The Trenton to Belleville Road Race

A new donation all the way from New Mexico has given some additional context to this photograph of a road race between Trenton and Belleville.

In a family album of otherwise unidentified people, was one photograph of Harry Palmer, taken by Clarence Herington of Trenton. In the picture, a young man poses in athletic clothing, a number on his chest. On the table beside him is the trophy he won by running from Trenton to Belleville in one hour and sixteen minutes.

A few minutes of searching the online copies of the Belleville newspapers delivered a date for the race: it took place on Labour Day, September 7th, in 1908 and there were 15 contestants, nine of whom finished the race. The Daily Intelligencer described the plans for the race in its September 4th edition:

The day after the race, The Daily Intelligencer reported on the chaotic closing stages:

The only regrettable circumstance in connection with the race is the fact that hundreds of people, who were old enough to know better, persisted in obstructing the runners. People on foot were bad enough, but to have drivers of all sorts of rigs, from automobiles to democrats dating back to the days of Noah, pocketing the plucky runners and forcing them off the road was surely the limit. There is, however, no doubt at all that the obstruction had nothing to do with the result in the case of young Palmer, the Trenton lad who won...

The photograph of the race at the top of this post was taken by Clarence Herington. Harry Palmer can be seen running along Bridge Street West (approximately where the Belleville Courthouse is today) approaching the Lower Bridge and the Belleville Post Office, the finishing point of the race. Thanks to the Dehlinger family for returning this photograph album to Hastings County, 113 years after Harry won his race.