JOHNA.SEAVERNS
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AMERICAN STALLION REGISTER
INCLUDING ALL STALLIONS PKOMINF.NT IN THE BREEDING OF THE AMERICAN
ROADSTER, TROITER AND PACl'-R, FROM THE EARLIEST RECORDS TO I903.
AND THIS INCLUDES NEARLY ALL IMPORTED ENGLISH THOROUGHBREDS,
AND THEIR MORE DISTINGUISHED GET, TOGETHER WITH MANY OF
THE STALLIONS FROM WHICH THEY ARE DESCENDED; AND
ALL SIRES OF 2 :^0 TROTTERS OR 2 125 PACERS TO 1903.
ALSO THE RATING OF MORGAN BLOOD IN ALL OF
THESE STALLIONS SO FAR AS KNOWN
COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES
MANY PEDIGREES, HITHERTO INCORRECTLY RECORDED,
CORRECTED (IN ALL CASES THE EVIDENCE UPON
WHICH THIS IS DONE BEING GIVEN), AND
MANY MORE PEDIGREES EXTENDED
ILLUSTRATED
BY JOSEPH BATTELL
AUTHOR OF THE MORGAN HORSE AND REGISTER
" I did for the horse what I would neither do for earl or baron, doffed my hat; yes! I doffed my hat to the wondrous horse, the fast trotter, the best in mother England." — George Borrozu in "Lavejtgro."
VOLUME II.
AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
MIDDLEBURY, VT.
I9II.
Copyright, 191 1, by Joseph Battell.
PREFACE
THIS Volume of the American Stallion Register con^prises D, E, F, and G, together with a short Introduction followed by a History of the Early Importation of Horses, mainly thoroughbreds, into America. Succeed- ing this is a brief history of the New England States, with the more valuable families of horses bred in them, to be followed in Vol. HI., by a similar history of other States.
We have given the tracing of several quite prominent horses, especially that of Ethan Allen, very completely in the body of this volume ; in part because of the interest that connects directly with the horse himself, and in part because of the introduction of other noted horses bred in the same locality and referred to in the various interviews. The same will be true of the more prominent stallions that appear in other volumes.
We also give special prominence to the tracing of the dam of George Wilkes. We did the same in Vol. I., especially with American Star, Black Hawk, and Blue Bull. We shall give in Vol. III., a very complete history of Hambletonian, his dam by imported Bellfounder, and the stallions of Orange County, N. Y., at the time he was bre^. And we shall also give an unusually thorough history of the excellent Messenger horse, Bishop's Hamiltonian, and his sons the Judson, Andrus, and Harris' Hamiltonian, the last three born, and for the larger part of their lives, living in Vermont. This is followed by an equally thorough history of the celebrated stallion Henry Clay, from which the Clay family of trotters and roadsters are descended.
Under Engineer, we give a very interesting account of the early life of Lady Suffolk, obtained by interviews with her breeder, Mr. L. W. Lawrence, and his wife, and the veteran horseman, Carl Burr, Sr., all residents of Long Island. It is quite possible that the noted pacer Hero, 2 :2oJ^ (1853), foaled in Vermont, and taken to New York in 1851, was got by a great- grandson of Engineer, grandsire of Lady Suffolk. See Hero, Vol. III.
PREFACE
In the Introduction of this volume will be found also quite a complete account of the Government Morgan Horse Farm at Weybridge, Vt., followed by brief notice of the famous early trotters, Fanny Jenks, Flora Temple, Mac, Tacony, Edwin Forrest, Ripton, Americus, Lady Sutton, and the fastest Vermont roadster Dariel or Lady Wonder, 2 :ooJ4^ ; together with some interesting information regarding the Casol breed of horses, Vermont Boy (French Charley), and Columbus.
At the end of this volume will be found an index of Breeders and Owners of horses which appear in this book, succeeded by indexes of articles appearing in the Introduction of Vol. L, and also of this Volume, largely taken from the files of the earlier horse journals.
In the histories of the different States, we have been assisted by Judge Wm. H. Bliss of Middlebury, Vt.
The next volume, the material of which is entirely completed and the type setting about half done, will include the five letters, H, I, J, K, and L.
EXPLANATORY.
In stating pedigrees we generally set down whatever information we have, and stop ; not deeming it necessary to add explanatory words, such as "untraced," or "breeding unknown."
