Terre Haute Postcards - Four Cornered Race Track
More postcards from my collection...
Four Cornered Race Track
This postcard, stamped in Terre Haute on 1st June 1907, has the following printed text...
Pub. by Bundy, Terre Haute, Ind.
Four Cornered Race Track
This unused postcard has the printed text...
No. C13827
Published by the Indiana News Company, Indianapolis, Ind.
Dresden - Leipzig - Berlin
Made in Germany
Leipzig - Berlin - Dresden
ANC NY Litho-Chrome Trade Mark
I have another copy of this postcard that was posted in Terre Haute on November 5th, 1909
Four Cornered Race Track
This used postcard, stamped in Terre Haute on 18th April 1910, has the following printed text...
Made expressly for S. H. Knox & Co.
Printed in Germany
Four Cornered Race Track
This postcard, stamped in Coal City on August 25th, 1910 has just the printed text 8914.
I have another copy of this postcard that was stamped in Terre Haute on May 9th, 1911.
Four Cornered Race Track
This postcard, posted in Terre Haute on May 15th, 1914, has the following printed text...
Published by Bundy, Terre Haute, Ind.
Made in Germany
Four Cornered Race Track
This used postcard, stamped in Terre Haute on 27th August 1914, has the following printed text...
13573
The Valentine-Souvenir Co., New York
Printed in U. S. A.
Valentine-Souvenir Trade Mark
Four Cornered Race Track
This unused postcard has the following printed text...
A-9963
Published expressly for S. H. Knox & Co.
Made in U.S.A.
Four Cornered Race Track
This unused postcard has just the printed text - A-9963
The land was originally used as the site of the Indiana State Fair held in Terre Haute in 1867 and at that time had a 1/2 mile racing track. Owned by Vigo County Agricultural Association, president Uriah R. Jeffers, and designed by surveyor-engineer George Roland Grimes, the track was completed in 1887. It cost 5,695 and was situated on 47 acres of land donated by William Riley McKeen at Brown and Wabash Avenues, where the ISU stadium is now. Originally a mile long, the track was reduced to one-half mile in 1910. In 1924 Terre Haute's Memorial Stadium to honour "the boys who died in World War I" was built on the site.
Around 20 world trotting records were set at the track. Axtell (1886-1906) and Axworthy (1892-1917) were among the most famous trotters of their time. Axtell set the mile record for trotters at 2:12 on October 11, 1889 at the track. At the time he set the record, he was owned and driven by C.W. Williams of Independence, Iowa. After the race, he was purchased by a syndicate headed by William Putnam Ijams and John Conley for $105,000, $30,000 more than had ever been paid for any horse of any kind. Thereafter, he was maintained at Warren Park Farm in Terre Haute until he died in 1906. For many years, an oil portrait of Axtell hung in the lobby of the Terre Haute House. Axtell sired Axworthy, who subsequently sired 59 stallions - 26 of these would better 2:10 in the mile and two would surpass 2:05. For more information about Axtell see the Axtell Family Organization website. Other records at the track were broken by Mascot and Nancy Hanks.
This page created 23rd February 2008, last modified 17th October 2009
