Mamie Wood: Horseman's Pride of Elmira

 by Ellen Williams, Guest Blogger

Thomas Schmeck Flood (1844-1908) was a member of the prominent family of Floods whose homes occupied the East Water Street block between DeWitt and Madison Avenues in Elmira. His father and brothers were doctors, and Flood augmented the medical tradition in the family with his drug store on East Water Street. Flood went to medical school like his father and brothers but instead of practicing medicine he chose pharmacy as his career.

Hon. Thomas S. Flood

He had a strong affinity for horses, and he soon had a barn full in the city. In 1870 he married Frances Miller, for whose family Miller Street on the south side of the city was named. Shortly after, her uncle John E. DuBois recruited Flood into his plans for the lumber trade. DuBois, the younger, (son of the Williamsport lumber baron by the same name for whom the Duboistown neighborhood of that city was named) had purchased more than thirty thousand acres of timber, mostly white pine, in western Pennsylvania. It was then a veritable wilderness.

DuBois engaged Flood to move out to Clearfield County, PA, and help manage the lumber takings: mills, railroad lines, labor force, housing, post office and the like. There were few constraints on industry in that era, and the settlement was part of the ever-moving western line of America’s woodlands which at the time appeared to have no end. The town became known as DuBois. White pine was cash, and Flood’s wealth was secured during that decade, by 1880.-(Elmira Advertiser, Oct. 29, 1908) With his wife Frances, young son Chester, and his contingent of horses, Flood returned to the family seat in Elmira. 

Letter to John DuBois, 1884

Flood sent his favorite mare, Mary Ann, to Joseph Wood’s farm in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1883. Wood owned an expensive Hambletonian trotting stallion whose reputation as a sire of record-breaking race horses was well established. Drawn by the Grand Circuit horse racing success of that stallion’s other colts during the previous years, Flood was seeking a race horse of his own.

The next year, Flood’s mare Mary Ann gave birth to a fine filly. Flood named the young filly “Mamie Wood” in tribute to her sire’s pedigree. Her parentage and her older siblings were well known, and Flood had big expectations for Mamie. It was an exciting year for the Floods, as they had a new baby girl born as well. They named their new daughter Frances Mabel, after her mother, but called her Mabel. Their son, Chester, was now about seven years old.

Mamie started her training in harness during the year of 1885-1886, under the hand of Flood’s trainer, John Ryan. Flood was very pleased with her prospects. According to his plans, she was to make her debut as a two-year-old in the New York State Breeders’ Association meet in September of 1886. Just to get some experience, Mamie trotted an exhibition at the Maple Avenue Driving Park in Elmira on June 3^rd, going one mile alone against the stopwatch in 2:44½.

Mamie Wood became a star on the race track when she was two years old, making a record of trotting a mile hitched to a two-wheeled sulky in the time of two minutes, twenty-seven and a quarter seconds at Rochester, NY:

…The event of the day was Mamie Woods’ endeavor to break the best two-year-old record of 2:29. She was first sent a slow mile, finishing in 2:43¼.  When she came on the track again she was accompanied by a pacer.  Both came under the wire together, but Mamie began to go ahead, the pacer not seeming to follow her pace.  The first quarter was made in 37¾.  On she sped, without a skip or break….Then she began to go faster, and reached the three-quarter pole in 1:50½.  Everybody who had a watch had it out and was anxiously watching the filly.  On she came, as steady as clockwork.  The pacer began to draw up on her and she trotted faster every moment.  When she passed under the wire the watches said 2:27¼, and the track was instantly filled with a shouting crowd of enthusiasts who wanted to hug the little roan.  This is the fastest mile ever trotted by a two-year-old outside of California. Truly a wonderful performance for a two-year-old.  This closed the sport… Every member is enthusiastic over the meet and particularly so over Mamie Wood’s performance.”-(Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Friday, Sep. 10, 1886, fultonhistory.com.)

Spirit of the Times, Dec. 18, 1886, p. 632, fultonhistory.com

[This blog is an excerpt from Chapter 5, Mamie Wood: Pride and Politics, Out of the Woods, (Williams, 2019)]