We also generally follow back the line at least two generations, and if known, often more, or until we strike the name of some well known horse. In the case of the following noted horses, however, we frequently give the name only, and whenever the name is used alone it refers to the horse men- tioned in this table :
|
American Star, |
means |
that |
son |
of |
Coburn's American Star, |
|
by Cock of the Rock, |
son |
of |
Sherman Morgan. |
||
|
Black Hawk, |
means |
that |
son |
of |
Sherman Morgan. |
|
Bulrush Morgan, |
" |
<( |
Justin Morgan. |
||
|
Daniel Lambert, |
" |
" |
Ethan Allen. |
||
|
Copperbottom, Electioneer, |
(( |
ee |
Justin Morgan. Hambletonian. |
||
|
Ethan Allen, |
" |
" |
Black Hawk. |
||
|
Fearnaught, General Knox, |
a |
(( |
Young Morrill. Vermont Hero. |
||
|
Golddust, George Wilkes, Gifford Morgan, " Green Mountain Morgan, Hambletonian, " |
(I |
Vermont Morgan. Hambletonian. Woodbury Morgan. Gifford Morgan. Abdallah. |
|||
|
Henry Clay, by Young Bashaw, son of Magna Charta, means that Morrill, " " |
imported son of |
Andrew Jackson, Grand Bashaw. Morgan Eagle. Jennison Colt. |
|||
|
Sherman Morgan, Woodbury Morgan, |
a |
a |
(I |
I |
Justin Morgan. |
Blue Bull, when used alone, means Wilson's Blue Bull.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece, . . . . _
United States Morcjan Horse Farm,
United States Morgan Horse Farim,
Sunset Rock, The Kattskills, New York,
Mt. Ethan Allen, Vermont, No. i.
New England County Fair, ...
Arabian Horses, . . _ _ _
DuROC, BY biported Diomed,
American Eclipse, by Duroc,
The Bowery, New York City,
General Gates, --...-
White Mountains, - - - - -
Ellen's Mountain, near the Summit,
Addison County, Vt., Scenes, . . _
Mountain Road, Vermont, - - - -
Country Life,
Near Bread Loaf Inn, • -
Randolph, Vt., - - - -
Old Oaken Bucket, Scituate, Mass.,
New England School Life,
New England School Life, . _ _
Washington County, Vermont, _ . .
Residence of Hon. Robbins Battell, Norfolk, Conn.,
1'ennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C,
Washington, D. C, from Department of Agriculture,
Daniel Lambert, - - -
Dictator,
Acropolis, Athens, _ . . .
Appian Way, Italy, -----
1
X
xi
xxiv
XXV
xlii xliii
Ixii
Ixiii
xc
xci
- cxviii
cxix
- cxlvi
- cxlvii
- clxxx
- clxxxi
ccx
ccxi
ccxxxii
ccxxxiii
- cclvi
- cclvii
- cccxi
I 40 41 82
- 83
ILLUSTRATIONS
Green Mountains, Vermont, . . . .
Oranges, Florida, ..---. Draco, ...----
GiFFORD Morgan Jr. (Munson's), - - - ■
Electioneer, . . - - -
California Scenes, - - . . .
Montreal, P. Q., -
Lake Champlain, ...--.
Ethan Allen, ..---.
Adirondacks and Lake Chajniplain,
Grand Isle County, and Lake Champlain, No. i.
Grand Isle County, and Lake Champlain, No. 2,
Draco, by Young Morrill and Tornado, by Fearnaught,
WiNOOSKi River, Vermont, - - - -
Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida,
Havana, Cuba, -----
Capitol, Ottawa, Canada, . . _
Winter Scenes, Canada, - - - -
Vermont, ------
Gambetta Wilkes, - - - - -
Lord Clinton, 2 :o8^, -
General Gates, - - . -
GENER.A.L Knox, . - - - -
Vermont Scenery, - . - .
Winter, Addison County, Vt., . - -
George Wilkes, - - - - -
Green Mountain Morgan, - - - -
GiFFORD Morgan, - . - - -
Ericsson, ------
Pelican Island, Florida, . - - -
GoDOLPHiN Arabian, . - - -
GiMCRACK, ------
OiTER River, Vermont, . _ - - Mount Ethan Allen, Vermont, No. 2, -
120 121 160 161
198 199
238
239 282 283 324 325 364 365 400 401 438 439 456 457 474 475 500
501 542 543 572 573 600 601 640 641 694 695
INTRODUCTION.
GOVERNMENT MORGAN HORSE FARM.
