The Prince of Jockeys

by Pellom McDaniels III

  We do not know exactly when and where Isaac and Lucy met. It is possible (but unlikely) that she worked for the Hunt-Reynolds family as a laundress at Fleetwood Farm. Isaac's introduction to Lucy more likely occurred somewhere in Frankfort's black community of Crawfish Bottom (called the “Craw”) sometime between 1878 and 1881. They could have met at a social event hosted by one of three main black churches, at the annual Colored Fair, or at the home of a mutual friend. According to the 1880 census, Lucy lived with her mother and stepfather, Fanny and Granville Lewis, and her sister, Susan Osborne, at a residence on Washington Street in north Frankfort.

  Nineteenth-century sensibilities with regard to sex and marriage were not reserved for whites. African Americans also adhered to customs based on the notion of moral reform and social order. In the postslavery, post-Reconstruction environment of Kentucky, African Americans worked extremely hard to demonstrate their civility, Christian morals and values, and a progressive orientation by endorsing abstinence and promoting marriage between the spiritually grounded, emotionally mature, and financially secure. An individual's social, political, and economic responsibilities to his or her community were reflected in decisions regarding sex, temperance, and education.44 In other words, the magical disposition that Isaac was able to claim through his achievements as a jockey was in fact available to anyone who could publicly demonstrate Christian uprightness, temperance, and gentlemanlike or ladylike decorum. And by becoming an exemplar of these particular characteristics, each individual represented the progress of blacks as a whole.

  To understand the young woman Isaac married, some space has to be dedicated to Lucy Carr's background and upbringing. Not surprisingly, the circumstances surrounding Lucy's birth are vague. Born on September 4, 1868, in Frankfort, Lucy was the daughter of Fanny Osborne, a seamstress, and Adam Carr. Between 1850 and 1870 the census lists two men of that name. There was an Adam Carr living in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1850; he was a German immigrant working as a shoemaker, but he disappeared from the historical record thereafter. However, census data reveal that a significant number of Germans and individuals of German descent lived near the Craw, within the footprint of what was clearly recognized as the black community. The other Adam Carr lived in Madison County, where he and his family owned seven slaves, including two female slaves aged twenty-four and forty. There is no way to know whether one of these women was Fanny. Nor is there any evidence that Fanny and Adam were married or even lived together. However, when Lucy died in 1910, her sister named Adam Carr as Lucy's father on her death certificate, leading one to believe that Lucy knew him and perhaps had a loving relationship with him. We cannot be sure which Adam Carr, if either, was Lucy's father. One clue might have been his color, since Lucy was a beautiful light-complexioned woman with red hair.45 Because Lucy's mother was mulatto and her father was white, Lucy was considered an octoroon. Her red hair and light complexion were not uncommon in Frankfort, especially on Washington Street, where more than 100 mulattoes lived.

  Similar to Lexington, the Craw was established after the Civil War when former slaves came to Frankfort in search of housing, employment, and stability. According to census data, between 1860 and 1870 Frankfort's black population almost doubled, growing from 1,282 to 2,335. Historian Douglas A. Boyd describes the Craw as “inexpensive” land containing “humble dwellings for rental to blacks…and poor whites.”46 The interracial nature of the neighborhood did not translate to a progressive attitude toward blacks. As noted in chapter 5, in 1870 leaders of Frankfort's black community—including Henry Samuel, Henry Lynn, William Luckett, Edward Smith, H. H. Trumbo, Henry Marrs, Peter Smith, Henry Huggin, and B. J. Crampton—called for a “Colored Men's Convention” to “discuss and prosecute means appertaining to the political issues of the day, and to the vital interest of our race throughout the State.” At the February 23 convention, the delegates endorsed resolutions to assert their right to live free after more than 250 years of enslavement and degradation, to continue to support the Republican Party as a show of loyalty, and to claim the “full panoply of American citizenship.”47

  With regard to Lucy's education (and that of other black children), in 1873 the Colored Men's State Educational Union met in Frankfort to press the state legislature to support the education of black children. The group challenged the state superintendent of schools to release the funding reserved for black schools or prepare to defend his resistance to the request for funds in court. By 1874, the Kentucky legislature had established the uniform school system for Negro children, financed by taxes collected from property-owning blacks.48 Historian Victor Howard notes that the state superintendent of schools “strongly advocated that the state adequately provide for Negro education.”49 This would be a great advantage for Lucy Carr and the other black children of Frankfort.

