To be sure, the African American leadership did not allow these accusations, degradations, and outright attacks on the character of blacks to go unchallenged. In June 1881 Frederick Douglass eloquently argued:
Of all the races and varieties of men which have suffered from this feeling [of prejudice], the colored people of this country have endured the most. They can resort to no disguises which will enable them to escape its deadly aim. They carry in front the evidence which marks them for persecution. They stand at the extreme point of difference from the Caucasian race, and their African origin can be instantly recognized, though they may be several generations removed from the typical African race. They may remonstrate like Shylock—“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter, as a Christian is?”—but such eloquence is unavailing. They are Negroes—and that is enough, in the eye of this unreasoning prejudice, to justify indignity and violence.17
To Douglass, “slavery created and sustained” the prejudice experienced by African Americans in every corner of the nation.18
Although there was ample evidence that the race had grown from its previous condition of ignorance, stupidity, servility, poverty, and dependence by gaining access to education and economic stability, the threat of the Negro becoming a social equal inspired an epidemic of lynchings throughout the South, including Kentucky. How Isaac handled being part of an identifiable pariah class, whether he worried about the possibility of violence against him because of his success, and how he adjusted his travels to avoid potential confrontations with white men are not known. Yet we know that he had to interact with white men of various classes and occupations, all of whom were capable of meting out brutal punishment. We can be fairly sure that within the racially charged environment of horse racing, Isaac experienced painful reminders of his sanctioned place in society. How he handled these transgressions would be answered in the saddle during the 1881 season.
Making a Name for Himself
By May 1881, Fleetwood Farm, now under the control and direction of Meta Hunt-Reynolds, was prepared for the spring season. With master trainer Eli Jordan in charge, the Hunt-Reynolds horses were primed to begin their campaign at the annual Kentucky Association meeting in Lexington. When Benjamin Bruce, editor of the Kentucky Live Stock Record, visited Fleetwood Farm as part of his annual reporting on the progress of Thoroughbreds in training in the Bluegrass, he noted that Fleetwood's string of racers was under the control of Eli Jordan, “who had trained and brought to the post such capital horses as Whisper, Felicia, Fortuna, Blue Eyes and Falsetto.”19 In prior years, Bruce's reports had focused on what owner J. W. Hunt-Reynolds was anticipating for the coming season, with little concern for the trainer. In 1881, however, there was no mention of Meta as the new owner of Fleetwood Farm or her intention to run one of the most successful stables in the Bluegrass. Instead, the article concluded with a somewhat lukewarm commentary on the future of the farm: “Barring accidents, the Fleetwood Farm stable will fully sustain the reputation it acquired during the life of its lamented owner, Col. J. W. Hunt Reynolds, and before the snow flies we expect to see the Fleetwood colors, red, white sleeve, red cap, leading the van for some of the most important events of the season of 1881.”20 Whether Meta considered this an insult to her leadership of Fleetwood Farm is unknown. However, she trusted that her wise trainer would perform as well for her as he had for her husband. It is safe to assume that she expected the same from her most prized employee, Isaac Murphy.21
On May 7, the opening day of the Kentucky Association meeting, the sky was clear and bright, and a “gentle breeze from the East” played over the large crowd of spectators.22 In the first race of the day, Isaac, riding at 112 pounds atop Clarissima in a $150 purse race, finished second behind his friend John “Kid” Stoval on J. S. Boyd's Harry Gow. On the second day he won riding J. R. McKee's Pope Leo in a heat race valued at $1,350. Fleetwood Farms had only three entries in the entire meeting, and Isaac rode only one of the three. Why he competed in only two races during the six-day engagement, and why Fleetwood Farms had only Clarissima on the track, when there were reportedly fifteen horses in training for the spring races, is unknown. Isaac's limited mounts may have been an indicator of future weight issues or a larger issue related to Meta's new role as the owner of Fleetwood Farm. Although there is no tangible evidence that the membership of the Kentucky Association objected to the blurring of gender boundaries and the presence of a female owner, one cannot help but wonder if the all-male board of directors barred Fleetwood horses from full participation. Again, nothing of this nature was reported in the newspapers, but it is possible that the association did not want to publicize the decision to exclude Mrs. Hunt-Reynolds from the Jockey Club, preferring not to disclose the goings-on in the inner sanctum of the clubhouse.