Editor of the The Horseman and Spirit of the Times :
Dear Sir : — Your letter of Nov. 12th received making inquires in regard to the Morgan Horse interests of Vermont, and especially information concern- ing the Government Morgan Horse Farm, and the progress made at that farm during the past year.
As I understand there was a very fine show of Morgan horses this year at the Vermont State Fair, mcluding some 250 from Vermont and other States, quite a number especially good ones from Pennsylvania. I did not myself get time to attend this Fair, but recently had the pleasure of driving to the Government Stock Farm at Weybridge in company with a Forestry representative of the Government. I had not visited the farm for something more than a year, and was most agreeably surprised in finding that much progress had been made during the present season in perfecting its general appearance and efficiency.
As we believe is reasonably well understood throughout the country, the Government came into possession of this farm, by gift, in the fall of 1906. The farm itself consists of about 500 acres, divided into meadow, pasture, and woodland in about equal proportions. The forest upon it is not only remarkably picturesque but also valuable, much of it being a hundred years old. The farm is also very handsomely situated on both sides of the old turnpike leading from Middlebury to Vergennes, with the Otter River bound- ing it on the east, from which it rises gradually at the west to a hill that commands one of the finest views in the State, including Middlebury with its college buildings and other public edifices, distant about two miles, also the Green Mountain Range to the east, and glimpses of the Adirondacks toward the west.
This farm formerly consisted of four farms, including three of the older farm houses of Vermont, two of one story and a half, and one of two stories. These have been thoroughly repaired, together with the barns connected with them ; the whole farm newly fenced with the best woven wire and cedar
xii INTRODUCTION
posts ; and the grounds connecting with the house occupied by the Super- intendent, handsomely graded, including very fine circular macadamized driveways.
There has also been constructed a complete system of water works, including an artesian well 488 feet deep, having a flow of fifty gallons per minute. Pipes have been laid to the different houses and barns as well as the pastures. The water is forced to the different points by an automatic pump, driven by electric power. There are also hydrants for fire protection. The various watering troughs and tubs are all made of grouting, and every- thing done in the most thorough manner.
After dinner we visited the stables where the stallions are kept and saw General Gates, whose picture I forward you. This is a fine horse and he impresses most strikingly his characteristics upon his stock, including both form and action.
Gen. Gates is full brother to Lord Clinton, trotting race record in 1894, 2 :o8^. At the time Lord Chnton's record was 2 :io^, I was in Kentucky and was told that he could be bought for ^3,000. He was then owned by a lumber dealer in Memphis, Tenn. Thinking I might buy him I went to Memphis ; the horse was at the time in training, and after examining him and being much pleased with him, I called upon his owner, whom I found at his office, and introducing myself said : " I have understood you wished to sell Lord Clinton at three thousand dollars, and I have called to say, if so, I will take him." He took from his pocket several letters, and handing me one said read that, and added, if it was not for that letter you would get the horse, which I took on a debt, for I do not want any race horse ; but I think now I will get more for him.
The letter was from Budd Doble stating that he had a party who wished to buy Lord Clinton and asking price.
Seeing that the horse would probably be sold I made inquiries about his sire and learned that he together with dam of Lord Clinton was owned at Little Rock, Ark. I immediately took the train for that point, saw the horses and bought them. The mare was quite old but the stallion looked exceed- ingly well, being well shaped, of good' size, and in good condition. They were shipped at once to Vermont, where the mare was bred to Denning Allen and the next year foaled Gen. Gates, a very promising colt when he came, in all respects, and especially so in his trotting action ; but he has never been given any chance whatever to show what he could do in that line.
In the next few years I exhibited Denning Allen at quite a number of fairs, including the World's Fair at Chicago, one of the principal New York City Fairs with large competition, and a Provincial Fair in Canada, besides several County Fairs ; in all of which he was awarded first premium.
He also received the very high compliment of being one of the eight horses selected by Max Lansberg, the noted sculptor, sent out by the German Government to take models of such American horses at the World's. Fair as he thought desirable for use in the Agricultural Schools of Germany.
GOVERNMENT MORGAN HORSE FARM xiii
Denning Allen was fully 15)^ hands with good weight, bred in Kentucky, got by Honest Allen, son of Ethan Allen : dam also bred in Kentucky and got by Ward's Flying Cloud (dam by Hackett Horse, son of Gifford Mor- gan), son of Black Hawk, by Sherman Morgan.
