Racing Horseshoes

Wallace W. Owen

Wallace W. Owen was born in 1866 at Iron Ridge, Dodge Co., WI; he died at Watertown, WI in 1932.

Wallace began creating his exhibit of race horse shoes some time around 1892.  The Montevideo MN Leader tells about Mr. Owen creating a unique horseshoe which he proposes sending to the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.  Mr. Owen was a farrier in Montevideo during those years and later he located in Watertown WI.  A picture taken in the office of his shop in Watertown shows a calendar dated 1912 which is hanging along side this horseshoe exhibit.

Mr. Owen retired as a farrier in 1913 to go on the road as a salesman for the Neverslip Works of New Brunswick, N. J. calling on horseshoers, blacksmiths, hardware dealers, selling horseshoes, calks, and nails and other tools and equipment of the trade.  Mr. Owen retired in 1927

Wallace Owen's collection of race horse horseshoes can still be seen in the Carriage House, on the grounds of the Galloway House and Village.