The Mighty Joe Young, a trotting horse of the 1880's and 1890's, was so honored, they buried him standing up.

,First published in the Hillsboro Free Press, Hillsboro, Kansas



by Jerry Engler

Before the gorilla movie, there really was a mighty Joe Young. He was the
magnificent, world-class trotting horse stallion, a harness-racer, that
crowds came to see in Peabody, Kansas.
But the world portrayed in Joe Youngıs era of the 1880s and 1890s does seem
a place far, far away.
Joe Youngıs remains are still there, reportedly buried under a lilac bush in
a farmyard on a place known to locals as the Dorothy Craig Farm now overseen
by Terril Eberhard a mile and a half west of Peabody on U.S. Highway 50.
The race track is still in Peabody City Park, and the old Charles E.
Westbrook farm, where champion pacers were grown, is still south of town.
Joe Young makes a statement even from the grave. Muriel Wolfersperger, a
member of the Peabody Historical Society, said the horse was buried in a
standing position rather than laying down, a rite supposedly reserved for
very famous horses.
It seems his memory nationally is obscured by the performances of his own descendents.
Giving his name to researchers at the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame
in Goshen, N.Y., elicited no excitement until it was realized he was the
grand sire of Joe Patchen, a horse foaled at Peabody.
Joe Patchen was the sire of the famous Dan Patch, a horse that trotted the
mile in less than two minutes at 1:55.25. Thatıs one minute, 55 and a
quarter seconds; done long before any human broke a four-minute mile.
Peabody and all of Marion County were dynamic, changing places during the
time of Joe Young. According to records from the Kansas State Board of
Agriculture, the number of horses in Marion County had gone from 407 in 1870
to 13,246 in 1891.
The 1870 census showed 663 persons in Marion County, but by 1890, the county
had 20,137 residents. The county had the highest concentration of
foreign-born persons of any county in Kansas in 1895 with one in four born
in other nations.
Peabody, as one of the centers with a higher concentration of American-born
residents, was also slated to be host to what was an American-born
tradition.
According to the historical record, harness racing had gone out of style with
the decline of the Roman Empire. The sport was revived in America as rural
residents desired to see who had the fastest pacers in races down country
roads.
According to the Goshen museumıs records, in an article written by John
Hervey in the 1930ıs for "The Harness Horse," Joe Young was coming from the
new harness racing tradition before he ever saw Kansas.
His records are further verified by the "American Horse Breeder" of New York
and Boston of March 1895.