Gen. Gates we consider phenomenally well bred. Sire Denning Allen : dam Fanny Scott, bred by E. \< . Hughes, Todd, Ky. ; got by Revenue Jr., son of Revenue, by Imported Trustee ; these last two horses being especially noted among thoroughbreds. Revenue Jr., we understand from those who knew him in Kentucky, where he was taken from Virginia, was a horse of great beauty and substance. His dam was by Imported Glencoe. Revenue Jr. is recorded in Bruce's Thoroughbred Stud Book.
The second dam of Gen. Gates was said to have been by a Copper- bottom horse.
And this introduces an episode in pedigree hunting, that was not only extremely entertaining in its surroundings, but also yielded information of very valuable character that couldn't possibly be got to-day, and had never been before. We refer to our investigation into the early horse history of the Province of Quebec.
At this time we will only mention the information which we got of the original Copperbottom. The first knowledge which we had of this horse came from Kentucky, where he was taken from Canada in 1816. This we obtained from two advertisements in the Lexington (Ky.) Gazette, of June loth, 1816, and April 4th, 1832.
The first is :
" COPPERBOTTOM.
" The celebrated fast pacing Canadian stallion Copperbottom will stan-l the following season at the farm of Capt. Jowitt, about two miles from Lex- ington, on the Georgetown road. He is a full blooded Canadian pacer, imported by Capt. Jowitt ; is a beautiful copper sorrel, rising seven years old, and for bone, sinew, and performance, is equal to any horse in the United States.
William Allex.
May 8th, 1816."
The second is an advertisement of Fenwick's Copperbottom, by Brutus, son of Jowitt's Copperbottom. In which it is stated that Jowitt's Copper- bottom was from Bolton, Canada.
With this information to point the way we made two trips to Bolton, Can., which complemented by several letters from different parties that we had been referred to, enabled us to secure the whole history of Copperbottom. He was bred by David Blunt, then of Danville, Vt., foaled 1809 ; got by the original Justin Morgan horse, which was kept at the residence of David Goss, St. Johnsbury, Vt., close to the Danville Hne, 1805-6 and 1 808-9-10.
In 1811 Mr. Blunt moved to Bolton, Can., where for many years he kept a tavern. By correspondence and from members of Mr. Blunt's family, seen at Bolton, I learned that Mr. Blunt, when he went to Bolton from Danville, took a stallion and brood mare with him, afterwards selling the
xiv INTRODUCTION
stallion to parties who took him first to Montreal, and thence to a southern State. One of the witnesses whom I saw remembered the stallion when owned by Mr, Blunt, saying that he was a chestnut of fair size and a very- fine horse. Others told me that he was the best stallion that had ever been kept in that locality. Afterwards Mr. Blunt in 1823 bought the Hawkins Horse, another son of the original Morgan horse. This Hawkins Horse was foaled in 1806 or '07, the property of Mr. Melvin of St. Johnsbury, Vt. When three years old Mr. Melvin sold him to Olney Hawkins, a neighbor. He sold to his brother Stephen, who took the horse to Stanstead, Can.
Mr. Olney Hawkins advertised this horse in 181 7 in the Danville (Vt.) North Star. He was advertised in 1820 in the same paper to be kept at Stanstead and in 1823 was advertised in the Stanstead Journal, to be kept at Stanstead, where probably Mr. Blunt bought him. About 1828 he was purchased by David and Alonzo Wood of Shefford, P. Q., Can.
Mr. Wallace says, of Jowitt's Copperbottom :
" He was the original of his name, being perhaps the first horse of his type taken to the Blue Grass region. He left a race of very valuable descend- ants going all gaits."
And again in his magazine he says :
" We have been trying for years to find out something about Copper- bottom, old Pacing Pilot, or Blackburn's Davy Crockett, coming from Canada, as well as many others, but we have never succeeded in getting the slightest clue to the importations of any of them.
"There is another fact connected with the appearance of these pacers, whether Canadian or not, that has a very significant meaning. There is a strong family resemblance among them and the further you get away from out- side or modifying crosses, the stronger that resemblance appears"
To return to the Weybridge Farm ; there was also at the same barn the bay colt Red Oak, by Gen. Gates from an inbred Morgan mare by White River Morgan, a stallion owned by L. D. Ely, Rochester, N. Y., who has been breeding excellent Morgan stock for a number of years. Second and third dams of Red Oak were by a grandson and son of Black Hawk. Red Oak is a fine three-year-old colt of good size and very handsomely turned. He took the first premium at the Addison County Fair when a yearling, with twenty competitors. I am told by those who have seen him exercised on the Middlebury track that he shows fine trotting action.
