Sussex County History Today: Goldsmith Maid, ‘Queen of the Trotters’

Let’s picture ourselves going back in time, back to the second half of the 1800s.

The terrible experience of the Civil War is behind us. Sussex County is very rural, mainly farms throughout with cattle grazing and wheat and corn for produce.

Iron mining in parts of the county took place on a small scale with bloomeries and forges and the felling of trees from the mountains. The advent of trains was just on the way.

But horses - horses were a frequent sight and a very important aspect of life. Farmers used the horse-drawn plow, and the patented Deckertown plow was actually developed here.

Transportation from farm to the store was by horse and carriage or buckboard. The stagecoach to Paterson on the Paterson Hamburg Turnpike over the mountain was by horse, with several places where change of teams could occur.

The stagecoach has been a mainstay for some 60 or 70 years. The great change in transportation - the railroad - was just making its way through the county.

Baseball as well was just taking hold as a pastime.

At this time in the late 1800s, horse racing was very popular. The borough of Sussex had a racetrack where thousands would come to witness the best horses of local farmers compete as trotters.

Newton had a racetrack and the county fair began there.

This type of racing, harness racing, was “trotting,” utilizing a sulky with the driver on top hitched to the horse. The popularity in those halcyon days before television, radio or movies was a big deal in our county.

Goldsmith Maid was raised on the farm of John B. Decker outside of Deckertown in Sussex County. The name Deckertown was changed to Sussex Borough in 1902.

Goldsmith Maid was a Standardbred horse and was an offspring of Hambletonian. This is royal blood, as practically all North American Standardbred race horses can be traced to Hambletonian.

While the line began with one of the aristocratic Astor family bringing a horse to America, Goldsmith Maid’s life grew from a hat peddler’s horse with a goal of being a good farm colt.

Things would be different. Goldsmith Maid would not take to the plow nor be hitched to a cart. She vaulted Farmer Decker’s fence and ran through his neighbor’s field of corn. The ill-tempered “Decker’s worthless mare” was finally sold.

The horse was raced in Goshen, N.Y., in 1865, winning races and setting track records. Her career carried her across the nation as she was now owned by the famous harness racer and trainer Bud Doble.

She won so much money that The Maid had her own rail car. Children would be released from school to go see the train carrying Goldsmith Maid as it came through their town.

She died in Trenton at age 28 in 1885. The New York Times reported a national mourning period following her demise because of her popularity.

Goldsmith Maid, a very popular winner in a sport, at the time, that had a national following.

Goldsmith Maid, “Queen of the Trotters” from our own Sussex County.

Bill Truran, Sussex County Historian