The Dorchester Gentlemen's 

 Driving Club 



AS the outcome of several chance 

 meetings of the horsemen of Hyde 

 Park, Milton and Dorchester in 

 the several blacksmith shops, and 

 especially in the shop of E. P. 

 Derm and the stable office of H. P. Gallup, 

 on Barnes Street. Dorchester, was organized 

 on April 26, 1899, the Dorchester Gentlemen's 

 Driving Club. It was the first driving club in 

 this country whose by-laws and constitution 

 called for weekly meeting of its members and 

 weekly racing of horses for ribbons. 



The first election of officers was held on 

 May 10. 1899. and showed over a hundred 

 horse owners enrolled on its membership list. 

 The election resulted in the following board 

 of officers: President, Charles L. Young; 

 first vice-president. S. Walter Wales ; second 

 vice-president, Louis Pfingst ; secretary, 

 Charles H. Belledeu ; treasurer, John M. E. 

 Morrill; clerk, E. O. Haddock; directors, T. 



A. Bresnahan. Cyril G. Blaney, Frederick J. 

 Brand, George H. Greenwood, and Charles 

 L. Bartlett; racing and speedway committee, 

 R. S. Fitch. C. H. Belledeu. A. S. Gushee. F. 

 T. Brand. S. H. Mildram, L. E. H. Tones, Geo. 



B. Fowler, H. P. Gallup, F. S. Eldfedge, F. L. 

 Codman. Alpheus Sanford ; membership com- 

 mittee, Geo. E. Griffin, W. E. Newbert, C. L. 

 Hinds ; finance committee, R. S. Fitch, George 

 H. Greenwood and H. P. Gallup. 



Weekly matinee races were held on the Blue 

 Hill Avenue quarter-mile speedway, that had 

 been granted the club by the city and which 

 was kept in condition for racing by money se- 

 cured from among the members, many of 

 whom went down into their pocket for as high 

 as $25 each. 



And this brings to mind what happened to a 

 number of the members of the club on the very 

 first day racing was permitted on Blue Hill 

 Avenue, which is well worth reading. 



On account of Captain Charles W. Hunt 

 and the police of the Dorchester district not 

 being notified of the order signed by Mayor 

 Quincy, allowing the west side of Blue Hill 

 Avenue between Talbot Avenue and Morton 

 Street to be used for a speedway, several mem- 



bers of the Dorchester Driving Club narrowly 

 escaped being arrested for fast driving. 



When a mounted policeman saw several of 

 the club members start to race their horses he 

 stopped them and said that he should be com- 

 pelled to place them under arrest. The driv- 

 ers told the policeman that a permit had been 

 granted, but they could not show it. 



The officer started to take them to the police 

 station, but afterward agreed to telephone 

 from the nearest signal box. He talked with 

 Captain Hunt, but the latter said that he knew 

 of no permit. Captain Hunt told the police- 

 man to come to the station. He did so, and 

 there the matter was discussed. 



Finally it was decided that the officer should 

 take the names of those on the "Speedway," 

 and if it should be found that an order permit- 

 ting them to race had not been passed, they 

 should lie summoned into court instead of be- 

 ing actually arrested. 



Among the names of those taken was S. 

 Walter Wales, the well-known stable man ; 

 A. S. Gushee, C. L. Young, W. E. Newbert 

 and Charles F. Stevens. They found Coun- 

 cilman Mildram and explained the difficulty 

 they were in. A hurried visit to City Hall and 

 police headquarters resulted in matters being 

 straightened out, but many of them had sev- 

 eral hours of worrying, fearful that they 

 would figure in the criminal courts as violators 

 of the law. 



Weekly meetings of the club were held in 

 Central Hall on Center Street, Monday nights, 

 where the result of the races of the previous 

 week were announced and the horses matched 

 for the next Saturday. This matching was 

 always done by a special sub-committee of the 

 racing and speedway committee, and the sched- 

 ules of matches were announced after a recess 

 of the business meeting. This schedule of 

 matches was never satisfactory to any one, 

 and, no matter how fair they were, no one ex- 

 pected they would be. so there was always an 

 argument for and against putting certain 

 horses together. 



A stranger coming into the meeting during 

 these arguments would think that the members 

 were being matched for a thousand dollar 



