After midnight, when the banquet began to break up, the three gentlemen from Independence began to leave the banquet when they were caught in the lobby by Mr. Madden and Mr. Welch. Mr Welsh asked, “Mr. Williams would you consider one hundred and one thousand dollars for Axtell?”
Mr. Williams stopped to ponder a response when behind him another voice coming from Colonel John W. Conley who was being trailed by W.P. Ijams F. T. Moran A. E. Brush and Budd Doble, “We will give you one hundred five thousand dollars.”
The lobby went into a hush as Mr. Williams thought of his response to the new offer. There had never been a horse so highly-valued as Axtell was at that moment. Mr. Williams smiled and said, “He’s yours.”
“That settles it then,” Colonel Conley said with great excitement. “You agree to sell Axtell to us?”
“Yes,” Mr. Williams replied firmly.
A draft was given to Mr. Williams that night for $20,000 and the balance being expected to him within the week. The transaction was also subject to Axtell completing a physical.
Chapter Eight
Building for The Future
As the three gentlemen walked back to their hotel, Mr. McHenry and Mr. Hussey held some remorse over the sale, but Mr. Williams was already looking ahead to the future. He was convinced Allerton was the better horse in the long run and would fully recover from his injury. He had plans for using the money from the sale to build the greatest racing park in the world.
“I don’t think Mrs. Williams is going to like selling Axtell,” Mr. Hussey shook his head as he spoke. “She was attached to him.”
“You’re absolutely right about that. I better build her a grand new house. Do you think that might make things better?” Mr. Williams tried to convince himself. “I hope she can see the benefit of the sale.”
The other two men looked at each other with blank stares. Then Mr. Hussey spoke, “I don’t know, Charles. I don’t think she can be bought.”
“What about the townspeople, what are they going to do to us?” Mr. Mc Henry spoke his peace. “They love that horse and follow his progress like he was their own.”
“They may be upset at first, but when we start building they will change their minds,” Mr. Williams convinced himself, “If things work out as I hope, it will benefit everyone in Independence.” Then he changed the subject. “John, I want you to send a telegram first thing in the morning to A. D. Guernsey and J. C. Sunderland in Hannibal, Missouri. We need them in Independence as soon as they can. Make sure they know it is Independence, Iowa and not Independence, Missouri.”
The two friends of Mr. Williams was very aware of the plans Mr. Williams was eluding to when given these instructions. They had discussed before between themselves and other citizens in Independence about building a kite or balloon shaped track. It was thought that a kite shaped track would be a faster track than any oval track. It was an idea thought of by William F. Fasig in 1887 who was the Secretary of the Cleveland Driving Park Association. The idea was also being promoted by the magazine Clark’s Horse Review that offered $500 to anyone who would build the first kite shaped track. Mr. Williams also wanted to build more barns and stables at Rush Park. He had a vision of an amphitheater that could accommodate ten thousand people.
Mr. Williams went to see Gilbert who was staying with Axtell in a stable bunk house. “Mr. Fenny,” he woke him up gently. When Gilbert woke enough to sit up Mr. Williams went on speaking to him, “Did you get your supper?”
“Yes, sir,” he spoke quietly as his eyes batted open and closed a few times in an attempt to wake up. “What was it?”
“It was Chicken Cordon Blue.”
“Chicken.” He smiled, “Thank you very much, sir.”
“You’re welcome,” then he continued, “I sold Axtell.”
“I thought you would,” he replied sadly, “how much?”
“One-hundred five thousand dollars.”
“You’re joking.”
“No, joke.” He said, “I would appreciate it if you could give him some special treatment. He will be examined before the sale can be finalized.”
“Yes, sir,” Gilbert said, “in other words take care of him like I normally do.”
“Exactly,” he affirmed, “but I want you to make sure it is observed when they come for him. Work his muscles, they will probably be hurting him a bit by morning.”
“I understand, sir.”
When Mr. Williams got back to his hotel room, he gently woke his wife. There was no-good way of telling her he had sold Axtell. He tried to be subtle about it, but she still took it hard and cried. She, like everyone else in town, had become fond of the Axtell phenomenon. She was very understanding of the reasons why, but was still heartbroken.
There were only a few people in the news offices in Independence the next morning to receive the word that Axtell had been sold. This started a ripple of talk and by noon everyone in town knew.
The town, frenzied the night before, was now a sobered, subdued quiet little town.
Allerton had been getting more notoriety lately, but with Allerton injured, the future of the town having a famous horse looked to be in jeopardy.
Many members of the Independence Driving Club had discussed plans to build a kite track with Mr. Williams. They were quick to point out to the people, that Mr. Williams may use the money to build such a track. This created a reserved excitement anticipating the possibility of the new track and the prospect of new commerce.
Two days later, when Mr. Williams and company arrived in Independence, he was received as a hero, as he had been in the past. He immediately went to work negotiating for one-hundred twenty acres of land, with the owners to the east of his Rush Park property. Mr. Williams was very generous with an offer to Mr. E. Cobb who owned the rich land east of Rush Park, between town and the park. Mr. E. Cobb was paid $10,000 for the property which was the most ever paid for land in Iowa.
