Allerton and Axtell

by Gary Lee Martinson

  The two heats were now split, and Allerton remained the favorite, bringing $25 to Nelson’s $6. It was well known that all Mr. Williams horses were always trained to enable them to endure long races. Nelson showed a great burst of speed for short times, but it was the consistency of performance from Allerton that carried the second race. Before the next heat, Mr. Nelson placed blinders on his horse.

  The third heat was started as the same as the others had, with Nelson taking a half length lead. Mr. Nelson steered his horse to the rail, cutting Allerton off at the turn, forcing Mr. Williams to pull Allerton back. The judges assessed a foul for the infraction. Allerton fell back by three lengths and Nelson reached the quarter in an outstanding :32 seconds. The followers of Nelson were ecstatic with the event as Nelson continued to increase his lead. They reached the half mile mark with Nelson’s time of very fast race of 1:05 1/4, with Allerton passing the half in 1:07 ½. At the three quarter mark, the race was 1:40, with Nelson maintaining a solid lead.

  The friends and followers of Allerton were very nervous at this point, but the favored stallion struck a 2:00 gait, and with the speedy Nelson tiring quickly, Allerton flew past him. Mr. Williams was able to jog Allerton to the wire and win by three lengths in a time of 2:15.

  The fourth heat was started, and they were even at the first quarter timed at :33 ½. They stayed together to the half with a time of 1:07 ½. Allerton began to pull away from Nelson. C. H. Nelson called on his horse for more speed, but he could see his stallion had nothing left to give. He called out to Mr. Williams, “You’ve got me beat.” At the three quarter mark, with Nelson staying at Allerton’s wheel at 1:42. As they hit the back stretch, Allerton drew quickly away and won the race in a jog of 2:16 ½.

  Allerton had won the largest purse ever awarded for a trotting race, but no records were broken. It was declared unofficially that Allerton is crowned as, ‘King of the Turf’. The crowd cheered to a deafening climax with hats and cushions being hurled into the air. Allerton was presented with a fine blanket of cut roses, donated by the Amul Ree Stock Farms. Mr. Nelson spoke to Mr. Williams later, to thank him for not showing up his horse as he could have.

  In Independence, the crowd that had gathered to here the results cheered and hit the streets with excitement. Within minutes of the wire from Grand Rapids race, everyone in town knew the results. A bonfire was set in the middle of Main Street. With the constant chatter about the race ran from the mouths of everyone of every age and sex. A banquet, sponsored by, ‘The American Trotter’ was given for the horsemen in town.

  Mr. Williams and his group of followers weren’t coming back to Independence right away. They were on their way to Lexington Kentucky for an October 15th, rematch between Allerton and Nancy Hanks. The purse for this race was set at $8,000. It was a chance for Allerton to redeem himself. When the day of the race with Nancy Hanks came, she was withdrawn ostensibly because of an injury. A substitute horse named Delmarch, who’s best time was 2:11 ½ and who had held the wagon pulling record of 2:20, that was recently beaten by Allerton, was offered in her place. Mr. Williams was very disappointed he could not face Nancy Hanks once again. At first he refused, but decided he would except the challenge in a gentlemanly manner.

  Delmarch had proven himself as a great trotter, but not to the extent of Nancy Hanks and Allerton. A crowd of 25,000 people crammed onto the grounds. Allerton carried the favorite pools with $100 to Delmarch at $65. The odds evened out just before the match was to begin. Many felt Allerton’s history of poor performance in the first heat would give Delmarch an edge since Delmarch also generally had the stamina to endure a long race.

  Allerton was dressed up this time with a ribbon of blue on his mane and foretop. He was given a great ovation from the crowd as he entered the track. Delmarch drew the pole for the first race and the odds edged in his favor. They were able to get the race underway on the fifth score. The great driver and trainer, Budd Doble, was driving Delmarch, drove him hard at the start pulled away to set the fast pace. Mr. Williams was content to stay close behind at the start of the race.

