“Fifty-seven years ago, Emily McHugh left the traditions and southern style of Nashville, Tennessee for the Midwestern equestrian mecca of Barrington Hills.
It was still customary in those days to extend letters of invitation to prospective guests. When George Van Hagen and his wife, Barbara, visited Nashville in 1961 for the Steeplechase Races, they met a dedicated young horsewoman named Emily Frazer Cullom, and suggested that she might enjoy a visit to their equestrian community in Barrington, Illinois. She could stay with them. Then-prevailing courtesies required that Emily’s mother receive a formal invitation for her daughter from the Van Hagens. Graciously offered to Mrs. Cullom, the letter was the signal for her daughter to step into a new environment, one with an equestrian history then barely 40 years old.”
Read the full Quintessential Barrington article here.
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