Rodeo star and jockey Jackie Worthington grew up on the back of a horse.
A century ago, Greenville residents were gearing up for the North Texas Fair that would open in a few days at the Fairgrounds. Today the site is the home of the YMCA and the old Shirey’s plant at the corner of Moulton and Stanford Streets. A few weeks earlier Greenville hosted the Texas Confederate Veterans Reunion at the same location. Things were really booming here.
The fair drew large crowds from surrounding areas and as far away as Fort Worth. Having at least five railroads that stopped here didn’t hurt. The railway companies had something of a price war going and offered special rates to every event they thought people would attend. I have never investigated the savings but newspapers claimed great deals for the traveling public.
On the 17th of August the Dallas Morning News reported, “the racing stables of the North Texas Fair have been filled to capacity. Many famous owners and trainers are here and well-known horses are among the strings, comprising the best of Texas horses and many from Arkansas.” Horse racing was a big draw at the fair.
In fact, horse racing had been a big deal since the days of the Republic of Texas, and probably much earlier. In the 1870s there was an opening in Black Cat Thicket around a salt lick. Hidden from public view, but just the right size for a racetrack, Hunt County citizens enjoyed races at the Devil’s Race Track. I have a vague idea where it was, but I would love to know the exact spot. Someone told me that respectable young ladies drove their buggies out there to enjoy the social event. Evidently the Devil’s Race Track was not taboo. I suppose they had a chaperone, though.
A couple of years ago, my cousin and I visited with an elderly gentleman in Jacksboro who remembered the rural mail carrier that came by his boyhood home. The mail carrier was our grandfather. In the course of the interview, the gentleman who is now past 100 years of age, started to tell us about my cousin’s in-laws, noted ranchers that he worked for as a lad. The patriarch of the family was something of an iconic figure. All stories I have heard about him picture a man straight out of old western movies.
The patriarch loved horse racing, especially if his horse or horses were winning. Sometime in the 1920s, a group of men in Jack County and surrounding counties decided to have a marathon race from Seymour to Cundiff. The distance is about fifty miles. The patriarch chose his best distance horse and picked a young girl to ride. Evidently he received a great deal of harassment for putting a female in the saddle with so much money at stake. But he knew what he was doing. The girl and his horse won the endurance race.
I remember the girl, who was an old woman by the time I came along. Jackie Worthington was one of three daughters. Her father was also a prominent rancher, but didn’t enter a horse in that contest. Jackie went on to become one of the pioneer women rodeo stars. In later life she ran the Worthington Ranch successfully. When she came to town, she was dressed in boots, old jeans and a long-sleeved shirt with either a Stetson or straw hat on, depending on the season. Jackie Worthington was a tiny woman, even in old age. No wonder she won the race from Seymour to Cundiff.