1870 Turf Field and Farm — Flora Temple, Ethan Allen, Monmouth Park Inaugural

## 📜 ABOUT THIS PIECE OF HISTORY 📜

This July 1, 1870 issue of *The Turf, Field and Farm* — New York's premier weekly journal of sport, racing, and country life — arrives at one of the most electric moments in American sporting history. Thoroughbred racing is entering its Gilded Age golden era. Monmouth Park is advertising its very first season. Saratoga is at the height of its prestige. And at the center of it all, a feature article on **Flora Temple** — the most celebrated trotting mare in American history — anchors this remarkable summer issue.

For collectors of horse racing history, Victorian sporting ephemera, 19th-century chess, and Gilded Age Americana, this issue is a genuine primary source document from a world that was inventing modern American sport in real time.

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## 🐎 FLORA TEMPLE — HER FAMILY AND THE WHITE MARSH FARM 🐎

The headline feature of this issue is an extended profile of **Flora Temple**, the legendary trotting mare who transformed American harness racing. Nicknamed *"The Humbug Mare"* — because no one believed her capable of what she accomplished — Flora Temple was the first horse in history to trot a mile in under 2:20, and she held the world trotting record for an astonishing decade. By 1870 she had been retired to stud at White Marsh Farm, and this article chronicles her lineage, her descendants, and the quiet life of the most famous horse in America.

For collectors of trotting history, harness racing history, and equine Americana, an extended feature on Flora Temple in her own era — not a retrospective, but a contemporary account — is extraordinarily rare.

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## 🏇 RACING COVERAGE — SARATOGA, MONMOUTH PARK & THE SUMMER CIRCUIT 🏇

This issue covers the full summer 1870 racing calendar at the peak of the Gilded Age:

- **Saratoga Association** — Two full meetings announced for the 1870 season, with sweepstakes for all ages and entry conditions. Saratoga in 1870 was the social epicenter of American racing, attracting the country's wealthiest owners and fastest horses.
- **Monmouth Park — "The Inaugural Meeting"** — Monmouth Park at Long Branch, New Jersey, opened for the very first time in 1870, and this issue carries advance coverage and race conditions for that landmark first season. "Five Days — $81,000 in Purses and Stakes." A primary source document for the founding of one of American racing's most storied tracks.
- **Rensselaer Park Association** — July meeting at Troy, New York, premiums $5,000
- **Buffalo Park Association** — Summer meeting, premiums $42,000
- **Narragansett Park Association** — Joint meeting coverage
- **Rockaway Park** racing results and conditions
- **Fashion Course, L.I.** — Trotting card
- **Fleetwood Park** — Trotting coverage
- **Morrisania** — Grand Inaugural Meeting, July 7, 8, and 9
- **American Jockey Club** — Stakes and conditions including Handicap Sweepstakes

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## 🐴 STALLION LISTINGS FOR THE 1870 SEASON 🐴

A full roster of stallions standing for the 1870 breeding season — an irreplaceable snapshot of American bloodstock at the dawn of the Gilded Age:

- **Ethan Allen** — Vermont's greatest trotting stallion, the horse who held the world record for the mile with running mate and set an astonishing standard for the Morgan breed
- **Hamlet** and **Major Winfield** — thoroughbred stallions
- **Volunteer** — prominent trotting sire
- **Garibaldi** at Speedwell Hambletonian Farm
- **Thorndale**, **Uncle Vic**, **Long Island Abdullah**, **Forester**, **Trent**, **Woburn**, **Star**, **Columbine**, **Ashland**, **Revenge**
- **Kentucky Clay**, **American Star**, **Forest King** — from the Scarsdale Stud Farm
- Listings from farms across New York, New Jersey, and New England

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## ♟️ CHESS & DRAUGHTS COLUMNS — WITH PRINTED BOARD DIAGRAMS ♟️

A dedicated chess section features annotated game positions with printed chessboard diagrams — a visual element prized by chess history collectors. A second column covers **Draughts (Checkers)**, also with board illustrations. Together these make for a visually striking pair of sections rarely found intact in 19th-century newspapers.

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## 🦃 WILD TURKEY HUNTING IN MISSISSIPPI 🦃

A vivid correspondent's dispatch from the Mississippi countryside on wild turkey hunting — a rich piece of Southern outdoor sporting writing from the Reconstruction era, capturing a world of field sport and rural life that few documents preserve so vividly.

