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Weekly News August 8, 2011Description
Joseph F. Hiestand (1906-2005): The “News” of March 21, 2011, told of the prowess of Steve Crothers as an expert trapshooter. In my time, however, my idol was Joe Hiestand, a farmer from Hillsboro, Ohio, about 50 miles east of Cincinnati. Joe first came to Yorklyn in 1931, but my first remembrance was in 1933, when he won the “Marathon” with 497 x 500. About this time, he met and dated my cousin, Lorraine Marshall, who waited tables at the Yorklyn Gun Club when the ladies of the Kennett New Century Club were serving the meals. Although Joe was smitten, the relationship didn’t go far, as Lorraine married S. John Pyle in 1935. Joe married an Ohio girl in 1938, and they raised several children.
Early in 1935, Arthur Cuscaden of the Hercules Powder Company assembled a 5-man squad of expert trapshooters who shot together at the major tournaments for several years. Led by Cuscaden himself, #2 in the squad was 19-year-old Ned Lilly of Stanton, Michigan; #3 was Hale C. Jones of Alton, Illinois; #4 was Joe Hiestand; and #5 was Bill Eldred of Cincinnati, a former minor league catcher in the Reds’ farm system. When the squad arrived at Yorklyn for the big August tournament, Hiestand stood out as the “Marathon” got under way, when the bulletin board showed he had broken the first 100, then 200, then 300 straight. As nearly everyone on the grounds watched, he passed the 400 mark, then 450, without a miss. On his nineteenth 25-target event, target #467, a slight left angle from #2 position, got away, and he had to settle for 499 to tie the mark made by Steve Crothers in 1931. Either that day or the next, however, the 5-man squad broke the record set in 1916 of 497 x 500, when the five of them missed only 2 targets for 498 (two in the squad broke 99, three broke 100 straight). This same squad topped their 1935 record the following year at Yorklyn, when they broke 499.
Joe Hiestand is best known in trapshooting circles for the performance he put on at the 1938 Grand American tournament at Vandalia, Ohio. That summer Fred Tomlin of Glassboro, New Jersey, who shot for the Remington Arms Company, had finished shooting the program at Yorklyn with 400 straight, giving him a run of 702 straight, unfinished, and breaking a record made by Boyd Duncan of Tennessee in 1921 (500 plus), and Tomlin planned to add to this record at the Grand American two weeks later. Unfortunately he broke only 12 more, and his long run was finished at 714. The record stood for one day. Hiestand, who had broken the last 66 at Yorklyn, began shooting at Vandalia during the “Preliminary Days” and had broken 300 straight (366 unfinished) when Tomlin’s record was complete on the first day of the regular program. Joe added 200 more that day for 566, and in the second hundred the following day, he passed the 714 mark and finished with 766 unfinished. On the last day of 16-yard shooting, with everyone on the grounds watching, he clocked off another 200 to finish with 966 unfinished, having broken 900 straight at Vandalia! His official run ended about 6 weeks later at Carmel, Indiana, when he finally missed after breaking 1179 straight, for a record that lasted at least 25 years. When Joe won the “Marshall Marathon” in 1947, it was his fifth win of that event to tie him with Steve Crothers.
In 1976, long after I had stopped shooting, I called on Joe and his wife at their home in Hillsboro, and we had dinner together and swapped trapshooting stories. At that time Joe was a member of the Ohio State Legislature. A conservative Republican, his district was gerrymandered in such a way that it seemed to include one-tenth of rural Ohio, with no cities, and he couldn’t lose! Joe liked wagers and challenges, and he had overwhelming confidence. Once at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, he bet Jimmy Robinson of Sports Afield Magazine, that he could break 200 straight using 4 different guns (50 targets with each gun). The wager was accepted, and Jimmy lost. One rainy morning at Yorklyn about 1948, while everyone was waiting for the weather to break so shooting could start, Joe went around taking bets that he could break 200 straight that day. Arthur Cuscaden, who probably knew he would lose, took him up on the bet, and, indeed, Arthur did lose. Before he stopped shooting, he had broken 200 straight something like 60 times in his career. When he died in 2005, Joe Hiestand was a few days short of his 99th birthday.
Work Nights: During last week at Auburn Heights, Steve Bryce and Susan visited the merchants of Hockessin with the Model 76, doing promotional work for F.A.H.P. and our August events. Steve finalized the 76 and supplies for his trip to the Eastern Steam Car Tour at Gorham, New Hampshire; he and his wife, Ann, left early Saturday morning for the tour and met Kelly Williams near Somerville, New Jersey, wherefrom they traveled together. Art Wallace and Bob Jordan continued sanding and sealing the new sign for in front of the mansion. Mac Taylor worked on the electric trains in the museum, making electrical upgrades to the track and needed repairs to some of the rolling stock. Ted Kamen progressed on the Model 607 frame, sanding and applying another coat of paint. Emil Christofano, with help from Jeff Pollack and Tim Ward, mounted another tire onto one of the front wheels of the Rauch & Lang and attached the brake drums to the rear wheels. On Tuesday, Tom Marshall, Dave Leon and Ted Kamen began reinstalling the engine into the Model 87, and Jim Personti and Jeff Fallows got the Model 87’s engine hooked up on Thursday. Tom is still working on minor adjustments. Jim took the 1937 Packard to his workplace (the old Hercules Experimental Station) for a special day on Thursday.
Ice Cream Social Report: We held our final Ice Cream Social of the Summer last Saturday evening, and although the forecast mentioned rain, we remained dry at Auburn Heights (except for an occasional drop here and there) and welcomed 130 happy visitors, who enjoyed the trains, Mountain Wagon, mansion, and of course -- Woodside Farm ice cream!
