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BIRTH TO IDEA OF HUNT CLUB SHOW—First Discussion Started during Game of Bridge on Train, Is Story.• jI ■ ■ ■■ » »n i ' *m\ ■•WHh the most successful ai^d com-| prchenslve horse etow ever held by the Fairfield County Hunt Club, drawing to u close It is Interesting to note the birth and riBe to Its present- enviable status of the club that Is doing so much to popularize the horse and bring a new element of sportsmanship into the County.The story of the Inception of Hunt club is woven around with no little romance, and the development of the movement is another demonstration of the well known adage, out of little big: things grow.During the summer of 1923 a small group of emhuslAtc horsemen and women assembled weekly at a Held in Coley town, there timorously yet diligently to try their skill at polo. Ab the play improved so did the interest until the frost drove players and spectators alike Into the comfort of their own firesides.In February 1924. a Utile band of commuters laid aside their newspapers and casually discussed the possibilities of a riding club. As a result a dozen optimists met in an unpretentious studic in New York to discuss the for-mation ol such a club.Planned Open Meeting.Many meetings were subsequently held, each one in a more elaborate room than the last and a definite time set to meet in open dJflCijsslOii. On April 3, 1924 at the Westport town-hall the first regular meeting ol the Fairfield County Hunt club was called to order by George Gftir, with 40 pro-speccive members present.Officers were elected, articles of incorporation were drawn up and the club launched on ltft life’* career on a site of 60 acres of land on the upper Saugntuck river.It may be said that the Fairfield County Hunt club h«tl itn real origin over a game of cards. George Tompkins told The Telegram.1 Mr Tompkins Is one of the original ' members oi the club and ia still one of | those keenly inteicsted, public spirited « men who arc guiding the destinies of an oi sanitation that has virtually I leaped into the fore front of similar * movements thtroughout the country.Talked It Over on Train• A lew or us were seated in a train ! on our way to New York, one daysome four years ago, continued Mr : Tompkins. “And it was while the card* were being dealt that someone casually made a remark that it would be a good thing If people In the country took up riding more from a point- of recreation and pastime,Aa the train took us nearer to our j destination A2Jd the cards were dealtagain and again, so did the feeling! grow that there were many benefits to be derived from riding, especially If some sort of a club were formed to ' foster the movement.“I believe it was the aces that did it! And from that moment, the idea born In bc romantic a manner took . loot and grew and spread and formu-' latcti itself irom a mere 'brain-wave' to a definite fact.• One of my most treasured possessions to-day to the somewhat tattered check that I had in my pocket at the lime and on which was written the names of those four men Bitting that day in tne train when they laid the first seeds of the great organizationthat holds such a prominent place inthe sporting and social world today.As one of the charter members of the Club and its first secretary JJi Tompkins has watched the growth of me movement from its inception with keen Interest.Had Modest Start.It Iff truly wonderful to think that out ot our modest little beginning we i have accomplished such a fine work or the Fail field County Hunt Club undoubtedly is. We l'iUe, we play polo, we hunt and we race, and behind nil these sports there lies the fact that it nil tends to make us better citizens.| helps lo keep the hoise with us and so build up a fabric that makes for the general good of the entire communityOui pi Unary object is to popularize and encourage liorse breeding, and create in the minds of the public, especially the children the desire to reinstate the horse in the position he once occupied.Here 1 ft FaJrtlield we are happily situated in that we have many miles of country over which we can ride and i hunt, unci so afford a valuable means of recreation and amusement. Then there hs the fact that land values have increased. The farmers, too, are cooperating with ua In helping Us to promote the Ruccess of the Hunt. Jt has been pioved, also, that hunting tend* moie to aid the farmer than anything elseWe arc catering a great deal to the younger set and are thereby Instilling lhio them the spirit of courage, pi self-reliance and that sporting Instinct that will always stand them In good stead.No hotter demonstration cf the progress made by the club can be seen than in tho present club house heie, the erection of which is one of the many ambitions that we as a Hunt Club have realized.
Newspaper Details
Bridgeport Telegram
Bridgeport, Connecticut, US
Sat, Sep 24, 1927
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 19 Nov 2018
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