I have myself a four-year-old gelding by Gen. Gates, dam by Motion, son of Daniel Lambert, that we believe here to be a world-beater, and I am searching now for one of the best trainers to give him a chance to prove this another season. Our horsemen think he is able to lower the race record of Lord Clinton, 2 :o8^.
There was also at these barns a very handsome yearling stallion by Gen. Gates : dam bred in Kentucky, got by Harrison Chief ; second dam by Cabell's Lexington.
GOVERN.}fKNT MORGAN JIORSE FARM xv
Harrison Chief was by Clark Chief, son of Mambrino Chief, and his dam by Joe Downing, son of Edwin Forrest, by One-eyed Kentucky Hunter. The dam of Clark Chief was by Downing's Iby Messenger, son of Harpinus, by Bishop's Hamiltonian ; second dam Mrs. Caudle (dam. of Ericsson [Mor- gan Chief], 2:305^), a Morgan mare sent 1830 by William J. Porter, then editor of The Spirit of the Times, to Henry Mangin, of Savannah, Ga., after whose death she was sold to I. C. Plant, of Macon, Ga. Mrs. Caudle trotted several races at Augusta Ga., in 1846, an account of which appeared in The Spirit of the Times.
Of Edwin Forrest, Hart Boswell, Lexington, Ky., breeder of Nancy Hanks, 2 104, in an interview, said :
" Edwin Forrest was a great horse, but had no opportunities. He was the right horse to breed to, for a show horse. He was a splendid looking horse, with a great deal of style. Bay, 151^ to 16 hands and could trot in three minutes. Stout enough. A model horse. One of the finest horses to look at ever brought to this country."
Cabell's Lexington was by Gist's Black Hawk (dam said to be by Copperbottom), son of Blood's Black Hawk, an exceedingly stylish son of the renowned Black Hawk, by Sherman Morgan. The following letter which we received from a noted Kentucky breeder, and which may be found in Vol. I., of the American Stallion Register, shows the favor with which he was regarded in Kentucky :
Tulv 20, 1886. Joseph Battell, Esq., •' '
Dear Sir : — Your inquiry for history and description of Blood's Black Hawk after he came to Kentucky, addressed to B. F. & A. Van Meter, is just received ; and here I would say that Mr. A. Van Meter removed to Texas eight or ten years since.
Blood's Black Hawk was obtained in the North (I think in Orange County, Vt.), by Mr. Blood of Lexington, Ky., and brought to that city and owned and stood by him in the city for several years. The horse was finally purchased by Maj. H. T. Dunkin, of Fayette County, Ky., who removed him two or three miles from the city and kept him till the horse died.
I will try to make the description of the horse plain but short.. He was a very rich brown color, two white ankles and a stripe in his face, scant 15 hands high, when standing quiet and out of harness, but when hitched up and driven, appeared full 16 hands high and was the finest show horse that I ever saw a line pulled on. Belle Sheridan was his exact color and was as fine a mare as he was a horse. They both received premiums at the fairs of Kentucky, until they could show no more.
Yours respectfully, p^_ p_ ^.^^ ^^^^^^^
The dam of the noted speed sire Hamlin's Almont Jr. was by Blood's Black Hawk.
There are besides these stallions, at the Government Farm, 21 brood mares, and quite a number of young stock. Twelve of these mares
xvi INTRODUCTION
were purchased in Vermont, and are descendants of Ethan Allen, the first stallion to trot under 2 130 j two were purchased in Kentucky, and are by- Harrison Chief, son of Clark Chief, by Marabrino Chief. The dam of one, by Cabell's Lexington, has already been mentioned. The dam of the other was by Coleman's Eureka, son of Young's Morgan, a grandson of Butler's Eureka, by Green Mountain Morgan.
This Butler's Eureka was purchased of Lorenzo Pratt of Woodstock, Vt., in the fall of 1854, by Dr. Russ Butler of Woodford County, Ky., who took the horse to his hoine, in Kentucky, and kept him there for several years. This horse has -often been erroneously credited to Long Island Black Hawk. Our information of the purchase of the horse, and his pedigree, is from the wife of Dr. Russ Butler, who copied it for us from her deceased husband's diary ; and also from Allen W. Thompson, still living at Woodstock, W., who remembers that the horse was sold to Dr. Butler and taken to Kentucky.
