Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Wheeler, Dorothy Deming, 1896-1975
- Abstract:
- This collection includes scrapbooks, horse lineage charts, and ephemera relating to Dorothy Deming Wheeler's activities as women's polo champion, horse breeder, and promoter for the sport of polo in Santa Cruz. Much of the material covers Pogonip Polo Club, Santa Cruz, Wheeler's "Windy Hill Farm" and Santa Cruz County polo activities. Also included are two albums of photographs of the Wheeler's early married life in Alaska as a sled dog breeder and racer in one of the precursors to the Iditarod race.
- Extent:
- 9 Linear Feet 9 flat boxes
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
Dorothy Deming Wheeler scrapbooks. MS 246. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection includes photo albums of the Wheeler's early married life in Alaska, breeding and racing sled dogs as well as scrapbooks, horse lineage charts, and ephemera relating to Wheeler's activities as women's polo champion, horse breeder, and promoter for the sport of polo. The scrapbooks cover the Pogonip Polo Club in Santa Cruz, "Windy Hill Farm" and Santa Cruz County polo activities.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Dorothy S. Deming was born in Santa Cruz, California in 1896 to Henry Seth and Josephine N. Deming. She married her cousin, Deming Wheeler, at her family's Cliff Street home in Santa Cruz on August 28, 1916.
Deming Wheeler was born in Brattleboro, Vermont on August 22, 1876 and died on March 31, 1946 in Santa Cruz, CA. He was well known in the field of sports and considered an authority on blooded horses, especially polo ponies. He wrote a number of articles on the subject of breeding and raising fine horse stock and was invited to become a member of the Jockey Club of New York because of his knowledge. He was also a big game hunter and explorer.
For the first three winters of their married life, Dorothy and Deming lived in a one room cabin in Alaska hunting, breeding and training Alaskan huskies (sled dogs). There Dorothy learned to race dog teams cross country and win. She drove a dog sled from Fairbanks to Nome and back, a 1000 mile journey in an Alaskan winter of 50 degrees below zero.
Dorothy and Deming came back to Santa Cruz where they purchased land and built Windy Hill Farm located at the top of Spring Street in Santa Cruz. They stocked the farm with various kinds of livestock and bred and trained fine polo ponies. They also promoted the sport of polo and participated in the establishment of the Santa Cruz Pogonip Polo Club.
They kept Pogonip's prices low and extended the sport to women and children. Dorothy promoted her coed polo matches, which were controversial elsewhere. When the men's National Polo Association rejected a women's association, Dorothy established the first co-ed United States Polo Association, serving as its president for many years. She led the women's polo team to the Pacific Coast Circuit Championships several years in a row. The club closed during World War II, and Pogonip was used to train a women's mounted corps for the Red Cross. Wheeler gave riding therapy to patients in the naval hospital that took over the Casa del Rey.
After Deming Wheeler died in 1946, Dorothy married attorney, E. Forbes Wilson. The Pogonip Club reopened in 1948, but its equestrian days were over. Bicycle polo took its place, while the club expanded its social activities to include tennis, skeet, bridge, dances, weddings, and fashion shows.
Dorothy Deming Wheeler Wilson died in Santa Cruz on March 22, 1975.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Mrs. E. Forbes Wilson [Dorothy Deming Wheeler]
- Processing information:
-
This finding aid was revised in the Reparative Archival Redescription Project in 2021-2022. Previous versions of this finding aid are available upon request.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs. Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
- Preferred citation:
-
Dorothy Deming Wheeler scrapbooks. MS 246. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Location of this collection:
-
Special Collections and Archives, University Library1156 High StreetSanta Cruz, CA 95064, US
- Contact:
- (831) 459-2547