A Philadelphia Archdiocesan priest, Fr. Mulranen, whom I knew from St. Laurence parish in Highland Park, was transferred to St. Francis de Sales Church in Lenni within the past year. Sandy and Dave Masse belong to this parish as I learned just recently. Talking to her about this reminded me of Helen, Joe Mulranen and Helen's horse.
Fr. Mulranen is related to Joe Mulranen who had been a friend of my Mother's (Helen) from childhood. I remember that, when I was a child at home, Joe used to visit us occasionally.
From what Helen told us she knew Joe when she was a young girl. Her stories were of the days when her parents, John and Ann Murphy, had made a home of a Pennsylvania Railroad owned house that stood on railroad property along Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia. John Murphy was a plain clothes policeman for the railroad. The railroad gave John the house to live in if he would "fix it up." Things were rather informal in those days.
As a girl Helen wanted a horse and John got one for her. With plenty of uncommited land available it was quite easy to keep a horse in the city and exercise it regularly without any public objections. Helen's horse was a mare which she named "Jenny."
Joe Mulranen was older than Helen. He had served in the US Army, originally in the horse cavalry. Based on some of his stories which I overheard and remember he had seen service in the Phillipines where the Army was busy warding off attacks from the Islamic Moros in Mindanao.
Even then Islamic fundamentalists were killing people with suicide and other attacks. My memory of Helen's stories is that Joe had given Helen some pointers on handling her horse. This is a time when Helen may have been maybe 14 years old. This would have been sometime during or after 1918.
The last time I remember seeing Joe would have been in the latter part of World War II. In those days he was a Philadelphia policeman. I believe that he had served either as a part of the Fairmount Park Guard or the Philadelphia mounted police force or both. (The mounted police force was disbanded in 2004.) I have an impression that Joe was romantically interested in Helen when they were younger.
I remember that Helen's stories about Jenny were not too detailed but enthusastic. She had fun with her horse. I don't know what happened to Jenny.
Later I will write some more about Joe Mulranen and also, and especially, stories that I remember about John "Buller" Murphy.
Sylvia remembers Helen talking about her "pony" Jenny. She wonders whether it might have been a pony rather than a horse and perhaps, because of Mulranen's friendship, it might have been a retired police horse.
I doubt that it was a pony. Helen never used that word describing Jenny to me. She told me about having her own horse. Ponies were uncommon. But small, elderly horses were likely plentiful.
I doubt very much that it was a police horse. In 1919 mounted police were still considered essential, at least, in urban areas. Trained mounted police have excellent visibility and response flexibility. Mounted units are superior in crowd control to anything that has been devised. But police horses had to be big for both visibility and crowd control effectiveness which means that they were probably mostly or all male. Helen always referred to Jenny as a female.
In 1919 there were a lot of cars and trucks in use but horses were still common. As late as 1940 I remember horse drawn milk wagons and the Philadelphia ash collection wagons were horse drawn. In addition there remained an odd assortment of junk men, ice delivery men and others who still used horses although they were disappearing fast.
It is not likely that John Murphy would have wanted to pay for a strong, young, and possibly spirited, horse for his little girl. It is likely that older horses were plentiful and inexpensive as people finally bought a car rather than buy a new younger horse. Also it is likely that estate sales, disposing of the property of departed home and horse owners, made older horses available at very low prices.
I would guess that Jenny was as happy to have Helen as Helen was happy to have Jenny. Jenny no longer had to pull a heavy carriage or wagon. For Helen, having her own very real horse was thrill enough. To her, I imagine, Jenny was and remained beautiful for the rest of Helen's life.
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