my great grandpa

my dad came down to visit sunday and told me about some of the family past. my great grandpa Arthur S. Tompkins was a very cool man that i hope to meet in heaven one day. here is part of an article that is about my grandpa:

Arthur S. Tompkins, or Judge Tompkins, who served on the Supreme Court from 1909 through 1935 and was also a member of Congress, was best known for competing in matinee races conducted on Goshen’s half-mile track in New York. He had a long standing racing rivalry with Judge A.H.F. Seeger and their races were often billed as the ‘Battle of the Judges’. Their great rivalry began in 1912 and lasted for over a quarter of a century until the death of Judge Tompkins in 1938. Season after season, Tompkins with one horse or another returned to the contest. Sometimes, he won, more often not. The engagements were extended by request to other matinee tracks in Orange County, NY, and elsewhere, then to county fairs. Sometimes, the embattled judges raced for a bull calf, a heifer, or a sheep. With the decline of matinee racing after the first World War there was a tapering off of hostilities between the judges, but in 1930, “The Judges Trotting Classic for the Ninth Judicial District” was instituted as an annual event and the battle of the judges resumed until the death of Judge Tompkins ended one of the greatest harness racing rivalries in the history of the sport.