Star Pointer

The man in the sulky at Readville was not a Tennessean. David McClary, a trainer born in London, Ontario, drove Star Pointer on August 28, 1897, to a mile in 1:59 1/4, the first harness horse to break two minutes. Henry Pointer of Spring Hill had bred the pacer, a big, clumsy-gaited horse until McClary's patient work. By then he belonged to James Murphy of Chicago, who wept when the horse sold for $15,000 at Madison Square Garden in 1898. Dan Patch lowered the record in 1903, and Star Pointer died in 1910.

What the plaque says

Star Pointer Foaled 1889, in the barn 200 yards west, he was the son of Brown Hal and Sweepstakes. His owner was Capt. Henry P. Pointer, who also bred Hal Pointer. Pacing at Readville (Boston), Mass., on Aug. 28, 1897, he became the first harness horse to go a mile in less than two minutes. His time was 1:59 1/4, his first trainer was the famed Edward F. Geers.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnton — 9.9 mi
  The McGavock farm in Franklin, worked by 44 enslaved people in 1860, that became the largest field hospital of the Battle of Franklin.
• The Mink Slide and East 8th Street — 13 mi
  Columbia's Black business and church district south of the courthouse square, where on the night of February 25, 1946 a white mob gathered and Black veterans stood guard.
• James K. Polk Home and Museum — 13 mi
  The 1816 brick house in Columbia where Polk practiced law and campaigned for the legislature, now a museum that also tells of the people the Polk family enslaved.
• Henry Horton State Park — 18 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.

More markers nearby

• William Banks Caperton — 1.2 mi
• Ewell Farm — 1.4 mi
• Confederate Attacks at Spring Hill — 2.2 mi
• Battle of Thompson's Station, March 5, 1863 — 2.4 mi