My appeal for information about Maine race horses has brought in quite a\u00a0bit of information during the past two months. Some of this comes from one of\u00a0our older residents, now in his 82nd year, who himself was once a driver of\u00a0Maine trotters and pacers. He is Roland Stinneford of the Cushman Road in Winslow.\u00a0In the 1890’s Mr. Stinneford was well known J not only for his work as a\u00a0trainer and driver of horses, but also because he was proprietor of Watervi lie’s\u00a0Bay View f-bte I.<\/p>\n
Mr. Sti nneford remi nds rre that there was, in the wi nter ti me ha I f a century\u00a0ago, a lot of raci ng on Si Iver Street. know that ve ry we II, for as I ate\u00a0as 1923, when I lived at 100 Si Iver Street, race horses were regularly exercised\u00a0along that straight stretch, though I don’t remember seeing any actual races\u00a0there. From the front window of my second floor apartment, it was a common\u00a0winter sight to see Sel Whitcomb flash by behind one of his trotters.\u00a0was on Iy a sma II boy when \\\\fatervi lie’s wor Idchamp i on Ne I son raced to\u00a0fame. The Maine champion of my day was the great Aroostook horse John R. Braden,\u00a0driven by that prince of Maine trackmen, John Witland.<\/p>\n
Mr. Stinneford was the driver of Jackson Graton, a 2:.14 horse owned by the\u00a0\\~atervi lie veterinarian, Buster Richardson. His fastest race, however, was when\u00a0he drove a horse narred Johnny ~Jj Ikes at Pittsfield in 2:10. He drove two horses\u00a0at 2: 12, Frank C. and Di amond Q. Severa I of the horses wh i ch he drove scored\u00a02: 14. In 1912 at the Lewi ston Fai r Grounds Mr. Sti nneford drove Maud H. to a\u00a0track record wh i ch he I d for five years.<\/p>\n
Mr. Stinneford remembers wei I that day at Rigby when Nelson established his\u00a0world’s record of 2:09. He reminds me that at that time the low-wheeled,\u00a0pneumatic tired sulky had not come into use, so that Nelson made that record\u00a0pulling a high-wheeled, hard tired sulky; and what is more, the driver Hod Nelson\u00a0weighed 210 pounds.<\/p>\n
In the 1890’s Maine had only two mi Ie tracks, one at Rigby and one at Lewiston.\u00a0A horse was expected to do better on a mi Ie track, as Nelson indeed did,\u00a0for next to his world record at Rigby, the big stallion’s best time was on the\u00a0mi Ie track of the Grand Circuit at Grand Rapids, Michigan.<\/p>\n
Mr. Stinneford recalls an incident of that eventful day at Rigby. Nelson,\u00a0like most of the other horses, had been brought to the park by rai I road freight\u00a0car. Mr. Stinneford tel Is me that when Nelson was unloaded, Hbd made the horse\u00a0jump from the car onto a sing Ie ba Ie of straw. !’And H\u00a0, says r’-‘1r. Sti nneford, ‘lhe\u00a0came out like a top. Nelson”, says ~\u00b71r. Stinneford, “was a very ugly horse. No\u00a0one except Hod could go near his head. Once in Portland he bit a man’s arm so\u00a0that it had to be amputated.”<\/p>\n
Two horses that were contenders agai nst John R. Braden were Bartender and\u00a0Sweet Margaret Di lion. Mr. Stinneford says the track record at \\vatervi lie long\u00a0stood at 2:15, and it was Bartender that first lowered that mark. That horse\u00a0\\’\/as owned by Edward Hami Iton of \\vatervi lie.\u00a0Mr. Stinneford has an interesting explanation of how Hod Nelson got the\u00a0money to carry on his extens i ve ventures in breedi ng and raci ng. J-e says Ne 1-:son’s\u00a0principal backer was the famous Portsmouth brewer, Frank Jones.<\/p>\n
One horse that Mr. Stinneford drove for several years, on tracks in both\u00a0Ma i ne and New Hampshi re, was known simp Iy by th ree in iti a Is, CTL. He was\u00a0owned by Berry Brothers of Rockland.<\/p>\n
Besides Richardson’s Jackson Graton and Hami Iton’s Bartender, other wei I\u00a0known Watervi lie horses were George Groder’s Di;amond 0, described by Mr. Stinneford\u00a0as TTan awfully pretty horse”, \\1alter Reynolds~ China Boy, and Charles\u00a0Simpson’s Maud H.<\/p>\n
For a man nearly 82 years old, Mr. Stinneford has remarkably clear memories\u00a0of his racing days.<\/p>\n
George Odlin of Benton has loaned me Volume 2 of Thompson’s Noted Maine\u00a0Horses, published in 1887. Can anyone tell me where I can get a look at Volume\u00a01 of that work? There is a lot of interesting information, however, in this\u00a0second volume alone.<\/p>\n