By the beginning of the Louisville Jockey Club meeting on May 17, the entire Bluegrass racing community had had a chance to process the idea of a woman as an owner. In response to Meta's new position as the only “queen” of the turf, the board of directors barred her participation. Although her gender had no effect on how Fleetwood Farm's horses or jockeys performed, her mere presence in the all-male preserve challenged long-standing rituals and traditions. The main authority on all turf-related issues in the Bluegrass, the Kentucky Live Stock Record, remained silent on the whole affair. While some men probably admired her decision to run Fleetwood Farm, Meta Hunt-Reynolds challenged Kentucky turfmen's cherished self-image as traditional Southern gentleman: chivalrous, chauvinistic, and inherently self-doubting.
The Louisville Jockey Club's decision was no doubt a disappointment to Meta. Although it did not affect her ability to run Fleetwood Farm, it damaged her ability to make it a viable and valuable business. In essence, if she was not allowed to enter her horses in events, she would be unable to find buyers to purchase her stock at a premium. What is more, the Jockey Club's decision had a negative effect on Isaac. Most owners had already engaged their primary jockeys for the season: no mounts meant no money for the talented jockey.
For the first four days of the Louisville meeting, Fleetwood Farm did not have a single horse in a race. And not until the fourth day did Isaac have a mount, finishing fourth and out of the money on J. T. Williams's Checkmate.23 On the fifth day, however, there seems to have been a compromise: Eli Jordan was allowed to register and race Fleetwood's horses under his name. Jockey Henderson, riding the bay colt Maretzek, finished last in the Tobacco Stakes for three-year-olds. This outcome was repeated on the seventh day in the Merchants’ Stakes, with the valuable bay colt Uberto ridden by Bratton. Isaac rode Checkmate in the same race, finishing fourth and in the money, and two races later he brought Ackerman and Company's Surge across the line for a second-place finish in an association race for a $50 payout. The following day, in the fourth race, Isaac won on Uberto in the Distillers’ Stakes for three-year-olds. In a classic Murphy finish, the self-assured jockey waited until the right moment to urge his horse on, winning by two lengths.24
Oddly, the Louisville Jockey Club found it less distasteful to allow Eli Jordan, a black man, to register and race horses in the spring meeting than to let a white woman do the same. Somehow, in the very confused and contradictory world of white patriarchy, elevating a black man into the coveted position of “owner” was more acceptable than allowing a white woman to claim economic equality, social standing, and political power. Interestingly, the Kentucky Live Stock Record listed Jordan among the successful owners at the Louisville meeting, with Uberto winning $500.25 Thus, Jordan became the first African American to be listed as a registered owner of a horse in a Louisville Jockey Club meeting.
At the end of the Louisville meeting, the Jockey Club announced upcoming changes that would allow the most talented jockeys to ride more frequently. “We have always been opposed to an extreme heavy
scale of weights,” said club secretary Johnson. “But it has become absolutely necessary to increase the weights to secure jockeys that are able to ride.”26 These changes would expand Isaac's opportunities to generate income, allowing him to ride for multiple owners over the course of a season.
As for Meta, she found a more hospitable atmosphere at the St. Louis Jockey Club meeting in June. Officials allowed Fleetwood Farm to participate under its own name, not cloaked behind trainer Eli Jordan. Meta's recognition as an owner was important not only to her ability to sell horses but also to her ability to employ the necessary staff to maintain the farm she had vowed to keep.