  By 1880, Crawfish Bottom was a well-established community of former slaves and their children. As productive Republicans, these freedom-seeking, God-fearing, hardworking people managed to maintain their dignity, even in the midst of the degradation and crime afflicting their neighborhood, owing to its location in the bottomlands and its close proximity to the state penitentiary.50 Adding to the social tension was the economic fissure created by racially motivated hiring practices that aimed to exclude blacks from the labor pool in an effort to keep wages high. As the unemployment rate for African American men increased, so did their frustration; these skilled plasterers, draymen, millworkers, and painters wanted only to assert their manhood and provide for their families. The open competition with German and Irish immigrants for jobs added to the conflicts between the two sets of marginalized Americans. Jobs as coopers, teamsters, bricklayers, and carpenters, which had been available to blacks at the beginning of Reconstruction, were slipping away, along with jobs on the railroad, on the docks, and digging ditches. Occupations such as barber, minister, teacher, porter, and servant remained.

  Although black women worked in an array of domestic occupations and were employed as seamstresses, cooks, laundresses, and servants, their importance to the black community went beyond the ability to earn a living. African American women were the glue in their communities, and they acted as a buffer between the white world and the black. They made sure that schools stayed open and church organizations thrived. Lucy Carr learned about her role as a wife and her place in the larger black community by interacting with these older black women. When she married Isaac Murphy, the famous jockey, Lucy must have become somewhat of a celebrity herself: the poor girl who married up. It seems plausible that the newlyweds made their home at Fleetwood Farm while they planned their future together.

  Prior to the beginning of the 1883 racing season, Isaac placed an advertisement in the March 17 edition of the Kentucky Live Stock Record, under the title “First Class Jockey.” In a bold move, he offered his services as a professional jockey who could be contracted to ride at a select number of venues: “I will make engagements to ride in the stakes for the coming racing season at Lexington, Louisville, Latonia, Chicago and Saratoga. I will be able to ride at 110 (possibly 107) pounds. My address until the beginning of the Lexington races will be care of Fleetwood Stables, Frankfort, Ky.”51 Although he published details as to when and where he was available to ride, he omitted any mention of compensation, leaving the terms to be negotiated with each owner. Isaac's ability to read and write and to think critically about what he wanted and how to go about achieving his goals gave him access to the business world that was unavailable to the uneducated. This ability put Isaac on level ground with the owners: he was able to set his own fees and determine the length of his season. In essence, Isaac Murphy was his own boss.

  By March 24, he had to announce in the Kentucky Live Stock Record that “he has more engagements than he can fill, and that he can make no new engagements” for the 1883 season.52 If this was an experiment to gauge his worth to the racing public, it worked. The fact that it took only a week to fill his racing calendar was a clear indication that he was a valua
ble commodity. Isaac was a quality jockey who was not only honest and trustworthy but also a winner. In addition to his own ad, it is possible that some of Isaac's new mounts came as a result of a January 1883 article in the New York Sportsman, boosting the Kentuckian as the premier jockey of the day.

  Timothy Thomas Fortune, editor of the African American newspaper the New York Globe, recognized that Isaac's importance extended beyond the saddle and the track. A believer in the philosophy of agitation for the sake of the progress of the race, Fortune challenged his readers to think for themselves and to demand that their elected officials represent them as citizens of the United States, not wards of the Republic who were incapable of functioning without the guidance of whites. To refute the notion of the so-called reversion of the race (used to justify terrorism against blacks), Fortune published “portraits and biographical sketches of prominent Negroes.”53 He argued that the black press was obligated to “fight for the rights of our race” and educate black people about themselves and their place in the world.54 Indeed, from the “pulpit, in the schools and the colleges, in journalism, in the law,…in the prize ring, in all the life of our civilization, the Afro American is acquitting himself as ‘a man and a brother.’”55 In keeping with this sentiment, Fortune took every opportunity to praise the “modest and unassuming” Isaac Murphy, elevating the exceptional jockey and therefore his profession into the realm of respectability.56

