Horse tales in the city of Hamilton
Today's Flashbacks is about some interesting horse history from Hamilton that I recently came upon, and I'm going to ask for a little slack with this one.
The equine world has always been a little confusing to me, a bewildering subculture of strange doublespeak and odd practices such as measuring height with the width of a hand.
I've only been to a racetrack once. But by the time I figured out the difference between the triactor and exactor race, they weren't taking any more bets.
Then there is the problem of allergies. When a stallion starts stirring, I start sneezing. So, I haven't spent much time in stables over the years.
Yet over the past few weeks, for some reason, I've been hearing a lot of horse tales from Hamilton that I thought I'd pass on. So let me grab a tissue, blow my nose, and muck out a few tidbits I've picked up.
For example, did you know that 95 years ago this month the Hamilton Fire Department officially put out to pasture the last of its horse-drawn fire wagons?
The fateful day was Aug. 30, 1926, when the final four horses were phased out in favour of motorized vehicles.
News reports from the time say there were tears of sadness - and perhaps a little hay fever as well - among onlookers who watched the animals make their final appearance pulling fire wagons, ending a 75-year tradition at the department.
The following day, the remaining horses, two stationed at Beach Road, and two at Strathcona Avenue, were retired to a farm after years of faithful service," says retired Hamilton Fire Department Deputy Chief John Verbeek, who is the author of a 610-page book about the history of the department.
The use of horses in the city declined precipitously after the First World War. In 1923, hitching posts were removed from the city and horse troughs relegated to side streets. In 1919, city records listed 1,851 horses used by businesses. But by 1952, the number had declined to 240.
The Hamilton Street Railway started phasing out its horse drawn streetcars in the 1890s. And the Hamilton Police Department did away with its horses in the early decades of the 1900s.
However, in January 2010 horses made a return to the department with a new Mounted Patrol Unit that has five horses, four full-time officers and four spare officers.
Verbeek says the fire department took its horses seriously back in the day, owning as many as 29 by 1917. One of the strongest proponents of maximizing the potential of its team was Alexander Aitchison, who headed the department from 1879 till 1905.
He correctly believed that saving a few minutes in response times could save and prevent immeasurable destruction and save hours of firefighting work," Verbeek says.
Aitchison invented an overhead hitching device that allowed horses to be harnessed in a hurry. It led to the department receiving world record prizes for speed that was trumpeted with big signs in front of its King William Street station.
Ironically, the relentless push to go faster would turn out to be a factor in Aitchison's death. As I wrote in June, he died while racing out to a grass fire when the buggy he was riding in collided with another fire department vehicle. He was thrown into the Sir John A. Macdonald statue in the intersection of King and John streets.
This Sunday (Aug. 22) is the 162nd running of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, North America's oldest continuously run thoroughbred racing event.
And as Jon Soyka of the Golden Horseshoe Post Card Club pointed out to me, Hamiltonians probably don't realize the event was twice held in Hamilton - in 1866 and 1874 - during a time when the sport was very popular in the city.
You can be sure that a lot of people showed up and a lot of betting took place," he said.
There were various racetracks in Hamilton at the time with the most notable being where Gage Park is now. That's where the Queen's Plate was held on a one-mile oval track with a soft sandy surface, that was touted as being easy on the horse's hooves, yet not too loose."
According to the 2010 book The Plate: 150 Years of Royal Tradition" by Louis E. Cauz and Beverley Smith: Hamilton experienced the biggest, and perhaps the rowdiest sporting event in its history" on Queen Victoria's birthday, May 24, 1866, the day of the first Queen's Plate in Hamilton.
Hamilton awoke to the sounds of guns, pistols, miniature artillery and innumerable crackers;' the city was festooned with flags and banners, gaily fluttering in the breeze," the book said.
Apparently the 1874 race was not as unruly, but notable in that it was one of the last times the Queen's Plate would be held outside of Toronto. By the 1890s, the track at Gage Park had closed with the Jockey Club track, where the Centre Mall is today, opening and becoming the centre of horse racing in the city.
Last week's column about the magnificent Gateside" mansion at 135 Aberdeen also led me to the horse racing world. The Hendrie family, that had the house built in 1905, owned several prized racehorses and were prominent with the Ontario Jockey Club.
The starter for the 1866 Queen's Plate was William Hendrie Sr. (1831-1906), the father of William Hendrie Jr. (1863-1924) who owned Gateside. Also notable was that a filly owned by the Hendries, named Butter Scotch, would win the plate 33 years later.
Another favourite Hendrie horse was named Martimas, a winner of the Futurity Stakes, a race for the best two-year-old horses in North America. A portion of the prize money from the win was used to build the Martimas wing of the Hamilton General Hospital. The horse won many other key events and ended up in the Canadian Racing Hall of Fame.
Martimas, who died in 1916, is remembered with a gravestone in a small grove near the Scented Garden in Hendrie Park of the Royal Botanical Gardens. It's a reminder of an era when the Hendries bred draft and racehorses on the land before it was donated to the RBG.
But, according to an RBG blog, it's not clear whether the horse was actually buried there.