  They remained in that position until the distance mark when Doble called on Delmarch who did not respond. Mr. Williams had to whip Allerton, uncharacteristically, three times before he responded to win the heat by a length in a time of 2:13 1/4.

  It was obvious that Delmarch was not performing as he had the week before in Cambridge City and the betting showed little chance for him to beat the, ‘King of Stallions’.

  While they awaited the second heat of the race, a United States Marshal served Mr. Williams a notice of suit against him brought by George Martin of Versailles, Kentucky. He was claiming for a payment of $25,000 for injuries suffered when the bandstand collapsed at Rush Park in August.

  This concerned Mr. Williams, but did not alter his determination to take care of the business. He drove Allerton to two more heat victories in times of 2:15 and 2:15 ½.

  After the race, Mr. Williams was offered $200,000 for Allerton and turned down the offer. Money was not something Mr. Williams wanted from this horse. He was looking forward to a possible race, he had been trying to get arranged for years. A race in 1892 between Axtell and Allerton.

  After the race in Lexington, it was time to retire Allerton for the winter. He had accomplished a great deal in the last month.

  He held the record for Stallion trotters at 2:09 1/4 and had beaten the two top contenders for ‘King of the Turf’. They returned to Independence with a great deal of celebration from the citizens there. Upon the return to Independence by Charles Williams and his horse a poem was read at the station.

  All hail to regal Allerton!

  The king is on his throne;

  For power and pluck and speed combined

  He simply stands alone.

  A race horse! Yes, from wire to wire:

  Majestic, perfect grand,

  He stands without a par on earth

  In any clime or land.

  Once again in the California racing season would come back to haunt a record holder from Iowa. The great Leland Stanford’s horse, Arion, was able to drop the two-year-old record from 2:18 at the beginning of the year to 2:10 3/4. Truly a great achievement considering Axtell was three when he set a world stallion record at 2:12. Axtell’s best two year old record was 2:23 ½. Arion was the son of Electioneer and Manette, by Nutwood. This propelled the Palo Alto Farm and Arion to the talk of the country, overshadowing Sunol, Nancy Hanks, Allerton and Nelson.

  Months earlier J. Malcolm Forbes had visited Palo Alto and was impressed by the farm and purchased several horses. J. Malcolm Forbes was involved in trotting horses, but he did not breed and train his own horses. The performance of Arion prompted the wealthy J. Malcolm Forbes to ask Leland Stanford to give him a price for his horse. Leland responded that there was no purpose to give you a price because no one would pay it. A second inquiry asking for the price was forwarded to Mr. Stanford. He replied with a figure higher than any other price paid for a horse of $125,000. Forbes accepted immediately and went to California to check out Arion.

  Regretfully, the racing season in California does not end as early as in the Midwest and again Mr. Williams’s horse, Allerton’s, record was broken by a Palo Alto Farm horse named Palo Alto. Allerton’s record had stood for two months before Palo Alto trotted 2:08 3/4 on November 17th to set a new World Stallion record in Stockton California.

  Mr. Williams and the city of Independence was busy with their plans over the winter months. They had plans to expand the racing dynasty of their small city. A new Illinois Central Railroad Station was built. This was a station considered to be the finest in the state for a city of this size. The Burlington Northern railroad also built a new station on the west side of town.

  Mr. Williams purchased a corner of a block on Chatham Street and Mott St. to build a grand new hotel and opera house. He purchased the property, that was at the time a lu
mber yard, from Mr. J. S. Woodward for $10,000.

  He made plans to assist in the transport of people from the Illinois Central Railroad station to Rush Park by establishing an electric trolley rail system. This rail system would run from the Illinois Central Station south down Chatham Street past the new hotel, then turn west down Main Street past the Burlington Northern Railroad Station to Rush Park. They would charge five cents for the ride that could get them from the railroad station to the track in as little time as five minutes. They planned to get electric power for the trolley and the hotel from an electric plant being built behind the hotel.

  The ambitious Mr. Williams expected to have the hotel and rail line fully operational before the planned August meeting started. This would certainly be a difficult task to accomplish in such a short time.