  Clearly, Isaac's reputation and success allowed the Murphys to enjoy the benefits of celebrity status, including the comforts of an upper-middle-class lifestyle. Unlike the wives of other jockeys, Lucy would not have to work outside the home as a maid, laundress, nurse, or cook. During the nineteenth century (and well into the twentieth), African American women worked primarily in the homes of white families, in hotels, and in hospitals. Most were vulnerable to violence, including rape, and were victimized by the negative image of black women as licentious and salacious.57 For a majority of African American women “there would be no room on the pedestal for a southern black lady,” ever.58 Though Isaac never voiced a plan to protect Lucy from such indignities, it is clear that their marriage and the wealth and status generated by his occupation gave Lucy a freedom that was unavailable to a majority of black women in either the North or the South. By being educated and part of the aspiring class of African Americans, and by marrying a highly intelligent, literate, and moral man, Lucy Murphy would have the opportunity to contribute to a reimagining of black womanhood as deserving of respect and consideration. Lucy would have something to say about how she lived her life.

  By May 1883, Lexington was abuzz in anticipation of the annual spring races. Lucy may have accompanied Isaac to Lexington, and the couple may have stayed with one of the black families in the city who had known the famous jockey since he was a boy. Henry King, Jordan Jackson, or Henry Scroggins and their families may have hosted the Murphys, ensuring that the newlyweds enjoyed the comforts of home during their visit. Staying at a private residence as opposed to a boardinghouse or a hotel, Lucy would be protected from the roughish elements associated with the races, and she could attend them in the company of friends. This is not to say that Lucy was incapable of negotiating society on her own, but young black women were subject to abuses and outrages by men in general and by white men in particular, who were rarely prosecuted for their crimes.

  Isaac was sure to attract a crowd in his hometown; some would be well-wishers, but others would be looking to separate the jockey from his hard-earned cash. Isaac may have donated money to local churches or schools to supplement their stretched resources. Perhaps he even handed out small amounts to orphaned children on the streets. While in Lexington, Isaac probably visited America's grave site, taking Lucy along to introduce his beautiful bride to his mother. After placing flowers on her grave and maybe saying a short prayer to honor her, the couple might have toured the city, traveling by carriage over the dusty streets, with Isaac pointing out the different sights and relating his memories of them.59 Some of those memories were no doubt sad, cold, and gray; others were happier, of time spent playing, attending school, going to church, or sharing a laugh with his mother. Isaac's success on the oval track had carried him far from his boyhood home, but he would have been reminded of the past at every turn in Lexington, from Cheapside to Vine Street, which was all part of the larger narrative of his people's racial destiny. For Isaac, the bleakness of the past was now overshadowed by the prospect of a bright future with the lovely and supportive Lucy at his side.

  On May 9, the first day of the Kentucky Association races, the weather was “warm and delightful,” with gusts of wind whirling about and unsettling the loose dust.60 For the Lexington meeting, Isaac was engaged to ride for McIntyre and Swiney, L. P. Tarleton Jr., and M. E. Clark and Company. In the first race Isaac finished second on Clark and Company's Claude Brannon, three lengths behind F. Water's Vanguard, ridden by Billy Donohue. In his second race of the day he rode Tarleton's Mistral to a fourth-place finish. By day four of the engagement, heavy rains made the track soggy and slow. However, Isaac rode to a first-place finish in a heat race, again on Mistral, securing $300 for Tarleton. In his final race at the Kentucky Association meeting, the Citizens' Stakes for all ages, he finished third on McIntyre and Swiney's Ballard. Although Isaac may have been disappointed in his first races of the season, he knew there were more than enough meetings left to redeem himself.

