Henderson history: Auto racing couldn't keep Dade Park afloat

The original developers of Dade Park were drowning in red ink by the summer of 1923 – and bringing in auto racing royalty didn’t provide enough of a life preserver to keep them afloat.

The Chevrolet brothers – Louis, Arthur and Gaston – were America’s first family during the initial golden age of auto racing. All three were aggressive and successful race drivers – and also talented when it came to mechanical design.

Louis co-founded the company that bears his name. His partner was William C. Durant, who was co-founder of General Motors. Durant kept the Chevrolet brand name when Louis left the firm. Both Louis and Arthur started out driving Buick race cars for Durant.

Arthur was behind the wheel of a Buick during the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, although mechanical trouble kept him from finishing the race. His racing career came to an end in 1920 when he crashed while practicing for the Indy 500. (Gaston, meanwhile, won the 1920 Indy 500, but was killed in a racing accident later that year.)

The Chevrolet brothers started a new car company in 1916 called Frontenac, after the governor of New France in the late 1600s. Gaston was driving one when he won the 1920 Indy 500. A Frontenac also won the 1921 race.

But back to Arthur. Even though his injuries prevented him from racing after 1920, he was still out on the Dade (now Ellis) Park track in the summer of 1923. In a manner of speaking, that is. The Frontenac company not only manufactured cars – it also specialized in building racing equipment.

One notable piece of equipment was an aftermarket cylinder head for Model T Fords. It converted a regular flathead Model T into an overhead valve engine with twin camshafts. That modification – known as a Fronty Ford – dominated dirt track racing throughout the 1920s.

Auto races were held at the racetrack July 8, 1923, according to an advertisement published that day by the nearby ferry company, but there was no other coverage by The Gleaner. More races were scheduled July 29.

The 50-mile race that day was the one Arthur judged. An article in the July 28 Gleaner said he was also sending down three or four race cars from his shop in Indianapolis. Claude M. Fix, who held two dirt track world speed records, had also signed up in his Fronty Ford.

“With this remarkable car Fix has started in 23 races in the present season and has been in the money in each of these.”

There was some drama the day of the race, however, and it wasn’t all on the racetrack – although there was plenty of drama there, also. The Gleaner of July 29 carried an article carrying the headline: “Sheriff ordered to stop races.”

It seems Circuit Judge N.B. Hunt had ordered Sheriff Otis A. Benton to arrest the people in charge for violation of Kentucky’s Blue Law, which prohibited public entertainment on Sundays.

“Mr. Benton said he would be at the park today and arrest the person in charge and lodge him in jail unless bond was executed.”

Miles Mattingly of Owensboro was in charge and he was defiant. (He was the secretary of the Western Kentucky Athletic and Racing Association, which was sponsoring the races.)

“Mr. Mattingly was in the city Saturday afternoon and stated that the races would be given as advertised. He went to Evansville last night and is quoted in Evansville as telling Evansville newspaper men that he would hold the races despite the threat to arrest him.”

Two drivers were injured in wrecks the day of the races, but the top of The Gleaner’s story dealt with Mattingly getting arrested, according to the July 31 issue. He pleaded guilty and was fined $10 by County Judge B.S. Morris for violating the Sunday law. Penalties for that violation ran from $2 to $50.

Immediately following the race article was a one-paragraph story noting the Wesley-Elliott Bible Class of First Methodist Church “unanimously commended Circuit Judge N.B. Hunt for the action he took in the matter of attempting to stop the automobile races at Dade Park last Sunday.”

One of the injured drivers was a member of Chevrolet’s racing team, Worth Schloeman of Indianapolis. “Driving down the home stretch (in his sixth lap), Schloeman opened the throttle of his car and was traveling 60 mph when a steering knuckle broke, causing the machine to turn over twice.”

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The wreckage was cleared from the track and Schloeman was taken to an Evansville hospital, where he was still unconscious the night of July 30. He recovered, however, and lived until 1982.

The other injured driver was E.B. Tabscott of Owensboro, whose car also overturned but he escaped without serious injury and was able to return home that day.

Chance Kinsley, also of the Chevrolet racing team, had a very close call. He “pulled up to the pits with a fence rail driven through his radiator. The rail had pierced the radiator and was resting on the right seat when the driver left the track.”

Both Schloeman and Kinsley were driving Fronty Fords; they had come in first and second in the time trials.Joe Johnson of East St. Louis, driving a modified Essex, won the 50-mile race, followed by Benny Schoaf and Carl Dixon.

Several thousand people attended those races at the end of July 1923 and approximately the same number were at the Labor Day races a month later. Visibility was major difference between the two days of racing. The Gleaner carried a photo of the beginning of the July 29 race, but there was so much dust you really can’t make out any detail.

Calcium chloride had been applied to the track for the Labor Day race, however. “The track was practically free from dust and at no time was any of the drivers obscured, as many were at the last event here,” The Gleaner reported Sept. 4.

Fifteen racers had signed up for the races but not all of them started -- probably because there were three other racing events in Southern Indiana the same day. Eleven started the race but five dropped out because of mechanical problems. No accidents marred the Labor Day race, however.

Bill McCoy took the lead almost from the beginning and maintained it throughout. He was challenged only for a couple of laps. He traveled the 50 miles in just under 48 minutes, which translates into an average speed of about 62 mph. He won $800.

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Second place was won by Harold Brumley, whom The Gleaner characterized as the “famous one-armed pilot driving a Fronty Ford,” who took home $400.

That wasn’t the last time there was auto racing at what is now Ellis Park. The last races took place Sept. 1, 1924, during a big blowout that culminated in James C. Ellis buying the racetrack for $20,100. That bankruptcy sale was voided, however, and Ellis paid $35,000 when it was sold again the following year.

75 YEARS AGO

The Kroger Co. opened a modern “food department store” at 32 S. Green St., according to The Gleaner of Aug. 27, 1948, where it remained until it moved into a 14,000-square-foot building in Eastgate Shopping Center that opened March 26, 1959.

Kroger moved out of Eastgate a decade later to make way for a Sureway supermarket, according to The Gleaner of Dec. 27, 1968.

The Green Street building was later occupied by the Home Paint Center, although it no longer exists.

50 YEARS AGO

Henderson’s second librarian retired, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 26, 1973, and in the process moved out of the large house she grew up in at 1124 S. Green St. into a duplex at 119 Powell St.

Sara Winstead started working at what is now the Henderson County Public Library in 1927.

“All during my senior year after school and on Saturdays I worked as an apprentice,” she told Anna May Nesmith. “Miss Susan Towles was head librarian. The next year (1928) in June the assistant librarian married and I was employed as a full-time paid assistant. Then Miss Sue got sick and had to go to Mayo’s (clinic) and for three months I worked by myself.”

Towles retired in 1948 after spending 44 years heading the library, although she continued to work there part-time until her death on New Year's Day 1954. She was replaced by Winstead.

25 YEARS AGO

The Henderson County grand jury took no action after hearing an update on a disappearance of Heather Teague, according to The Gleaner of Sept. 2, 1998.

The 23-year-old Webster County woman had been abducted Aug. 26, 1995, while sunbathing on the beach across from Newburgh. Marvin Ray Dill was the official suspect in the case, but he killed himself six days after Teague’s disappearance while law enforcement officials were getting ready to serve a search warrant.

Sarah Teague, the woman’s mother, continues to seek answers in the disappearance of her daughter.

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com, on the social media site formerly known as Twitter at @BoyettFrank and on Threads at @frankalanks.

This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Henderson history: Auto racing couldn't keep Dade Park afloat