Leonora Whitaker (the real Christy) soon learned that transportation in the isolated mountain cove of “Cutter Gap” was by foot or by horseback. Although raised in the city, she quickly took to riding the Mission horse to visit families and meet with her students in their homes. But there wasn’t always a horse at the mission. The best they had for a long time was Theo the mule.
In the novel, Christy eagerly determined that this was a high need for the mission. In her strong-minded, youthful enthusiasm, she undertook this task herself – the mission needs a horse.
Christy reflected on the extreme poverty of the Cove.
Most of the boys and girls could not see beyond the next corn crop. One pair of shoes would be wealth, indeed. Most had only the vaguest idea of the world beyond the mountains.
Naturally, the mission reflected this poverty. …The mission did not own a horse for us to ride. There was only Old Theo, a mule with a crippled hip… David and I had talked about the fact that buying a horse could not be postponed much longer. Yet a good horse cost about a hundred dollars…
My thoughts carried over into my own kind of prayer… “Lord, Miss Alice said that ‘if we give, it shall be given unto us.’ Well, she is giving, Lord. And so are Dr. Ferrand and David. And even I’m trying to give, though I don’t yet see what I have that You can use. I don’t have the faith that Miss Alice has, Lord, in you, in this Book, in anything. Can you help me with my faith (I hope it isn’t wrong to ask this) by giving unto us — as it says here, good measure? Maybe by giving unto us a horse…?
Three days later, Mr. Pentland brought me a letter postmarked Plainfield, New Jersey… As I opened it, a check dropped into my lap. It was for one hundred and six dollars, made out to me…
The horse! It was for the horse! Of course. “David — Da—vid! Where are you?” I went running through the house waving the check in the air…
“David, look… Isn’t it great!
To help in purchasing a horse, David took along John Holcombe, a man known in the Cove as a sharp trader and a good judge of horseflesh. At Overbrook Farm near Lyleton, they found Prince, a black stallion with a distinctive white star on his head, a long silky mane and a flowing tail. Mr. Holcombe came back saying, “Blamed if he ain’t the finest brute beast ye ever flung yer leg over.” …[David] and Mr. Holcombe bid the horse in for ninety-five dollars and paid thirteen dollars and ninety-eight cents for a saddle and bridle.
Roughly three dollars more than Mrs. Furman’s check,” David reported to me.
— Excerpts from Christy by Catherine Marshall.
Marshall-LeSourd Family Archives.