  For Isaac, the 1883 season would be a productive one. His nine victories during the fourteen-day Louisville Jockey Club meeting included some impressive ones: the Louisville Cup on J. W. Loud's Lida Stanhope, the Woodburn Stakes on Chinn and Morgan's Leonatus, and a $2,000 purse victory in the Merchant's Stake on G. W. Darden and Company's Mediator. Especially noteworthy is that Isaac rode for sixteen different owners, whose horses competed for the various purses and stakes available. Increasing his number of mounts fit into Isaac's fee-based system, whereby in addition to a minimum charge, he received a portion of the proceeds when finishing in the money. To guarantee the maximum return for his efforts, Isaac rode only horses that were good enough to contend for the purse money being offered.

  His success would continue at the inaugural meeting of the Latonia Jockey Club at Covington, Kentucky, four miles south of Cincinnati. Built on 173 acres of land purchased from the family of Confederate general James Taylor, the track was situated east of the Kenton Hills and consisted of a “massive grandstand and clubhouse on the north side, a [one] mile dirt racing oval, horse barns, and a landscaped infield decorated with flowers and shrubs.”61 For the inaugural meeting, the program offered “twenty-six races, purses and stakes, for the seven days, adding $17,700, a fraction under $3000 each day.”62 By chance or by circumstance, Isaac's first mount at Latonia was as a replacement for Billy Donohue, who had been contracted to ride Leonatus for Jack Chinn and G. W. Morgan in the Hindoo Stakes for three-year-olds. Donohue was pulled from the race after officials learned that he had bet his life savings on himself to win the Kentucky Derby on Leonatus—which he did.63 This was not unusual at the time, but owners were becoming increasingly leery of jockeys who wagered on races in which they participated. How much Donohue won is not known, but it must have been a significant amount—enough to cause alarm. Clearly, Thoroughbred owners were fearful of jockeys pulling horses in major stakes races, especially those betting large sums of money with and against “plungers,” who were capable of influencing the outcome of races through bribery and coercion.

  Isaac was already popular among the Kentucky crowd, but Latonia would accelerate his rising fame. Over the seven-day meeting, Isaac rode in ten races, finishing first in six, second in one, third in one, and fourth in two. In front of the fashionable crowd, Isaac won both the Hindoo and Himyar Stakes on Leonatus, for a total of more than $6,000. In the Hindoo Stakes especially, Isaac demonstrated his trademark coolness and patience. As reported in the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, “Murphy never moved a finger, not a word or motion was necessary to encou
rage the splendid chestnut who came along in the same easy swinging gait, as if taking a little afternoon work for exercise, winning ‘hands down’ literally, so far as his jockey was concerned…. Leonatus was a length in front of Carter, but he won as he pleased.”64 Five days later, on the final day of the races, Isaac rode Leonatus to a similar finish in the Himyar Stakes, winning easily over the field of competitors. Isaac's focus, patience, and understanding of the horse he was riding convinced owners that if they wanted to win consistently, the quiet jockey who did not drink, smoke, or gamble was their best bet.

  After Latonia, Isaac moved on to St. Louis and then to Chicago, where he continued his winning ways. He won the Flash, Nursery, and Calumet Stakes on General Harding and the Dearborn and Green Stakes and the Illinois Derby on Leonatus. Those two horses were the top competitors and the largest winners at the Chicago Jockey Club meeting. Leonatus, however, was proving to be one of the best of the year, winning all ten stakes races he had entered. Chinn and Morgan's dark bay three-year-old with a white blaze had been bred to run fast; the colt was destined to be a champion. Luckily for them, they had secured a champion jockey, Isaac Murphy, to ride him.

  In Chicago, where African Americans made up just a little more than 1 percent of the population, Isaac and Lucy would have had limited choices when it came to lodgings. Still, there were several “refined” and “respectable” families in the “city of neighborhoods” that may have opened their homes to celebrated individuals who were doing good things for the race.65 It is also possible that the Murphys had friends and kinship ties in Chicago. When Reconstruction ended and the government pulled troops out of the South, a number of Kentuckians moved to the upper Midwest. Historian Christopher Robert Reed suggests that black Chicagoans, whose collective and individual desires for success and achievement were in line with those of black communities across the South and Midwest, would have embraced Isaac Murphy because of his “level of occupational attainment that boded well for future generations of ambitious” African Americans looking to establish themselves as productive citizens.66