The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-04-23
MAGMA CHARTA
WAS M|CH|GAN'S
FIRST CHAMPION
MADE HALF MILE IN 2:57 ON
RACE TRACK AT MICHIGAN
STATE FAIR IN 1857.
(By |. H. Butterfeld, former Presi-
dent and Secretary of State Fair.)

(By |. II. Butterfeld, former Presi-
dent and Secretary of State Fair.)
Utica, Mich, is my native town. My
fathers farm was one and one-half
miles west Of the village Les Voor-
heis, the breeder of Magma Charta,
had q small farm two miles north.
In the early SOS he had nice, trim,
blood like mare that was said to have
been bought in Kentucky. In 1852
and 1853 number of Morgan stall
lions were brought from Vermont to
Michigan. Among them was horse
called Morgan Eagle, a grandson of
Woodbury. Morgan. He was smooth,
compact horse with good bone and
weighed about LOO pounds. He was
not fast, probably could trot a mile
in four minutes, but he was strong
enough TO draw two men in buggy
at that gait.
In 1854 VOORHEES, bred his mare to
Morgan Eagle and the following
spring Magma Charta was foaled. He
was a handsome colt and was pur-
chased in 1857 when two years old by
Ezra Wright, local hcrseman..
Wright broke him to harness and soon
found that he could trot fast. There
was no track at Utica at that time
and Wright trained the cold on a
smooth stretch of road which ran
through my fathers farm. | often
saw them there that summer when /
was working in the fields.
Magma Charta's training was also
continued in his three-year- form
when Wright showed him at the state
fair in Detroit, where he trotted a
half-mile track, at least it was called
hot in Ok ~ 10 ole n cd
first premium as the best Morgan at
the fair. In 1850 Ezra Wright took
Magma Charta to Coldwater to
summer race meeting and while there
traded him to +. V. Smith q Co. for
another horse and considerable cash.
The colts new owners exhibited him
at the state fair that year, when he
trotted a mile in 2:47, and was again
awarded first premium. Later in the
season, they shipped him to Kalama-
zoo, where he won a race in 2:33 1-2,
making a new worlds record for four
year-olds and also the first one ever
placed to the credit of a Michigan
bred trotter.
One day when Wright was jogging
Magma Charta in his two-year-old
form he drove into my fathers yard.
While he was there, siX-weeks' -old
calf, which as a rule can run like a
deer for about half a mile, got out of
the barn and rcaed down the road
Someone was trying to turn it back
when Wright said, "Hold on, | will
get ahead of him." and raced away at
full speed. He did not head the calf,
however, until it turned a corner and
stopped.
Wright never heard the last of that
trip; and the mention of it recalls a
similar incident at the California state
fair at Sacramento in 1862. 1t was
with John d. Patterson, a stock breed
err who exhibited sheep and cattle
Among thel after he had a Jersey cow
and calf On thel asst day of the fair
when we were taking the stock from
the grounds, the calf ran onto the
track near the first turn just as heat
in team race was started. The calf
ran off ahead of the teams and kept
the led clear around the track, the
occupants of the grandstand APP
plauding the performance to an echo,
as the calf and horse raced through
the stretch. By that time the calf
was winded and | got him off the
course, while the teams finished the
last half of the mile.
AnIlouIlSeLleHG has Deen maze Dy
G. w. Dickinson, secretary manager
of the Michigan state fair, that Aug.
20 to Sept. 7 inclusive have been Sc
lected as thed ates for the1 919 ex-
position.
During the past two years Michigan
has assumed leadership among the
states of the Union in agricultural,
industrial and livestock activities. AS
the tsate has progressed, the tate fair
has increased its exhibit and attrac-
tons in both number and quality, I'M
til it is now recognized, not as one Of
the five leading fairs Of the country,
but as the leader.