For one thing it says, “Maine, as a breeding state, is largely indebted\u00a0to Canada, as several animals whose performances have entitled them to an honorable\u00a0place in the 2:30 list have descended from Canadian sir<es. Perhaps the\u00a0most promi nent sta” i on brought into the State from Canada was Brandywi ne. A\u00a0dark bay, he was brought to Ma i ne in 1853 by Aaron Cobb of Heb ron. ” Th i s horse\u00a0was the sire of numerous racers trained in Oxford and Androscoggin County in\u00a0the years’ just before -the Ci vi I War. They inc I uded Keene’s Brandyw i ne, owned\u00a0at Mechanic Fal Is; Lady Damon, owned at Buckfield; and Young Brandywine, owned\u00a0at Hartford.<\/p>\n
One of the most famous sires of Maine race horses was known as the Drew\u00a0horse. He was a dark brown bay stallion weighing about 1,000 pounds. He was\u00a0foaled in 1842 on the farm of Hiram Drew at Exeter, Maine. He had good blood,\u00a0for his father was a thoroughbred brought from New Brunswick to Maine by A. G.\u00a0Hunt of Exeter; and his mother was brought from England.<\/p>\n
When Mr. Thomp son comp i led his book i n 1887, the re had come to be so many\u00a0stallions carrying the name of Drew that the term Drew I-brse was confusing, and\u00a0the original sire of 1842 was universally called Old Drew. In 1887 any horse\u00a0that trotted a mi Ie faster than 2: 30 was regarded as excepti ona I, and a number\u00a0of 0 I d Drew’s descendants were on that list, a Ithough the 0 I d sta II ion hi mse If:\u00a0long since dead, had never been trained’ to trot.<\/p>\n
Even better known than Old Drew were two famous Maine sires, the Eaton\u00a0horse and General Knox. The Eaton horse was a big sorrel, 16t hands high, and\u00a0weighing nearly 1,500 pounds. He was exactly the same age as the Drew horse,\u00a0foaled in 1842 on the farm of Thomas Pelton at Anson, Maine. Within two years\u00a0he was twice sold, first to E. D. Robinson of Wi Iton, then to Eliah Eaton, from\u00a0whom the horse got his name. Some of this horse’s descendants, who scored better\u00a0than 2:30, were the Beals horse of Mount Vernon, Kennebec Messenger of Hal 1-\u00a0owel I, Red Cloud of Monmouth. His most noted son was Shepherd Knapp, bred by\u00a0George Snel I of Turner. Thompson says: ‘~he Knapp horse was owned from a\u00a0weanling to a three-year old in Buckfield, and was regarded as an exceedinqly\u00a0promising colt, and there was talk of forming a stock company to buy and retain\u00a0him for stock purposes. But the project fel I through and he was sold to parties\u00a0in England. Shepherd Knapp was himself a trotter. Near Paris, France in\u00a01865 he won a race of two and a half mi les in the time of 6 minutes, 14 seconds,\u00a0somewhat better than 2:30 to the mi Ie.<\/p>\n
It was Thomas Lang of Vassalboro who made Kennebec County famous as the\u00a0home of fast horses, when he started his breeding farm with the purchase of General\u00a0Knox in 1859. The stal lion was three years old when Lang bought him from\u00a0Denny and Bush, breeders of Shoreham, Vermont, on the shore of Lake Champlain.<\/p>\n
When Lang bought the horse, he was cal led Slasher, but Lang thought he ought to\u00a0have a good Maine name, and what better name was there than that of the proprietor\u00a0of the Waldo lands, the bui Ider of the Thomaston mansion Montpelier,\u00a0George Washington’s arti Ilery commander, and first Secretary of War, General\u00a0Henry Knox?<\/p>\n
Lang claimed that his General Knox was one of the most intel liqent horses\u00a0he ever knew. On one occasion, according to Lang, General Knox was involved in\u00a0a collision on the track at the Watervi I Ie Fair Ground. He was run into and his\u00a0driver unseated. The General was badly hurt, having his breast and the space\u00a0between his fore legs cut open for twenty inches, and the skin taken off from a\u00a0space a foot square. Yet, in the presence of a large crowd, the horse, perfectly \u00a0conscious of his injury, al lowed himself to be sewed up, without halter or\u00a0strap upon him, or moving from his tracks.<\/p>\n
General K”ox made his first public race in 1859 at Augusta, winning in what\u00a0was then considered the good time for a four-year old of 2:54. A few days later\u00a0at Waterville, he won the first stallion purse for any age, put up by the North\u00a0Kennebec Agricultural Society.<\/p>\n
The next summer Lang entered him at Skowhegan against one of the famous\u00a0Drew horses, Penobscot Bay. Knox lost the first heat, having broken his martingale\u00a0ring, and the driver could not prevent his breaking his gait. The next\u00a0heat Knox won in the then very fast time of 2:40, so outdistancing Penobscot\u00a0Bay that the latter was withdrawn by his owner, conceding the race to General\u00a0Knox without the necessity of a third heat.<\/p>\n