At St. Louis, Isaac found additional mounts from several owners, including J. B. Sellers, W. C. McGavock, and Louis Riggs. In the four days leading up to his one and only mount for Fleetwood, Isaac won two races and placed second and third in two others. He was proving himself to be a money rider on horses he had confidence in and for owners he respected. On June 10, the fifth day of the St. Louis races, the weather was mild but “attendance was not large” at the afternoon's events.27 Fleetwood Farm had two horses, Uberto and Maretzek, entered in the mile-and-a-half Merchant Stakes for three-year-olds. Isaac was familiar with both horses but was assigned to ride the bay colt, Uberto. After an even start, Maretzek took the lead and Uberto was in the fourth position, with Murphy trying to stay within striking distance. At the three-quarter pole, Maretzek was holding on by “two lengths in front of Windrush,” with King Nero in third and Uberto trailing.28 After the first mile, Windrush overtook Maretzek, followed by King Nero in second and Uberto in third. On the turn and down the stretch, the three horses and their jockeys battled head-to-head. Uberto then moved up on Windrush and took the lead, winning the race by a length. Murphy had brought in Fleetwood Farm's first win at St. Louis, with $1,525 going to the victor. By the end of the St. Louis meeting, Isaac was ready for the competition in the East. All he had to do was wait for owners to call him. And call they did.
After his last race at St. Louis, Isaac boarded a train to New York, where the racing was richest in the late summer and fall, especially at Saratoga. What was unusual about meetings in the East was the number of races held in a day—sometimes as many as six or seven. To satisfy spectators’ desire for entertainment and provide ample betting opportunities for the gambling set (which, in New York, included just about everyone), the respective jockey clubs set daily programs that included a range of distances—from three-quarters of a mile to a mile and three-quarters—in an effort to fit in as many races as possible. Unlike the West, the East was more concerned with the commercial aspects of racing.
Isaac found mounts with his previous employer, J. T. Williams, and with a number of other owners he knew. On June 16, in front of an excellent crowd on the second day of the Coney Island Jockey Club meeting, Isaac rode Williams's Checkmate to a fourth-place finish, but ahead of his rival Jimmy McLaughlin, who came in seventh. Small victories like this over his eastern rivals added to his growing confidence. Two days later Isaac's moral victory would be dampened by the news that one of the most important trainers in the history of Kentucky horse racing, Ansel Williamson, had died. A column in the Kentucky Live Stock Record recorded his significant contributions to the industry:
Many will learn with regret of the death of the veteran colored trainer Ansel Williamson, which took place in this city on Saturday June 18th. Ansel Williamson was some seventy-five years of age. He was born in Virginia, and first trained for Mr. T. B. Goldsby, of Alabama, and while under his training [the horse] Brown Dick ran his great three mile race, beating Arrow at New Orleans, La., in 1855, in 5:30¾, 5:28. The late A. Keene Richards purchased Ansel from Mr. Goldsby and he brought out for Mr. Richards Imp. Australian, Sherritt, afterwards changed to Satalite, Glycora and a number of others. About 1861, he took charge of the late R. A. Alexander's stable, and trained Asteroid, Norfolk, Ansel, and a number of other first class horses…. When in good health he was a remarkable industrious and attentive man to his business, which was a great secret to his success as a trainer.29
This document may be the only evidence of Isaac Murphy's birth at the David Tanner farm: the birth of an unnamed black male was recorded on January 6, 1861. (Kentucky, Birth Records, 1852–1910, Ancestry.com; original data from Kentucky Birth, Marriage, and Death Records—1852–1910, microfilm rolls 994027–994058, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort)
Because Kentucky had not seceded from the Union, recruitment broadsides like this one would not have appeared in Kentucky until after the Emancipation Proclamation. (Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress)
Classes for children and adults were led by teachers hired by the American Missionary Association. (Courtesy of the University of Kentucky Special Collections, Camp Nelson Photographic Collection)
After Captain Theron Hall was appointed superintendent of refugees at Camp Nelson, these houses were built to accommodate the families of soldiers stationed there. (Courtesy of the University of Kentucky Special Collections, Camp Nelson Photographic Collection)
