Posts Tagged ‘John Randolph by Candidate’
Posted on August 26, 2011 - by Annie Johnson
Captain Oliver’s Triumph: Opening Day at the Eclipse Course, March 17, 1837 [Part I. - 1837 Races]
“Many persons determined to see the race, were compelled to walk, as they did, under a burning sun, four miles and a half.” — Spirit of the Times, 8 April 1837
At the same time that he was Postmaster of Big Lick in 1831, twenty-one-year-old Yelverton N. Oliver was co-proprietor of the race track at Liberty, Virginia. By 1833, he was serving as treasurer of the newly formed Jockey Club and proprietor of the course at Lynchberg. And the next year Oliver was in Washington, reviving the city’s track.