In 1861 the best known horses i n Ma i ne we re Gene ra I McC I e I I an and Hiram\u00a0Drew. Lang considered General Knox not quite in their class, but decided to\u00a0train his horse to meet at least the McClel Ian horse by mid-summer. He feared\u00a0that horse less than he did the more often victorious Hiram Drew. Lang entered\u00a0Knox in the sweepstakes at Watervi lie in August, expecting him to meet General\u00a0McClellan. But the latter’s owner declined to enter him, because the horse had\u00a0been badly beaten a few days earlier at Portland by Hiram Drew. But Hiram himse\u00a0I f was ri ght there in Watervi lie and his owner saw a chance to gi ve Genera I\u00a0Knox a sound beating and perhaps take a bit of Thomas Lang’s money on the side.\u00a0To the former’s chagrin, General Knox beat the Drew horse in three straight\u00a0heats, his best time being 2:32, the fastest he had ever trotted in a race,\u00a0though in private trials he had scored as low as 2:26.<\/p>\n
The next spri ng Lang was ca lied upon by the Trustees of the New Eng I and\u00a0Agricultural Society to rally the Maine horses to compete for the honors of New\u00a0England at the Springfield, Massachusetts Fair. Dubious of General Knox’?\u00a0abi lity to show well in such fast company, Lang nevertheless felt his horse was\u00a0as fast as any in Maine, and, as he put it, “decided to enter him against the chances of bringing him home crestfallen.” As a result, in the big sweepstakes\u00a0Knox won in straight heats, defeating the best horses from New Hampshire and\u00a0Massachusetts, and again setting a new record for himself of 2:31.<\/p>\n
The next summer Knox again lowered his mark, trotting at Watervi lie in 2:30\u00a0and 2:28 in successive heats. After that Lang was offered as high as $30,000\u00a0for the horse. Before he left the track entirely, General Knox had lowered his\u00a0mark to 2:24.<\/p>\n
Do you remember my telling you how G. H. Gilbreth, hardware merchant of\u00a0Fairfield, and grandfather of those twelve chi Idren who were subjects of the\u00a0famous book and movie “Cheaper by the Dozen”, provided himself with business\u00a0stati onery? He sol d ads to his fe II ow merchants and pri nted them on the back\u00a0page of his folded four-page letter head. But one of those ads was printed upside\u00a0down to aTtract special attention. It was a picture of a trotter hitched\u00a0to a high wheeled sulky, and it advertised Gi Ibreth’s own breeding stallion,\u00a0Gi I breth Knox, who, before bei ng reti red from the track, had made a mark of\u00a02:26. Gi Ibreth Knox was one of the more famous of the many sons of General\u00a0Knox, the horse brought to Ma i ne from Ve rmont by Thomas Lang of Vassa”1 boro.<\/p>\n
Some time ago I asked on this program how many listeners could visualize a\u00a0mi II i on of anyth i ng \u2022 A listener who wants to be ca lied simp Iy Li one I has p rovided\u00a0me with a number of examples of such visualization. One concerns a seventh\u00a0grade girl, who was curious about the size of a mi Ilion. So she counted a thousand kernels of dried corn and found that they amounted to approximately one cupful. From this she computed from cupfuls to pints, to quarts, to pecks, to bushels, and found that a mi Ilion kernels would be eight bushels. Then she suddenly realized that a bi I lion kernels would make 8,000 bushels. As Lionel says, certainly that girl got a concrete idea of a mi Ilion.<\/p>\n
Lionel points out that if we pi led up a mi I lion dol lars in ten dollar bi lis, the stack would be forty feet high. It is then easy to see that~ if the bi I Is were of the one dollar denomination, the stack would be 400 feet high, which is 100 feet more than the distance of a hundred yard dash.<\/p>\n
Now, how long would it take you to count a mi I lion one dollar bi lis? Assume that you could count steadi Iy at the usual employee’s forty-hour week, with customary time out for meals and rest periods. Then assume that you could average four bi lis a second. That would be 240 a minute, 14,400 an hour. It would take you almost al I of two forty-hour weeks to count a mi Ilion dollar bi I Is. If you didn’t go crazy long before you finished the job, it would take you 2,000 weeks or almost 39 years to count a bi Ilion dol lars.<\/p>\n
Yes, indeed, a mi I lion is a lot of anything, and a bi Ilion is a whole lot more. No wonder we cannot appreciate what it means to have the annual budget of the United States Government now at more than seventy bi I lion dollars.<\/p>\n
And now, for old times sake, we bid you good-bye unti I September.<\/p>\n
Year: 1957<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #344, Broadcast June 30, 1957<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}