Photo from auction catalog.

A  Newport Mercury  account in 1949 provides the story of the end of the renown Glen Farm herds. The entire herd of 89 cows were dispersed in one auction for over $36,000. The herd, one of the oldest in Rhode Island, had been established in 1889 by H.A.C. Taylor and had been continued by his son Moses. Moses Taylor’s wife, Edith Taylor Nicholson had continued the herd, but she made the decision to sell in 1949.

Glen Farm Guernseys were known for high quality breeding and an outstanding record for being disease free. The original stock came from the Island of Guernsey, but the Taylors continued to selectively breed and improve their herds.

Among the buyers at the auction were Francis Taylor, the grandson of Glen Farm’s founder.  Francis, who is listed as being from Seekonk, bought a cow (Frolic of the Glen) and a calf (Gold of the Glen).  Local buyers were former Governor William H. Vanderbilt who purchased four of the better known cows for his Massachusetts farm, Hugh D. Auchincloss (Jacqueline Kennedy’s stepfather), and Mervin Briggs (who had Fairholm Dairy in Portsmouth). Most of the herd went to Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The week before the cattle auction, Edith Taylor Nicholson disposed of all the Glen Farm sheep  and some years before the bred horses had been dispersed as well.  After the auction there was still cattle on Glen Farm. Sixty head of Angus beef cattle were still being bred in the last years of the farm.