  He contacted his friend and favorite architect to design the finest hotel found in any town this size in the country. He contracted J. C. Sunderland to design and oversee the work. The building operations manager would be James McIntyre.

  Despite the time and energy needed to prepare for all the building taking place that spring, Mr. Williams took time to take several of his horses to Lexington to sell. He needed money to build his dynasty. He sold Barnhart, the full brother of Allerton, for $15,000 and Drextell, full brother of Axtell, for $7,500.

  One evening when the family was home relaxing a delegation of citizens stopped in at the Williams home. The local businessman C. E. Purdy presented the Williams’s with a nine piece silver set as a token of appreciation from the citizens of Independence. It was graciously accepted by the Williams’s.

  The ground breaking for the Gedney Hotel and Opera House, named after a friend of Mr. Williams from Chicago, took place on May 2, 1892. The task at hand was not without great difficulties to overcome. There was a shortage of construction workers because the prosperous economy had been great and building was flourishing all around the country along with building in the county. However, the enterprising Mr. McIntyre was able to dig up a good crew of workers that would work in shifts around the clock on the hotel.

  They did have one incident of labor problems. There was a large crew of men that had to hammer large rocks to pebbles to mix with the concrete. They were paid $1 a day for their work. It was a hard, laborious job, and the men treated their job as a playtime. Mr. McIntyre decided to reduce their wages to $.75 a day, and the workers walked off the job and went home. The next day there weren’t enough hammers to supply all the workers who showed up.

  The weather did not cooperate. Abnormally-high rain totals made progress sluggish at times. The flood of June 1892 seemed to dampen the spirits of the townspeople, but the spirit of Mr. Williams was not discouraged, it just made him more determined to be successful. The rain problem subsided dramatically after July 1.

  Another problem was materials did not always arrive on time due to shipping or shortage problems. Orders were measured by train carloads of material. They ordered twenty-seven carloads of lumber, eighty carloads of brick, supplied by George Netcott of Cedar Falls. They had an important four carloads of elegant trim work of several types of wood from Chicago. They needed three cars of cut stone, four hundred barrels of cement and one hundred fifty cords of rock for the foundation from Mankato Lime Co.

  When orders did arrive, it was not always what they had ordered. Once they were expecting a carload of cement and cloth bags from Mankato Lime Co. of Minnesota. A shipping error occurred and they received a carload of linseed oil cakes. Despite the many problems adjustments were made and progress continued steadily.

  There was a boulder that had to be broken up during excavating, and when they split it open, the men went silent as they surrounded the split boulder. Appearing inside the boulder were the apparent naturally carved letters, C W W. This was considered to be a good omen for the hotel and Mr. C. W. Williams.

  During the building an artist from Bloomington, Illinois, Mr. A. Montgomery, came to Rush Park to paint a full size portrait of Allerton. He was painting several full size portraits of horses to be displayed at the Illinois State Building for the Worlds Fair. He had already painted Axtell and Nutwood. He still planned to paint Nancy Hanks, Nelson, George Wilkes, Hambletonian 10, and Maud S. There would be four other horses to be painted, but their identities had not been determined.

  While the building was going on Mr. Williams had continued to train and condition his horses daily. One day Gilbert and Mr. Hussey stood watching Mr. Williams with Mary Marshall pulling a practice cart. A nervous young reporter from a local newspaper came out to Rush Park to talk to Mr. Williams. Gilbert and Mr. Hussey thought for sure this was his first assignment, and someone had given him this task as a joke.

  “Do you think Mr. Williams would agree to an interview?” The reporter asked.

  Gilbert was kind to the young reporter, “He might talk to you.”

  Mr. Hussey said, “You probably have to go out on the track to get his attention.”

  “I’ll just wait until he gets done.” The skidish reporter said.

  While Mr. Williams passed he looked toward the three men. He slowed Mary Marshal down and called out to the reporter. “Are you the gentleman the newspaper?”

  “Yes, sir!” the young reporter yelled back.

