Hall County NEGenWeb
Reminiscences & Narratives of Pioneers
GRAND ISLAND IN THE EARLY 'EIGHTIES & EARLY HORSE RACE

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Transcribed from
the ©1920 "History of Hall County," by Buechler, Barr, and Stough

From the east looking west.

Mr. McAllister then built them a brick building near where the McAllister brick block at Pine and Third stands. Mr. Anderson narrates the story of an

EARLY HORSE RACE

"A fellow used to bring horses here from Missouri and sell them to the homesteaders. I bought a young three-year old mare from him. She proved to be a pretty good 'quarter horse.' He brought up horses two or three times a year, and he heard that I thought this mare could beat most anything; so he brought up a little old scrub race horse from Missouri, intending to beat me out of some money. I went over and looked at his horse. He says, 'they tell me you think that mare you got from me is quite a race horse.' I said, 'yes I think she is.' I had won a couple of races with her. So he says, 'I've got an old plug here, I'll just bet you a hundred dollars she can beat yours a quarter mile.' Then I just bet him that $100. We went over on Second street to run the race. We started about where Wolbach's home is now, just go down to where the court house was, where Pioneer Park is now. We thought that was the nicest place, there was just a wagon road there then, so we measured off a quarter of a mile. We started at Wolbach's and run up by the court house. It happened that court was in session. The lawyers, the jurors, and everbody jumped up and ran to the windows to see what all the yelling was about. Judge Gaslin was here presiding. The judge said to the sheriff, 'Sheriff, what's it all about?' The sheriff said, 'A horse race.' The judge said, 'You go out and bring them in.' He brought them in. The sheriff did, he came out and hauled me and the other fellow in as the two principals and brought us up. The old judge fined us $10 apiece for running on a public highway. But I won the $100 and it cost the other fellow $110.