Liveries in the Mid-19th Century United States

Writers of historical fiction often chase down rabbit holes of research they do not anticipate. In my current work-in-progress, I need my male protagonist to have a business. He is interested in caring for animals, but veterinarians schooled in how to treat animals were not common in 1867. So, my character has learned by informally apprenticing with another man who also has this talent.

But he now knows everything his mentor can teach him, and my protagonist is ready to go out on his own. He wants a business in which he can deal with large animals. So he buys a livery.

A livery in the 1860s was an establishment that rented out horses (for riding or for pulling), buggies, and wagons. It also boarded horses for those who did not own a stable. For a price, the livery would feed, groom, and exercise a boarded horse, and also keep its stall clean. The livery provided feed and bedding. Owners of the boarded horses could have access to their animals whenever they wanted. (In today’s terms, think of a combination parking garage, gas station, and rental car location.) Liveries also sold grain and hay and other supplies for horse care.

Many liveries were associated with hotels or boarding houses, probably because visitors to town or those without a house and land were the people most likely to need to have a place for their horses and buggies. Other liveries were associated with blacksmiths or farriers because shoeing horses required one of those services.

In addition to owning and operating a livery, my protagonist wants to engage in animal husbandry, which is a branch of agriculture concerned with the production and care of domesticated animals, usually farm animals. Primarily, he wants to provide medical services to farm animals around his livery—basically, he wants to work like the modern large-animal veterinarian does today. In addition, he has a young bull that he offers for stud to farmers in the area.

Because my character wants to build his animal husbandry services, I have him operating a stand-alone livery in Albany, Oregon. However, I might place it near a hotel. There is no historical basis for the location of my fictional livery, though there were several liveries in Albany in 1867 when my novel is set.

Also, I have my character living in rooms above the livery. Many liveries were two-story buildings, so I think a couple of rooms on the upper floor could have been carved out for an apartment. In addition, the ground floor of my fictional livery has an office and storage rooms in addition to the horse stalls. Again, I don’t have an historical basis for this design, but I haven’t found anything to contradict this possibility either.

This set-up provides for several opportunities for conflict in my novel—between my protagonist and his customers, between this character and his employees, between his need to manage the livery and his desire to build a clientele among farmers outside of town, and between my livery owner and his neighbors.

I know nothing about large-animal medical needs, other than what I have seen on All Creatures Great and Small. I’ve had to research difficult deliveries in cows and horses, bovine pneumonia, injuries to a race horse, and other issues. In addition, I’ve had to learn how old bulls have to be to sire calves.

They don’t teach these things in law school. But I enjoy the research and the learning, even if the information is otherwise useless in my daily life.

What esoteric information have you learned during your life?