Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron 20
eleven inches in circumference. It went through the skylight and they
picked it up and measured it and it was eleven inches in circumference.
Q: Good heavens!
A: It was quite a storm. We couldn't come home, and we went over there
in a team of wagons and two horses when we went over there to play football.
Q: How
Pawnee?
long would it take you to go by horse and wagon from here to
A: Oh,
about three or four hours.
The horse could only go so fast.
Q: Did
you ever own a horse when you were young?
A: We1 1, I was a jockey. When we had a racetrack here, a fellow by the
name of Bert Vaughn had a running horse and they couldn't get anybody to
ride him. I always did love horses and I was working for Jerico. He had
two race horses. One was named Shoestring Billy and the other Silver
Abbey. This Dr. Wheeler says have a running race and the last one in the
race would be a running race. Bert Vaughn owned this running horse and
he said, "I haven't got any jockey." Dr. Weaver said, "Well, here's a
jockey right here," and he grabbed me. He said, "You' 11 ride him." And
I said, "Yes, I'll ride him." And so I did, but I didn't win the race
because he was a good ole horse. He was a tall, long-gaited horse, he
didn't get started, so he couldn't get away very fast, you know. And St.
Louis Joe, a horse we called him St. Louis Joe, he was faster and so he
got away quicker than, but when the race was over well, he just got
stretched out and started to run good because he would take a long stride.
Q: Was horse racing a popular sport then?
A: Oh, yes, Auburn had a racetrack. Virden and New Berlin had a
racetrack and it had a meet this week and then in Virden next week, this
week, this week.
Q: Did you have any famous jockeys in this area?
A: Well, I guess I was about as famous as any of them and I went, I
heard of a, well I was about fifteen years old then, and I heard of a
fellow in Carlinville that had a horse, good running horse. So I went
down there to see this fellow and made a deal with him that I'd take the
horse and we'd split the profit on him. And so I started. Spring News
was the horse's name. His mother was Evening News and his father's name
was Main Spring by Evening News and the colt was Spring News. That's the
one I rode and I remember the race was held at Virden and I took this
horse. I walked and rode him a while and then I'd get tired and I'd get
off. It was quite a ways from Carlinville to Virden and we got there.and
I put him in the livery barn and I guess I slept all night with him in
the stall. Horses will never step on you and I put a rope across the
corner of the stall because he would smell around you and just keep you
awake. So John Quinn, Earl Faust and Ted Reagan came down there and John
Harms and they said to me, "Can you win with him Howard?" And I said,
"Well, I think so." I said, "I haven't even got $10 for the entry fee."