The Final Resting Place of Elsie the Cow

I live in the small town of Plainsboro, New Jersey (I know, my profile says Princeton, which is an adjacent town. Many people in this area say they live in Princeton, even if they don't, because it sounds more prestigious. I am not immune from that). There's not much notable about Plainsboro. As I noted in my article on the census, a lot of Indian-Americans live here--it's the second-highest percentage in any town over 1,000 people in the United States.

The only reasonably historical aspect to Plainsboro is that it was once the home to Walker Gordon Farm, which was established in 1897. It became one of the most advanced dairy farms in the country, and was purchased by the Borden Company. At the 1939 World's Fair, they displayed the Rotolactor, a state-of-the-art milking machine. But since it was only operational twice a day, crowds began to dwindle. The people at Borden were looking for some kind of gimmick, and found one when children kept asking, "Where's Elsie?"

Elsie was an advertising character that was used in Borden print ads. A light bulb went off over the heads of the marketing department, and a cow was chosen to represent Elsie. Her name was You'll Do, Lobelia, a Jersey cow from Massachusetts. She became an instant star, paraded before the public, and even ended up in a movie. She was later given a husband, Elmer, who became the logo for Elmer's Glue. In 1941, she was injured in a vehicular accident and was then put down.

"Elsie" was buried somewhere on the farm, and a stone was put up. Walker Gordon Farm eventually went out of business, and in 2000 the land was turned into housing units (one of the roads is called Elsie Drive). When I'm ambitious, I take a walk on the trail around the subdivision, and beside a gazebo at the end of a cul-de-sac is Elsie's headstone. Technically speaking, it's a cenotaph, as it does not mark her actual resting place. That is somewhere out in the field. It is to be hoped that her bovine bones will not one day break through someone's basement wall.

Here is a snapshot I took today of the cenotaph. And so, in a town that has a large Indian population, it is ironic that Plainsboro's most famous resident was a cow.