At Camp Nelson, black Kentuckians who were former slaves became more empowered. This photograph shows the wives and children of the colored soldiers serving the Union effort. (Courtesy of the University of Kentucky Special Collections, Camp Nelson Photographic Collection)
Record of America Murphy (Burns) filing for the pension of Jerry Burns (Skillman). After America's death in 1879, Jerry's first wife, Caroline Skillman, and her son William took up the claim. (Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861–1934, Ancestry.com; original data from General Index to Pension Files, 1861–1934, T288, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC)
Jerry Skillman's grave site at Camp Nelson Cemetery in Nicholasville, Kentucky. (Courtesy of the author)
The solar eclipse of 1869 was observed at Shelbyville, Kentucky, by professional and amateur scientists from around the country. (Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Archives)
The Colored Fair Association's board of directors were some of the most prominent members of Lexington's African American community. Front row (left to right): J. T. Clay, assistant secretary; T. J. Wilson, vice president; Henry Lee, president; A. L. Harden; S. W. Dunn. Back row: H. A. Tandy, Jordan C. Jackson, J. W. Ellis, L. C. Smith. (William D. Johnson, Negro Business Directory of Prominent Negro Men and Women of Kentucky [Lexington, 1899], 3)
The Reverend James Monroe (1813–1873) became the leader of the First African Baptist Church in 1862. He presided over several conferences in Lexington related to the spiritual and rudimentary education of black Kentuckians. (Rev. C. H. Parrish, ed., Golden Jubilee of the General Association of Colored Baptists in Kentucky [Louisville: Mayes Printing Company, 1915], 190)
On April 21, 1873, America Burns (1831–1879) opened an account at the Lexington branch of the Freedmen's Bank. (Freedmen's Bank Records, 1865–1871, Ancestry.com; original data from Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company, 1865–1874, micropublication M816, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC)
Broadside advertising “immigration” to the state of Kansas. (Courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society)
The Reverend Morris M. Bell (1844–?), leader of Lexington's Pleasant Green Baptist Church and a community activist, organized the black “Exodusters” migrating from Kentucky to Kansas. (Rev. C. H. Parrish, ed., Golden Jubilee of the General Association of Colored Baptists in Kentucky [Louisville: Mayes Printing Company, 1915], 189)
Young Isaac Murphy posing for what may have been his first formal portrait as a professional jockey. (Courtesy of the P. W. L. Jones Collection at Kentucky State University)
John Wesley (J. W.) Hunt-Reynolds (1846–1880) was a gentleman farmer and the proprietor of Fleetwood Farm. The grandson of John Wesley Hunt, Hunt-Reynolds helped make the Kentucky Thoroughbred a national treasure. (Courtes
y of the Westfeldt family)
Meta Westfeldt Hunt-Reynolds (1845–1910) was important to Isaac Murphy's development as a man and a jockey. After the death of her husband, J. W. Hunt-Reynolds, she came to depend on the jockey, whose career was just beginning to take off. (Courtesy of the Westfeldt family)
Carte de viste of Lucy Carr Murphy (1868–1910). (Courtesy of the Thomas T. Wendell Collection, 1869–1974, Kentucky Historical Society)
The Reverend Daniel S. Bentley (1850–?) was born in Madison County, Kentucky, and attended Berea College, where he was baptized by the Reverend John G. Fee. (R. R. Wright Jr., Encyclopedia of African Methodism [Philadelphia: Book Concern of the AME Church, 1916], 38–39)
Isaac Murphy placed this advertisement in the Kentucky Live Stock Record. He received so many offers to ride that he had to retract the ad after only one week. (Kentucky Live Stock Record 17, no. 11 [March 17, 1883]: 170)
This image of Murphy appeared at the end of the 1884 season, after he won the inaugural American Derby. (Spirit of the Times, December 20, 1884)
Ed Corrigan (1842–1924) was one of the principal supporters of Isaac Murphy's career. Corrigan's Pearl Jennings, Modesty, and Freeland were top Thoroughbreds in the 1880s. (Courtesy of the Keeneland Association, John C. Hemment Collection Scrapbooks)
The top American jockeys and horses of 1885 are represented in this promotional poster. Isaac Murphy and Isaac Lewis were projected as two jockeys to watch during the upcoming season. (Root and Tinker, New York; courtesy of the author)
This photograph of Murphy was taken by J. H. Fenton in 1885. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
The Prince of Jockeys Page 28