Popular Laconia Sled Dog Races – Winter Sports In 1934
PHOTO: Leonhard Seppala the winner of the first Laconia race in 1929.
Because it was the Laconia Evening Citizen instead of a morning publication the Laconia newspaper was able to print the results of the first segment of the 1934 Sled Dog Derby on the same day it was held. It wasn’t to be compared to the Iditarod in Alaska, but in New Hampshire and beyond it was a big deal.
The weather report on Saturday predicted a fair night and not quite so cold and a Sunday with “increasing cloudiness probably followed by snow at night.” But it was cold!
One of the owners of a dog team, Major A.Erland Goyette, of Peterborough, verified the report that it was 40 degrees below zero at a mill in that town on the morning previous to the race. The “FLASH” leading front page news account announced that the winning team of the first day of the main race of the derby was that driven by Roger Haines of Ashland and owned by the Mosely Taylors of Monadnock Kennel.
The races in Laconia were started in 1929 and by 1934 had thus earned the main headline in the Citizen, a daily paper which cost the purchaser two cents a copy.
The Derby race course covered 24 miles “plus”, and Roger Haines drove his team over the route in one hour, forty-seven minutes and forty-five seconds, to post the best time and finish first among the twelve participating teams.
Yes, sled-dog racing is a team sport. Ed Mahoney, driving a McIlhenny team, finished second, almost three minutes behind Haines, and Godard was third, a mere six seconds behind Mahoney.
The course for the Derby has changed over the years, but in 1934 it was as follows:“ Start at Bank square on Main Street, South Main street to Province street, Coolbrouth Hill, Marsh Hill to Gilmanton corner, Belmont, Jamestown, to Lochmere, return by Horn’s place, to Mile Hill, Academy street, Court street to Bank square.”
Being a two day event, at the conclusion of the second day’s races two “handsome silver cups, the gifts of Mrs. William B. Carroll will be presented the winners…” Prizes of $50, $25, $15, and $10 were also to be given to winners.
When animals are involved in sport the owners and spectators often become the topic of conversations and news reporting, and the 1934 Laconia Sled Dog Derby was no exception. Out of the twelve teams competing only four of the drivers owned the team they were racing. The winner, Roger Haines, drove for the Moseley Taylors of Monadnock Kennels.
The Taylors arrived in Laconia by train the night before the race. Mrs. Taylor has also started racing dogs though she did not compete at Laconia. She did her first race at Meredith and was planning to compete in a race in Jaffrey. Their driver,Roger Haines of Ashland, began racing when he was an eight year old boy, and had previously competed in the Olympics with a seventh place finish and in Quebec two years before, also finishing seventh there. In the summer Haines drove speed boats for Fred Perkins on Squam Lake. Roger was 23 years old in 1934 and was said to look “years younger.” The dogs in his team were the lead dog, Beulah, and Tim, Jerry, Nick, Tah, and Chief.
The Tavern was a busy place the morning of the race as the Derby chairman Charlie Lyman met with owners and drivers who had arrived from various locations. Secretary Ed L. Lydiard, a member of the Laconia Sled Dog Club, had recently been homebound with a cold, but was one of those who arrived at the Tavern before the race. Mr. Lydiard had previously made a special train trip to Boston to persuade the Boston & Maine Railroad officials to add some additional cars to the Sunday morning 9 o’clock “round trip” train from Boston to Laconia.
Charles Lyman was called the “Barber Musher” and was said, according to the Citizen, to on occasion drive his dog team from his Belmont farm to his barbershop.
Ross Stanard of Lancaster was also one of the owners who drove his own team in the race. Ross was an undertaker who insisted on using that label instead of calling himself a funeral director or mortician, so could have been designated the “Undertaker Musher.” He had four dogs which were a cross between a Doberman Pinscher and an Irish Setter. Stanard attributed the unusual mix to “careless parents” though both of them were prize animals. The mother was a $2,000 prize setter named Lady Kocovo and the father was a prize Doberman Pinscher named Buddy. Stanard came to New Hampshire from Syracuse, New York, and was enjoying his hobbies of hunting and fishing in the Lancaster area.
J. H. McIlhenny of Philadelpha and the owner of the team that finished second in the Saturday race, arrived in Laconia on Friday evening. Mr. McIlhenny had two teams entered in the Derby. They were driven by Ed and Clem Mahoney. Also coming to town with the Philadelphia team owner was Leonhard Seppala of Fairbanks, Alaska, the winner of the first Laconia race in 1929, and famous for his part, along with his lead dog, Togo, in the 1925 effort (The Great Race of Mercy) which delivered the desperately needed diphtheria serum to Nome, Alaska. He served as a trainer for the McIlhenny dogs.
The February 10th issue of the Laconia Evening Citizen paid attention to some of the wives of the team owners. We have already mentioned the driving ambitions of Mrs.Taylor. She said that she would have a team of her own in Laconia in 1935. The paper noted that she arrived in “.. a navy blue out of doors costume…”
It was noted that Mrs. A. Erland Goyette did not accompany her husband to Laconia “…as she is not acclimated to northern winters.” Roland Bowles’ wife was mentioned as helping him start his dogs at the beginning of the race. Bowles was driving for Mrs. J. Milton Seeley of Wonolancet who didn’t attend the races because she was at the Westminster Kennel Show in New York.
Because of the pandemic there will be no Sled Dog championship races in Laconia in 2021, but we expect there will be in future years. There are certain local names that are recognizable by many as ones associated with dog racing in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.
I don’t know if many remember the name of Roger Haines or not, but if not, you might include him among the Lymans, Bryars, and Dick Moulton. Certainly there are other favorites of the dog racing fans who have often braved the wind and cold and prayed for plenty of snow in February.
There was no shortage of other winter events taking place in the Lakes Region in February of 1934, but the Sled Dog Derby seemed to take first place among them all.
