From Baton to Pitchfork

Upon buying a River Towns farm property in 1938—about 500 acres on a hillside in Rosemont—legendary big band leader Paul Whiteman named it “Walking Horse Farm” after his Tennessee Walking Horse, Walkie. In the music world, Whiteman was known as “The King of Jazz.” In 1924 he famously commissioned George Gershwin to compose his iconic Rhapsody in Blue. But to River Towners, he was the “Squire of Rosemont.” On the farm, Whiteman proved he could swing a pitchfork as well as a baton.

The self-proclaimed “plain dirt farmer” would rise before 6 a.m., don jeans, cowboy boots, and a ten-gallon hat, ride Walkie until 8 a.m., then tend to his prize herd of Aberdeen-Angus cattle, Hampshire hogs, and Suffolk ewes. He would bale hay and operate machinery, like the cultivator in this photo, to ensure a good crop of barley, wheat, corn, and alfalfa. The photo, credited to a New York agency run by George Drucker and E.E. Hilbert, was published in Radio Guide on August 4, 1939. That’s Whiteman’s daughter Margo astride the cultivator.

Whiteman’s passion for agriculture spilled out into his musical circles: He once told a group of jazz band leaders that musicians were “like corn on the cob: Unless you hand-pick them, you’ll find lots of bad ears.”

The current owner of the farm, Steve Sashihara, the founder and CEO of a Princeton-based management consulting firm, named it “Rhapsody Farms” in homage to Whiteman. “Since acquiring it in 2021, our focus has been stewardship,” Sashihara says, “restoring many of the farm’s buildings while supporting the working livestock and crop operations.”

That legacy would certainly be music to Whiteman’s ears.