OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 121 



OVERLORD OF OAKLAWN 



43. The breaking of the boundless acres of the virgin prairies 

 of the midwest, the hauling to market of its fertile rewards and 

 the crowding traffic of the youthful cities of nineteenth century 

 America developed a need for draft forces that eastern agricul- 

 turists and eastern industries had failed to realize. The hardy 

 light-boned horse that hitherto had served for labor, road and 

 track, lacked the latent qualities to meet the situation, and in 

 the early 50's progressive American agriculturists brought from 

 the older hemisphere the fundaments of a type more definitely 

 adapted to the immediate necessity. 



Clearest visioned among the caterers to the new need was 

 Mark Wentworth Dunham of Oaklawn Farm some five miles 

 south of Elgin, Illinois. Bom June 22, 1842, he early saw the 

 success of old Louis Napoleon and others of the pioneer French 

 blood to reach this country, so in 1870 he acquired the mas- 

 sively spread gray stallion with whitish mane, whose name Suc- 

 cess was fortunate omen of his service to Oaklawn, and the sur- 

 rounding country side. From this simple beginning, a rapidly 

 growing business developed. The old brick house that had been 

 pioneer home was transformed into an office and clerks busily 

 clicked away at typewriters the year round in maintaining the 

 records of the horses that passed through Oaklawn. 



Mr. Dunham was a keen judge of equine needs and a student 

 of equine type. A personal investigation extended over a num- 

 ber of years convinced him that of all the horses of Frankish 

 origin that came to his stables, those that came from the district 

 of the old Perche were by all odds the best. The blood seemed 

 to mix particularly well when crossed upon the light limbed 

 mares spread over the corn country, and so successful were the 

 half bloods that wherever a stallion once went another was 

 demanded in its place. Mr. Dunham's keenness of judgment 

 permitted him to recognize, while the horses were still in Franw 



