History: Peanuts, Thompson Family Pet Pony, Struck by Automobile and Killed (1932)

The 21 Dec 1932 edition of The Red Bank Register contained this sad front page story about the untimely death of Peanuts, the Thompson family's pet pony, at the Brookdale farm in Lincroft. (Thompson Park and Brookdale Community College owe their existence to the generosity of the Thompson family.)

Auto Kills Pet Pony at Lincroft

Peanuts is dead. This little sentence may not mean much to the large army of readers of The Register but it tells briefly the climax of a tragedy that has befallen the family circle of Dr. William P. Thompson of Brookdale farm at Lincroft.

Before describing the incident the reader must know that Peanuts was not an edible morsel. Peanuts was an honest-to-goodness Virginian stock pony, about five years old, and was brought north about a year ago by Tori Healey, the famous trainer of the Brookdale stables at Lincroft.

Peanuts was acquired by Dr. Thompson for his children "Billy," Jr and, "Peggy" and at once it endeared itself not only to them but to all those employed on the Dr. Thompson place as well as the folks at the Brookdale and Greentree estates.

The pony waa carefully groomed and when hitched to a special vehicle purchased for the children's comfort the turnout was the envy of other children in the village. Occasionally Peanuts would get out of the corral and would cross the highway to pay a visit to the neighbors at the Greentree stable. Tender hands would soon lead Peanuts back to comfortable quarters on the Brookdale estate.

During the snowstorm of a week ago Saturday, Peanuts took a notion to go visiting and left the corral unnoticed. While crossing the highway between the Greentree and Brookdale estates the animal walked directly into the path of an automobile driven by Matthew Mullen, Jr.. of Lincroft and was instantly killed.

The dead pet was tenderly taken from the highway to the Brookdale estate where the snimal was given a respectful burial shortly after nightfall under the personal direction of Dr. Thompson who, with several employees of the place, stood uncovered in the driving snowstorm as the body of the children's playmate was lowered into its laat resting place.