Mr. Guernsey arrived to survey the property, he found it to be remarkably flat and the soil perfect for a horse racing track.
Mr, Williams hired the well known builder and designer Sunderland, to design and build many of the buildings at Rush Park. This included a massive show barn that had equal in the country. He also design a large house for the Williams family to be built on land across the main road from Rush Park. This was property purchased the year before from Miss Mason and Dr. Wilson. The main show barn and the house were near the corner to the state-owned hospital for the insane.
It was getting late in the year to be building buildings, but the excavation of the track was completed before the first snows of the winter. The weather cooperated by staying warmer than usual into the new year. The actual track construction could begin at the earliest opportunity the following spring.
Mr. Williams received word from the Chicago Horse Review, that they would not pay Mr. Williams the $500 they had promised for building a kite shaped track. They claimed the offer was to an association, not to an individual.
Mr. Purdy, Mr. Tabor and Dr. Tabor entered the Vienna Café together and took their usual seats with Mr. Morse and Mr. Leytze.
They were approached by the pleasant young waitress Katie Miller. “I suppose you all want the usual, again today?”
“Yeah, I suppose so,” Mr. Morse said. Then the rest of the men agreed to the same breakfast they usually had.
“I,” Mr. Purdy dramatized, “my dear, would like a large glass of milk.”
“Instead of your usual coffee, I am very proud of you.” Katie joked, “It takes a big man to support change in their lives.” The rest of the men chuckled. Mr. Soener joined them pulling a chair up to the table.
“I got the local paper here, with an interesting editorial from our esteemed editor.” Mr Soener said, while he enticed one of the men to offer to take the paper and read it.
“Doesn’t Katie go to school yet?” Mr. Leytz
e asked Mr. Soener.
“She just works early in the morning here, then she goes off to school,” Mr. Soener responded.
Mr. Tabor took the newspaper from him and started to look through it. He then said, “Listen to this gentlemen.” He shook the crease out of the paper before he began to read. “To those conversant with all the facts in the case, this looks like a very small hole for the Horse Review to crawl out of. Mr. Williams can do without the five hundred dollars. It is but a patch to the sum the track will cost him, not less than six thousand dollars. But the Horse Review can ill afford to cut such capers, if it expects to succeed among horsemen. No editor we ever heard would repudiate his word for five hundred dollars. Shame!”
“What is this world coming to when an organized publication can’t keep their word.” Said Mr. Morse. Katie brought their drinks, including the milk for Mr. Purdy.
“I’ll be right back with your breakfast.” She sped off back to the kitchen. She returned soon after that with the plates full of bacon, eggs and sausages which she dispersed around the table. They all thanked her kindly for her service. She later returned to the table with the bill. “So who is buying this fine morning?”
Dr. Tabor motioned to her to give the check to him. She placed the bill in front of him and announced, “Thank you gentlemen. I have to go to school.”
“Have a good day.” Mr. Leytze told her. The rest added similar comments.
Rush Park became the sight of every kind of activity in the spring of 1890. As hundreds of men worked, building barns, grandstands, the judges stand, fences, and entry gates. Water pipes were placed in the ground, water being supplied from town. Electricity was supplied by the park’s own light plant. This plant supplied electricity to the major buildings and to the great house being built for the Williams family.
Everyone was anxious to complete the job by July 4th, so it would be ready for the Independence day celebration. Mr. Williams was anxious as well, but insisted no work be done on Sunday’s. He would use Sunday’s to walk and spend time with his family.
Sundays weren’t immune to the influences of the racing fever in Independence. The Reverend Pye preached to his congregation a sermon subject, ‘Lessons from the race course.’ The subject matter of racing encouraged listeners to pay closer attention to him more than they normally did. He took comparisons of the race track and racing characteristics to demonstrate good moral behavior. He compared the training of a horse to the raising of children to better handle future life.
Allerton was able to recover from his injury nicely over the winter. They trained him carefully not to do too much too soon. He wore supports on his ankles most of the time. The supports slowed his pace a bit, so they planned to race him without them.
Just a few weeks after work had begun in earnest at Rush Park, tragedy struck the Williams family. One of the twin boys, Rush, died on March 24th. On Sunday morning March 23rd the doctor was summoned to the Williams home at 9:00 a.m. It was determined that Rush had spinal meningitis. The young boy experienced several convulsions and sorrowfully died in the afternoon at 3:40, Monday March 24th.
This was not just a sorrowful death to the Williams family, but the whole town mourned greatly for the member of the beloved Williams family. The funeral was presided over by Reverend Baker at the families home at 3:00 p.m the following Wednesday. Rush was buried in the family plot along with his grandmother Juliana at Oakwood Cemetery.
Work on the track and facilities went on. Soon Mr. Williams was back to himself, vigorously encouraging the work being done. He met problems with solutions never losing the optimistic sense. Mr. Williams had advertised around the country that Independence would host the greatest six day race meeting ever in late August of 1890. He posted the highest stakes for a meeting in Iowa history of $40,000. He offered a very low entrance fee of five percent, half the normal rate for each race category.