The other seven brood mares are very good size and well appearing mares, brought from the West this summer and bred to Gen. Gates. They were bred by the Government at the Experiment farm of the State Agri- cultural College, Fort Collins, Col., and are by Carmon, son of Carnagie, by Robert McGregor, son of Major Edsall, by Alexander's x\bdallah, son of Hambletonian. In the pedigree of Carmon are several excellent Morgan strains. First the dam of Robert ISIcGregor was by Seeley's American Star, an inbred great-grandson of Sherman Morgan by the original Morgan horse. A second strain is from Pilot Jr., that got the dam of Carnagie ; a third from Vermont Boy, supposed to be by a son of Billy Root by Sherman Morgan ; a fourth from Trojan (sire of the dam of Carmon), by Jackson's Flying Cloud, son of Black Hawk; and a fifth from Seth Warner (sire of second dam of Carmon), by Ethan Allen, son of Black Hawk. There is also a very strong probability that the dam of Major Edsall was a Morgan mare. She was one of a pair of mares taken from Vermont to New York City, and most pro- nouncedly, as we were told by one of her owTiers, resembled the Morgans.
This experiment, by the Government, of breeding these mares by Carmon to General Gates we think will be satisfactory. Always when we bred him to a mare of good size he has produced a well appearing and very serviceable animal.
In addition to the horses, the Government have purchased in Canada a fine flock of southdown sheep. These are kept on the farm formerly known as the " Cotton Farm," with a fine meadow for hay, and a very good pasture near by. The old Cotton house is very pleasantly situated upon a road which bounds the farm on the west, and is about half a mile west of and parallel to the highway on which the various horse barns and Superintendent's house are situated. Two barns are connected with the Cotton place, a small horse barn, and a quite commodius sheep barn 100 feet in length by 30 in width. All these buildings, and indeed all buildings on the different farms, are now in thorough repair, and handsomely painted. The third farm, known as the " Willard Farm," adjoins those already described on the north. Here is quite
GOVERNMENT MORGAN HORSE EARM xvii
a good sized old fashion two story farm house, with conifortal)le barn adjoin- ing. This house standing upon ground rising from the highway, gives an extensive view of the Green Mountains, which extend through the State north and south, and at this point are about six miles east. The Willard house is used as a boarding house for the help. It is about a quarter of a mile north of the superintendent's house upon the same highway. Directly north of this farm is a cross-road leading from the Middlebury and Vergennes turnpike to Weybridge Monument, where is located a Congregational Church, and a monument erected to the memory of Silas \Vright, who in his early life lived in this town.*
Secretary Wilson, although we do not think he has yet visited the farm, has guided the management of it with excellent results. Mr. Geo. M. Rommel and Mr. Bell of the Bureau of Animal Industry at Washington, under secretary Wilson, and Mr. Cassius M. Peck of the State Agricultural College, Burlington, Vt., have been active in purchasing the stock, and over- seeing the repairs.
Mr. W. ^. Hammond, a grandson of Edwin Hammond of Middlebury, Vt., formerly the most successful breeder of Merino sheep in the world, from the start has been the Superintendent, and to his efficient management of men is largely due the present excellent condition of the grounds and build- ings. There is still a little more to do to make them perfect, but not very much, and can be easily accomplished another year.
We should have mentioned perhaps before, that on the grounds near the Superintendent's house, is a neat flag-staff from which we have frequently noticed, — for it can be seen from Middlebury village, — a very handsome United States flag. This is a welcome to visitors, especially American citizens, all of whom can truthfully feel that they have an equal interest in the farm.
Visitors to the farm should stop at Middlebury, where are excellent hotel and livery accommodations. It is, too, in itself, a town worth visiting, with its very flourishing college and beautiful surrounding country.
Very truly yours, Joseph Battell.
— Erom the Christmas number of The Horseman and Spirit of the Times, Chicago, igiO.
* Silas Wright was born at Amherst, Mass, 1795; removed with his parents to Wey- bridge, Vt.; fitted for college in Addison County Grammar School; graduated at Middle- bury College, l8i5;.was member of the New York State Senate, 1823-27; Member of Congress, 1S27-29; Comptroller of State of New York, 1829-32; Member of United States Senate, 1832-44; Governor of New York, 1845-47; died at Canton, X. Y., Aug. 27, 1847.
INTR OD UCTION
PEDIGREE MANUFACTURING
AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE ENGINEERS.