Joe Young was foaled in Minnesota, sired by "the inbred Morgan horse, Star
of the West, and out of a mare by Green's Bashaw," Lady Gregory.
Green's Bashaw was the son of Vernolıs Black Hawk by Long Island Black Hawk,
son of Andrew Jackson, and so on showing that the racing tradition was
getting well established through long genealogies before coming to Kansas.
"Star of the West was a horse that was trotted extensively for a period of
some 17 years, taking a record of 2:26.5, acquiring a reputation for speed,endurance and gameness, and until within a few years ago was regarded as one ofthe very best in the Northwest," the 1895 article states.
The stage was set for Joe Young to come to Kansas, for Westbrook to pay a
big price for him, and for trotting enthusiasts to seek a horse that would
break the two-minute mile record.
The museum record says, Joe Young, a black horse with "quite extensive white
markings," was sold as a weanling for $200 and taken to Texas. There he was
sold when seven years old for $3,500, and when 10 years old for $10,000,
"which would certainly indicate that he must have been a horse of far more
than ordinary value."
According to historical records at Peabody, "Mr. C.E. Westbrook purchased
Joe Young, then three years old, of William Ward, who had led him behind a
mover wagon from Minnesota to Texas and then back to Kansas. Mr. Westbrook
liked Joe Young, as did Mr. Ward, so he gave Mr. Ward 80 acres of land with
$500 worth of improvements, 22 cows, and $500 (cash) for Joe Young, which
was a big price then (1890s).
"Mr. Westbrook made Joe Young a worldıs champion. When 20 years old, hitched
to a high wheeled sulky driven by Willis Westbrook, he made a record of 2:18(no other record was found for Joe Young), which is a world record for a
horse of that age.²
The year was 1896, computed from records that say C.E. Westbrook was 63 atthe time. His obituary said he was born in 1833.
"He was sold for $10,000 to Willis Westbrook and (Charles) Rathbone, the
first horse foaled west of the Mississippi to sell for that much money.
³Joe Young was the (record says sire; corrected to grand sire because of
materials from museum) grand sire of Joe Patchen, who had a record of
2:01.25, and was known as the iron horse. He was sold away from Peabody and
went on to set many records. Joe Patchen sired the worldıs greatest horse ofall time, Dan Patch, who made the record of 1:55.25, a record unbeaten for30 years. Dan Patch was sold for $60,000.
There were many other horses raised in Peabody that made racing records in
Kansas, Missouri and elsewhere: Silverthorne, Gold Dust Maid, Thornfield,Willis McKinney, Ray McKinney, Silver Sign, all trotters, and produced bythe Westbrooks.
Silverthorne sired four trotters in the 2:10 class, including Kirkwood Jr.,
bred at Peabody. He won two years in his class, and was taken to Austria
where he was for three years the best track horse in Europe.²
C.E. Westbrook, according to his obituary at the New York museum, regardedSilverthorne, at 2:12, his greatest horse, but still regarded Joe Young fondly as his first great trotter.
The Peabody Record states: "But for old-time horse fanciers of Peabody, Joe
Young was the favorite. Folks would attend the racing events just to see Joe
Young race. He was injured in a storm, and had to be destroyed."
Shreves Avery, president of Peabody State Bank, and the last descendent of
the Westbrook family to still live at Peabody, said his family really didnıt
hand down any stories about Joe Young or the other horses.
"All I know about horses is I donıt even like to make loans on'em," Avery
joked.
Averyıs grandfather, Willis Westbrook, didnıt maintain an interest in
horses. Instead, he may have started Avery's own tradition when he was
president of the the First National Bank of Peabody.
Willis retired in 1931, and Avery said the owners in California decided to
discontinue the bank without him. All he knows about Joe Young is that the
horse must have been profitable in the races he won and prolific in progeny
for his grandfather to share in paying $10,000 for him.
The Goshen records say Joe Young sired Josephine Young, a natural trotter,
who was bred to Patchen Wilkes, a stallion from the Cheney (Kan.) ranch
purchased by Erie County, N.Y., millionaire stove-manufacturer Henry C.
Jewett.
Hervey wrote that Patchen Wilkes was a black horse of remarkable beauty but
ugly disposition, "being a natural man-eater...after he had been taken to
Kentucky, he became so savage that he was kept chained in his stall, his
feed was shoved in to him from a respectful distance, and when it was
necessary to bring him out, several grooms, armed with pitchforks and other
persuaders were required for the job."
Nevertheless, the breeding of the black horses with white feet and face
stripe, produced the birth of a similar looking offspring, Joe Patchen.
Hervey wrote: "That event took place on the farm of Charles Rathbone of
Peabody, a small farmer of limited resources whose place was improved by theusual run of buildings to be found on small Kansas farms 50 years ago; those seedy, shambling, grief-stricken structures that were depressing just to
view in transit, and typified the struggles their owners were experiencing
in the effort to keep half-a-jump ahead of the sheriff.
³Once upon a time a Kansas man sent me a photo of the crazy weather-beaten
stable in which the immortal Joe first saw the light of day. As the cradle
of a king, nothing more humble could be imagined; and as one surveyed it one
could only meditate upon the marvels which proceed from the most unlikely
origins."
Joe Patchen was the first pacing stallion to go as fast as 2:03 in 1896. His various track records, which were numerous, stood until Dan Patch broke
them.
It was difficult to find more information from old newspaper files other than a brief mention Sept. 26, 1889, that "Charley Westbrookıs horses areknown on all the important race tracks...."
Westbrook died in 1911.
As for Peabody, its status as a racing center with a race track grandstand
adequate to seat 2,000 people, plus seating space on the grass, helped
enable it to host one of two state fairs in 1885.
In addition to the regular horse races at the fair, a daily Roman chariot
race was held with each chariot pulled by four horses. One was driven by a
woman.
The town's races lured the notorious characters of the era for appearances there. Frank James once fired the starting pistol for a Peabody race long after the death of Jesse.