Lyman Langdon's Tavern to Alva Laverge's Pony Farm - Part 2

Continuing from the Crescent-News, January 25, 1960:

"(LaVergne) also raised colts and sold them from $150 to $200 each.  'Finally the price went so high,' Alva stated, 'that a good merit pony would sell for about $550 to $600.'

Since Mr. LaVergne's wife, the former Ona Haver, born in 1872, died April 23, 1958, he has lived at the River Rest Convalescent Home and has turned responsibilities over to his sons.  However, he is still interested in the place and is proud for having owned it.

Alva was born April 23, 1874, a son of a French-Canadian father, Joseph LaVergne, and a Pennsylvania German mother, Mary Snider.  His ancestry has given him the adventurous spirit of the French, plus the steady working characteristics of his mother's people.

Lyman Langdon has related much of his story in his own words in the History of Defiance County, 1883...  

(This can be read for free online at Internet Archive or a copy is in all the Defiance Public Libraries.)

'When he died in 1900,' Alva Lavergne said, 'he left his estate to six very beautiful daughters.'

In the Defiance Crescent- News, an extensive article about Alva Lavergne's pony farm, once the Lyman Langdon farm, appeared on May 13, 1950...

Susan C.an all white pony,had just been born on the farm  Susan was the third all white pony born on the Lavergne pony farm.

Every Sunday, people flocked to the farm, sometimes in the hundreds for free pony rides.  Alva said, "If I were younger, I would have a thousand ponies."  At that time, Alva was 76, and his wife was 77; they had lived at the 'Langdon Tavern" for the last 35 years.

He also noted that the tavern would be 100 years old that summer.

Alva loved to harness six ponies to a wagon and walk in parades.  He has been all over the area, wearing his high silk hat and showing off his ponies.

Alva was also known throughout the area as an auctioneer, his highest pay being $2,000 in commissions.  "His saddest sale was a 1918 auction near Mulligan's Bluff on State Route 18, where a widow was disposing of her chattels after the death of her husband and five children from influenza."

Alva also sold Fords for R. C. Albertus for eighteen years.

"He was born four miles west of his present home.  He worked in the oil fields in Wood county for eight years, then went to Chicago for two years as conductor on an interurban line. 

On Christmas Eve, 1894,he married Iona Haver after meeting her that year in Sherwood. "And I made no mistake," said Alva.  "As for Oney, you'll have to ask her if it's been a waste of time."  The LaVergnes have two sons who operate beauty colleges - Paul in Ft. Wayne and Basil in Toledo.

"Iona is the daughter of Mose and Mary Haver who ran a hotel in Sherwood; Alva is the son of Joseph and Mary LaVergne of Delaware Tp.  Alva's father beame a foreman in the oak shipping business in 1861.   Alva has a twin sister, Mrs. Alice Sisco, who lives on a farm in Delaware tp.  His brother, Lee, retired ten years ago as a B & O engineer and now lives in Garrett.  His sister, Mae, who died in 1914, was the wife of Dan M. Kintner of Defiance.  Sister Florence died in a typhoid epidemic in 1888; brother William was killed in a mine accident in Boulder, Colo. in 1912."

Defiance Crescent-News, August 8, 1958

All articles may be found on Newspaper Archives, available free at any Defiance Public Library with your library card.