BeeLines - November 16, 2017
By Marybelle Beigh, Westfield Town & Village Historian
Speedways, Race Tracks, Driving Parks – Auto Racers, Jockeys, and Wheelers…
Every so often, one or another of my faithful readers asks me about historical jockeys, races, and where the various venues were located in Westfield. And of course, while researching unrelated topics, racer’s names and racing events from the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s catch my eye.
However, a few months ago, a phone call from an unknown name and number asked, “Have you ever heard of Coon Road Speedway in Westfield? It was active between 1956 and 1960.” The voice on the phone went on to explain that he is doing research and stories, including movies/videos, of the various speedways of Chautauqua County, and even provided a link to one of these video documents. The request was for any extant photos, files, names, and so forth related to Coon Road Speedway.
WOW! Yes! I’d heard of Coon Road Speedway, as I was a teen at Westfield High School from 1954-1958. But I was really surprised to NOT discover anything about this venue in any of the archives of the library; and even more surprised that my brother didn’t remember it as he was a teen, interested in cars, through the time frame given for this.
And, unfortunately, since I was deeply involved in several other historian projects at the time of the phone call, the notes about Coon Road and other speedways slipped into the cracks of my “back-burner” historian project file, and the emails and links disappeared into the bowels of my computer, and cyber-space.
Finally, things have settled down a bit after my vacation trip to Colorado, and Coon Road Speedway History Mystery is once more on my radar, and sleuthing path!
Several race tracks, driving parks, and races from earlier years came to mind, including the race track at the Metropolitan Fair Grounds that was located in the general area south of Bliss Street and east of Union Street extension in the mid-1800s. This was the location where Company C of the 68th Civil War regiment was mustered about June of 1861. And the fairgrounds and track were used from about July 1860 to July 1867.
About twenty-one years after the demise of the Metropolitan Fair Grounds, a letter from someone named “Reuben” to the Westfield Republican was published, remembering the Metropolitan Fair Ground race track and suggesting it would be a great idea for Westfield’s “enterprising (?) citizens… to locate and purchase a good fair ground with a race track, grand stand, etc.” A year later (1889) this was accomplished with the opening of the Driving Park in the area between Kent Street on the north, Third Street on the south, Union Street on the west, and Pleasant Street on the east. An old map from about 1900 actually shows the track which was used by both horses (and race buggies) and bicycles (called “wheels” at that time). My maternal grandfather, Newton Dibble, often raced and placed in wheel races at that track!
A search for “race tracks” in the digitized Republicans (1856-1927), turned up a few more private race tracks around the town and village of Westfield including a notice in the September 7, 1898, issue commenting, “Mrs. Alice Peacock is building a private race track on her property at Barcelona, which she will use for the training of her fine string of flyers.”
As for auto races, some well-known stories about the Ox-Bow Hill Race, with historic photos, have been described by the late Billie Dibble, Westfield Historian prior to myself.
But efforts to search the 1956-1960 Republicans on microfilm for the Coon Road Speedway have proved rather daunting for your Westfield Historian at this time. So, the request for help from you faithful readers is going out for photos, stories, names, and especially, any extant films of the races and racers at the Coon Road Speedway, please and thanks.
Westfield Historian, Marybelle Beigh contact information:
E-mail: westfieldhistorian@fairpoint.net
Cell phone: (716) 397-9254
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westfieldhistorian/