just about a lesson Henry Spiker learned, the hard way:
"Henry Spiker was kicked by a horse last week, which came very near doing him up. He held a horse and a chicken at the same time. The horse was afraid of the chicken, but Henry thought he would teach him something, so he pushed the chicken at the horse and the horse wheeled and kicked. Henry has been wondering ever since which learned the most, the horse or the man."
It's not clear why Henry was holding a horse and a chicken at the same time.
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