The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-05-05
OHIO'S BIG SLEIGHRIDE.
1t was on March IA, 1856 and 466 Four
Horse Sleighs Were in Line.

1t was on March IA, 1856, and 466 Four
Horse Sleighs Were in Line
Forty-one years ago, the 14th day of
March, 1856, being Friday 466 sleighs
drawn by four horses each, assembled
at Richfield, Summit county. The 1854
harnessed horses to these sleighs drew
about $500 merry men and women boys
and girls. This was not all. Many
rigs" with two horses, or even only
one apiece, came to the same town that
day. They We're like silver in the times
of Solomon, esteemed of no account,
and there is no record of their number
Neither is it known how many persons
rode in these smaller vehicles
OF the four sleighs 144 came from
Medina county, Cuyahoga county was
represented by 151. Summit furnished
III and carried away a cotton flag,
33 inches by 55, which was the trophy
sought by the three competing counties.
1t was probaly the biggest sleigh ride
ever known in America, and the days
festivities were commented upon as far
away as London.
In Richfeld and the neighborhood
there was a jam of people. The roads
were crowded with horses and sleighs,
and the whole countryside was present
to see the fun or take part in the de-
monstra ton. 1t was all the climax of a
long series of what might be called
mass sleigh rides which were the
outgrowth of the neighborhood gather
,,,;,ot ho
furnished good sleighing, with plenty of
snow and pleasant weather for out
door sports, from about the middle of
December till late in March.
The day of the eliminating sleigh ride
there was bright sunshine, and glitter
ing snow banks were everywhere. The
| glare was very intense in the middle of
the day, and it is said that many of the
| women and girls in the immense party
were sunburned-by a sleigh ride!
That was not the least curious feature
of a day, unique, we believe, in the an
nails of northern Ohio and hardly to be
matched in any other part of the coun-
| try.
When it was discovered that to-day
although the temperature is not high
there are many song birds in Cleveland
and all the region about, and that GRO
cuses are blooming in the dooryards
and hyacinths are showing their heads,
without making any one think of the
season as unusually early, it is aston
ishing to consider what such sleigh
ride as the famous competitive one be-
tween three counties meant in the way
of weather conditions in March, 1856
1t must not be supposed that the
great exhibition of that day was the
end of the sleighing. Median county
was not satisfied with SUBMITS victo-
ry, and on March IS a procession of one
hundred and eighty-two sleighs witt
four horses each and one drawn by foul
mules appeared in Akron from Medina
county to claim the championship flag
There We're many bands. and banners
and devices We're used in great mum
bers. The citizens of Akron received
their visitors with ringing demonstra
tons. An address presenting the fiat
was made by the president of Hudson
college, and songs written for the occa
sion were sung. There was plenty o
good food, and every one had a grea
time, as the chronicles of the time re
cord. So it was almost the vernal equi
noX when winter sports depending or
good snow roads were still at thei
height in northern Ohio.
Clearly the people of forty years agt
were not so stern and so completely alb
sorbed in the work of their vigorous
times as some younger Americans Otter
imagine. And evidently weather rec
Ords were made in this part of tn
country that will be hard to beat for
long time to come.-Cleaveland Leader