IN Vol. I, page 125, American Trotting Register, appears: "Engineer, gr. h., foaled 18 — ; got by imported Messenger, 1562; dam unknown, but believed to have been well bred. For a number of years this horse was represented to have been imported into Canada by a British ofificer, and to have found his way, by surreptitious means into the State of New York, about 1814. His advertisements of that period conveyed this impression. Thomas Jackson and George Tappen owned the horse, and in after years the latter, who was an unusually candid man for one of his busi- ness and pursuits, gave David W. Jones of Cold Harbor, L. I., the true history of the horse. His former owner, in order to save him from the attachment of a creditor, ran him off from Pennsylvania, w^here he was bred, and sold him to Jackson and Tappan, at a very low price for so fine an animal ; subsequent investigation clearly established the fact that he was got by Messenger, probably in 1802, the year he stood at Cooper's Ferry. He was sixteen hands and an inch high, and of most perfect proportions. He stood two or three years about Jericho, and was taken to Suffolk Count)-."
Underneath this, same volume and page, is :
"Engineer 2d, gr. h., foaled about 1820; got by Engineer, son of Messenger, 1562 : dam a bay mare that ran well, by Plato, son of Mes- senger, 1562; grandam by Rainbow, son of imported Wildair, 2752; bred by Alexander Lewis, afterwards owned by Smith Burr, Suffolk County, L. I.; stood some seasons across the sound in Connecticut."
We add pedigree of Lady Suffolk, page 203, same volume, as being the probable end for which these pedigrees were manufactured :
" Lady Suffolk, gr. m., foaled 1S33 ; got by Engineer 2d : dam bred by John Floyd, Long Island, got by Don Quixote, son of imported JSIessenger, 1562; grandam by Rainbow, son of imported Wildair, 2752; bred by Leonard W. Lawrence, Smithstown, L. I. ; sold at weaning time to Charles Little for ^60.00 from whom Richard F. Blydenburgh bought her and sold her at four years old to David Bryan for $112.50, whose property she remained until she died, 1855. This pedigree may be taken as conclusive. For her wonderful performances see calendar."
Same volume, page 116, is :
"Don Quixote, br. h., foaled 180-, got by imported Messenger, 1562 : dam not known. Owned by Mr. Kissam, -L. L"
We now look to Vol. IL to see what alterations Mr. Wallace makes in his "conclusive"' pedigree, and are surprised to find that it still remams intact. But in Vol. HI, page 172, we find :
PEDIGREE MANUEACTURING xix
"Don Quixote, br. h., foaled iSi-, got by Potomac, son of imported Messenger: dam by imported Messenger. The late David \V. Jones of L. I. was present wlien this daughter was bred to Potomac. (Corrected from Vol. I.)"
It would occur to an ordinary compiler of pedigrees that if Mr. David W. Jones saw this mare bred to Potomac, and knew that she was a daughter of Messenger, he ought also to have known by whom she was owned when the transaction occurred ; and if he knew that Don Quixote was the result of that union, he must also have known the year when it took place.
Looking for Potomac in Vol. I. we find :
"Potomac (Young), b. h., foaled 1817; got by Duroc, 791: dam by Potomac, 1916, son of Messenger, 1562; grandam by Bashaw, 180. Stood at Fishkill, Dutchess County, N. Y., 1823."
In Mr. Wallace's American Stud Book, page 306, occurs : "191 6, Potomac (Van Rantz's), b.h., foaled 1796; got by imported Mes- senger, 1562: dam by imported Figure, 903; grandam by Bashaw, 180. Bred by Samuel Young of New York."
Whether a pedigree giving name of breeder with no available address is any better than one giving no name at all, would seem to be an open ques- tion. This is the only pedigree of this horse, Potomac, given in any of Mr. Wallace's registers.
In Vol. v., Trotting Register, page 330, Mr. Wallace has :
"Engineer (Burdick's), ch. h., foaled about 1819, got by Engineer, son of imported Messenger : dam not traced. Bred on Long Island and pur- chased there by Henry Nevvland when three years old and taken to Still- water, N. Y. ; passed through several hands to Nathan Burdick of Warrens- burg, N. Y., who kept him many years. He then gave him to his brother and he died at a great age in the neighborhood of Sandy Hill or Fort Miller, Washington County, N. Y."
In Vol. IX., page 376, of his Monthly, Mr. Wallace informs us that " it appears to be known by everybody about Warrensburg that the Isaiah Wilcox mare, that was traded off in 1839 to Nathaniel Clift and then to L. B. Adams, the breeder of Princess, was got by Nathan Burdick's Engineer ; and thus another direct and short hne to the fountain head is added to the inheritance of Happy Medium and his progeny."