There was excited activity at Rush Park as construction was wide spread. People not involved in the construction at Rush Park, would make an effort to go out and see what progress was being made. Many women and eating establishments would supply meals for the workers so they could stay close to the job site. The city was as anxious to have the facilities ready.
Mr. Guernsey was so accurate with his surveying he never had a stake pulled during the track’s construction. The track was so well excavated, it was said that a person could play billiards on it. The soil on the track was elastic and spongy which would assure the horse a great easy springy step. This was a track intended to be the best and safest facility in the world for horse racing.
The track was measured by another surveyor to satisfy the few protagonists who claimed the track was not one mile in length. Surveyors Mr. Deering, Mr. Iliff, Mr. Bemus and mechanical engineer A.D. Guernsey were requested to carefully measure the track. After the surveying was completed, it was determined that the track was in fact not exactly one mile long. It was determined to be actually one mile, one and one seventy-sixth of an inch in length. The track was considered as close to a mile as any.
People around the country were curious about this small town in Iowa. What was it like, and what could they expect, if they went there for this greatly anticipated meeting.
In early June there were two men, Henry and Earl from, Cedar Rapids, traveling on horseback to see relatives in Decorah, Iowa. They decided to spend a few days in Independence to see what was happening. Earl was a large man that had aged gracefully. His hair and beard were graying slightly. Earl’s nephew, Henry, was also a large man with black hair cut short, but his beard was long and straight.
When they entered town they could immediately recognize the town was full of horse enthusiasts. They overheard countless conversations concerning horses. Conversations between men and women; between storekeepers and patrons; even the children seemed to be occupied with stories of horses. There were clergymen discussing a horses performance. They were impressed by the fact they were greeted by so many of the townspeople. They were greeted by either a simple smile, a quick wave, or a polite verbal greeting. The livery and harness shops were well displayed, even better maintained than the general stores in town.
Earl said to his nephew, “Have you seen anything like this.”
“No,” Henry said, “and we just got here.”
“What will we find next?”
They stopped at a livery stable to leave their horses in the owners care. Henry addressed the stable owner, “We have noticed everyone around here talks about horses.”
“Yup,” is all the stable owner replied.
“Does anyone talk about anything else?” Earl asked.
“Yup,” he replied.
“Can you recommend a good hotel?”
“Yup,” he said as he nodded. Then he pointed to a hotel across the street. “That will be fifty cents for each horse, per night.”
The two men went to the hotel for the night. The next morning they went to a café on main street for breakfast and sat next to the window. They were approached by a pretty young waitress with light brown hair. She wore a bright yellow dress with a white yoke and a yellow checkered bonnet.
“Good morning gentlemen,” she greeted them. “What would you like.” The two men were given menus and before they could answer the waitresses question, she blurted out, “Did you hear, Lou had a filly?”
Earl looked at her and asked, “Who the hell is Lou?” Her smile faded quickly and she turned away in a huff.
Henry looked at Earl and shook his head. “What were you thinkin’? Now we will never get waited on.”
“Well,” Earl asked again quietly this time, “Who’s Lou?”.
“I don’t know, but you sure could have been more receptive of the comment.” Henry explained, “You got to go along with things around here, when it concerns horses. Now think, Lou must be a female horse everybody knows.”
“Yeah, and she had a
filly.”
Henry thought out loud telling Earl what he was thinking, “She must be a prominent horse for our waitress, or former waitress, to get so excited about.” Henry shook his head as he continued, “We’ll probably be given some big guy to wait on us or throw us out.” The pretty waitress soon returned with a local newspaper. She pointed to an article in the paper and held it out so Earl could read it.
“Oh,” he said after comprehending the message with delight he informed Henry, “Lou was Axtell’s dam.”
“Sorry, ma’am, we are just poor ignorant outsiders,” Henry explained.
The waitress smiled and giggled, “I know, isn’t it great.” Henry hoped she was responding to the previous statement and not that she was happy about them being ignorant. In any case the rest of their visit went well. They decided to come back for the big race meeting to be held in a few months.
One day late in June, Gilbert was in Allerton’s barn caring for him, when his version of an angels voice spoke the words, “They said I would find you here.”
He flipped around and smiled broadly as he saw Clara standing in the barn entry. He stood up and walked over to her and gave her a long loving bear hug. “You look more beautiful each time I see you. Have you been getting my letters?” She was wearing a dress that appeared to be work cloths. The dress was gray with large buttons up the front and long sleeves.
“Yes,” she said quietly, “I wish we had a better way. I could send my letters to you.” Gilbert had been sending letters to Clara using a fictitious girl’s name, whom Clara had told her father they had met the previous summer. “Here are my letters I wrote to you.” Clara held out a heavy box. “I didn’t bother putting them in envelopes. We have to come up with another plan. Father thinks I am awful not writing back to you, Gertrude.”
Allerton and Axtell Page 20