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## 🚣 THE INTERNATIONAL FOUR-OARED RACE & OTHER SPORTS 🚣

Beyond the turf, this issue documents the full range of Victorian sporting culture:

- **The International Four-Oared Race** — early competitive rowing in the international arena
- **Wrestling** — results and commentary
- **Boating** — club news and regattas
- **Jumping** — equestrian jumping coverage
- **Our Shooting Column** — field sport and game shooting
- **Gossip by the Way** — the era's essential sporting rumor column, full of insider news and personality
- **Demand and Supply of Horses** — market analysis from the horse trade
- **Washington County** and **Western New York** — regional sport correspondence
- **Our Book Table** — literary reviews of the sporting press
- **Fish Parade / Fish Culture** — early American conservation and fish culturist coverage

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## 🗞️ PERIOD ADVERTISEMENTS — A GILDED AGE TIME CAPSULE 🗞️

The advertising pages of this issue are a spectacular window into American commercial life in 1870:

- **United States Watch Company, Giles Wales & Co.** (Maiden Lane, New York) — Racing plate watches and precision timekeepers
- **Ball, Black & Co.** — Fine watches and jewelry
- **Purdy & Nicholas** — Guns and rifles, 43 Bleecker Street, New York
- **Boyd Breech-Loading Arms Co.** — Sporting arms
- **Parker's Shotgun** — One of America's most storied shotgun makers
- **William Read & Sons** — Guns and shooting tackle
- **Hazard Powder Co.** and **Laflin & Rand** — Gunpowder manufacturers
- **R.M. Stivers** — Carriages, Plymouth, Michigan
- **Dusenbury & Van Duser** — Light road wagons, buggies, phaetons, 135 and 137 Chrysties Street
- **Dusenbury & Nelson** — Saddlery and harness, 302 Broadway
- **Dunscomb** — Pleasure and trotting harness, No. 7 Barclay Street
- **Hoover, Calhoun & Co.** — Road wagons and fine phaetons, Lafayette Street
- **Union Adams & Co.** — Driving gloves, 637 Broadway
- **Mammoth Billiard Establishment** — Phelan & Collender tables
- **The Baldwin Bill** — W.B. Jackson, proprietor
- **Royal Havana Lottery** — A period curiosity
- **Thoroughbred stock for sale**, trotting stallions, fine coach horses
- **100 Head of Goldust Stock** for sale — a large-scale bloodstock offering

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## 🔍 CONDITION & TRANSPARENCY 🔍

**Completeness:** Appears to be a complete issue — all spreads are photographed and accounted for.

**Authenticity:** Guaranteed original letterpress printing from July 1, 1870 — not a reproduction.

**Condition Report:** Consistent with its 155-year age — natural toning to the newsprint throughout, with some edge wear and minor fraying at margins as visible in all photographs. Text remains legible throughout. The chess and draughts board diagrams are clear. A solid and remarkably complete example of a scarce and infrequently seen Gilded Age sporting weekly.

I photograph every page of every issue so you can inspect the condition closely before purchasing. Please review all images carefully and don't hesitate to ask for additional close-ups before buying — I'm happy to photograph any page, column, or area of concern.

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## 📦 SHIPPING & PRESERVATION 📦

- Housed in an acid-free archival folder to protect the 155-year-old newsprint
- Flat-shipped with heavy-duty reinforcement to ensure safe arrival
- Fully tracked for your peace of mind

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In the summer of 1870, Flora Temple was in retirement, Ethan Allen was at stud, and Monmouth Park was about to open its gates for the very first time. What you're holding is the newspaper that covered it all.

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## 🏷️ TAGS

1870 Turf Field and Farm, Flora Temple Trotting Mare, Ethan Allen Trotting Stallion, Monmouth Park Inaugural 1870, Saratoga Racing 1870, Gilded Age Horse Racing, Antique Newspaper 1870, Victorian Sporting Ephemera, 19th Century Chess Newspaper, Harness Racing History, American Jockey Club 1870, Long Branch Racing 1870, Wild Turkey Hunting Mississippi, Thoroughbred Stallion Listings 1870, Gilded Age New York Americana