HAMPDEN PARK. 17 



"As a young man I saw the first horse show of 

 national importance in Ni rth America. It was held in 

 Springfield, October 10 to 13, 1853. George M. Atwater 

 was the leading spirit in the organization, while such men 

 as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Rufus Choate and Edward 

 Everett were numbered among its guests. The show was 

 held on a vacant field owned by the United States gov- 

 ernment and now covered by the United States Armory 

 buildings. Temporary stalls were erected, as well as a 

 grandstand and a half mile track, on which Budd Doble 

 appeared as a driver, while P. T. Barn urn was judging 

 ponies in the infield. The show was a success, and it and 

 its successor furnished the funds to build Hampden 

 Park, which was inaugurated in 1857 with an address by 

 the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. Exhibitions were given 

 there in 1858, 1859 and i860. Then there was a lull until 

 after the war. The first race meeting was held in 1868. 

 It was given under the joint management of the Spring- 

 field Club and the Hampden Park Agricultural Society. 

 I was chairman of the executive committee and invited 

 William Edwards to be one of the judges. He was with 

 us again the following year, when he told me that Cleve- 

 land would soon have a mile track. In 1870 he wrote that 

 it was completed, and later on I was requested to go to 

 Cleveland as a judge at the inaugural meeting in 1871. 

 When I returned from Cleveland the question of a series 

 of meetings was left in abeyance on account of there being 

 but three tracks. Another link was wanted in the chain. 



'"The following year, while the Buffalo meeting was in 

 progress. Col. Edwards and I were E. A. Buck's guests. 

 One evening at dinner he introduced C. W. Hutchinson, 

 who was at the head of an association which had built a 

 mile track in Utica. By the time the cigars were reached 