  Mr. Williams stopped the cart, “Want to ride along for a few turns?” The reporter didn’t hesitate one moment, he jumped the fence and ran for the cart. Mr. Williams moved over on the seat and the reporter hopped on next to him. As they jogged off, Mr. Hussey grunted and walked back toward the barns.

  The racing season started with Allerton racing as slow, as expected this early in the season. They hoped for great things from Allerton that year. He was taken to Davenport where Allerton was performing in great form leading the race in a good time when tragedy struck. Allerton injured his leg and limped badly off the track. This was a blow to the community and to Mr. Williams, who had to face the fact that this injury unlike the others in the past, would permanently keep Allerton from ever racing again.

  Despite the real lose of Allerton’s ability to race, Mr. Williams never admitted he would never race again. Gilbert and John knew it was time to retire Allerton, but they never knew for sure if Mr. Williams could bring himself to admit it. They also knew never say never when Mr. Williams was involved. Mr. Williams increased Allerton’s bookings for breeding after the injury.

  On August 10, Mr. Williams telegraphed a supplier to have the furniture, bedding and crockery delivered to the Gedney, no later than August 20th. Bookings for rooms at the Gedney Hotel started to pour into the business office in anticipation of it’s completion by race date.

  It took less than four months for the army of workers to complete the hotel in time to receive guests on August 21. The races official starting judge, J. L. McCarthy of Chicago was the first guest to sign the hotel registry. The doors of the dinning room on the main floor of the hotel opened for business on August 25th. The patrons who entered, had delightful smiles and had bigger smiles when they left the dining room.

  The building, also included a great elegant opera house. The entire building was one hundred fifty-seven feet in length that ran along Chatham St. and one hundred seventeen feet in length from the corner of Chatham east down Mott Street. The main floor exterior was made in chocolate brown brick, while the second and third floors were in white colored granite brick purchased from Chaskey, Minnesota.

  The main entrance to the hotel lobby was near the corner of the building on Chatham. The corner of the building was in a half circular shape with round top windows. This shape continued up the building for it’s three levels. The second floor corner was the Ladies Parlor. The third floor corner had the Bridal Suite. The front desk was to the south side of the lobby. The front desk was ornamented with fluted pedestals and plinth block bases. It was decorated ornamentally with a carved horse head in front of the desk. The desk had a gravity drop annunciator and fi
re alarm system. On the north side of the lobby was a desk that sold various items such as chewing tobacco, cigars, candy and other items.

  There were doorways to a barber shop and a three table billiard room on the south wall of the lobby. Spacious his and hers rest rooms were just off the main lobby.

  The walls of the lobby were plaster with designs elegantly sculptured high on the walls and ceiling. Where the wall met the ceiling was uniquely carved crown moulding. There were elegant chairs and benches scattered about the lobby with brass polished tobacco spitting receptors placed around the lobby floor. The stairway going up to the second floor was spindled with elegant wood. The hand rail was ornately curved in an ‘S’ shape at the base and continued to curve, flowing elegantly upwards. The stairway had four steps up to the east, leveling out to a modest sized landing. On the entry to the landing, on top of the rail posts, were two large elegant electric lamps, purchased for $150. The steps turned right after the landing toward the south and up to another spacious landing before making a full turn back north to the second floor of the hotel.

  To the east of the lobby was the entrance to the dining room decorated in a hunting lodge character setting. The dining room had a large elegant fireplace with a clock sitting on the mantle. The opening of the fireplace was arched brick design in a half circle. There was a brick face flanked by fluted pillars to the mantle shelf. Between the mantle shelf and the face of the fireplace was a large mirror.

  The dining room was thirty-two by fifty-four feet to accommodate a substantial number of people. The kitchen was designed to be the most efficient and modern kitchen possible. It was a spacious thirty-four by thirty feet, making it a joy for the chefs.

  The second and third floors contained the seventy-six spacious and lovely rooms. There was a ladies parlor located on the second floor on the northwest corner of the building in a half circular corner of windows in the room. It was decorated in elegant mahogany wood, and the floor was carpeted in axminster. The parlor was furnished with comfortable seating and a elegant hanging chandelier costing $175.