Further on we quote the valuable lessons which are drawn from these alleged facts.
Possibly no better illustration could be given than this of the manner in which Mr. Wallace is accustomed to build up and bring into common accept- ance a wholly conjectural pedigree. This method is an invention of his own, but is as simple when understood as was Columbus' feat of making the egg stand on end. As he has no "copyright" on it, perhaps it will be law- ful to explain briefly how it works. Its foundation is a formula like this :
All horses that trot have Messenger blood. This horse trots ; therefore, this horse has Messenger blood. But as the country was known to be broad and trotters were seen to be springing up in all quarters, it became neces- sary to have an unlimited supply of Messenger stallions, and as the genuine
XX INTRODUCTION
ones were few, the next best way appeared to be to seize upon any stallion that happened to be well spoken of and lacked a pedigree, and supply him with the desired Messenger strains, making him either a son or a grandson usually, and then attribute all the trotters that sprung up within a day's journey of his locality, either directly or indirectly, to him. The plan has worked so charmingly that a large majority of all turf performers are sup- plied with the requisite Messenger strains to entitle them to trot, and thus, the theory provided the facts, and the facts in turn supported the theory.
Let us apply these principles to the case under consideration, which is a representative case, and see if it has not proceeded strictly in accordance with the formula.
We first call attention to the fact that, although some of these pedigrees are ancient, the compiling of them is a very modern work, the American Stud Book having been published in 1S67, and the first volume of the Trotting Register in 1S71. The whole vast field of horse breeding in America was unexplored and there were no records by which the honest explorer could be guided or the dishonest refuted. It was a noble field for an honest, careful and unpartisan worker, but furnished every facility for fraud by the dishonest and error by the careless or prejudiced operator. In this field appeared John H. Wallace.
We will judge of the value of this line of pedigrees by Mr. Wallace's own oft-reiterated standard, viz. : A pedigree is of no value unless the breeder is given. This rule is obviously sound, and indispensable, as it is clearly impossible for any man to know that an animal is by a given sire and not to know by whom such animal was bred. It will afford a test practically sure when the service books of the horse are accessible, whereby the state- ment of the alleged breeder can be proven or disproven. But it is as neces- sary for the public to know the address of the breeder as his name ; other- wise it is the statement of the editor of the register only on which reliance must be placed. "Bred by Gen. W. T. Withers, Lexington, Ky.," is a vastly different statement from "bred by John Smith, N. Y." Therefore, when we say the breeder is given, we mean that he is so given that any intelligent man can find where he was at the time of such breeding.
Beginning, then, with the pedigree of Lady Suffolk, which was compiled throughout after she had passed to an honorable grave, the most famous trotter of her day, we find that her breeder is given, and are thus reasonably assured that she was got by the horse called Engineer 2d. The name of the alleged breeder of her dam is given — "John Floyd, L. I.", but to find his abode you must search the length and breadth of Long Island. It may, therefore, be said that her dam was possibly, but not certainly, got by a horse called Don Quixote. The breeder of her second dam is not given, and the statement that she was got by Rainbow goes for nothing.
Admitting for sake of the argument, that the dam was by Don Quixote, we now have three-fourths of the blood of this famous mare accounted for; she was half Engineer 2d, and one-fourth Don Quixote j and if we can learn
PEDIGREE MANUFACTURING xxi
the blood of these horses we shall have the benefit of knowing where to go to get similar blood ; otherwise we shall know nothing about it, unless we can find other descendants of these same sires. Applying the test to Don Quixote, he is found nowhere ; he has "vanished in the viewless air." All that is alleged to be known of him is that he was "owned by Mr. Kissam, L. I." It is asserted that he was "by imp. Messenger," and also that he was "by Potomac, son of imp. Messenger," and it seems that a man, dead before this last statement was published, was present at the breeding. If Wallace is to be believed, this same Jones was commonly sent for as a witness when any mare of Messenger blood was to be bred to any near relation of her's, and he always attended ; but in this case, as Mr. Jones in his lifetime forgot to name the breeder or given place, time or circum- stance, or how he knew it was a daughter of Messenger or anything else whereby his alleged statement could be proved or disproved, it goes for nothing and Don Quixote must stand, as he is, unknown. The great apostle of Messengerism himself would be the first to scout such nonsense and lash the utterer of it, if it came from any other person and concerned a horse of any other blood.
We now come to Engineer 2d, sire of Lady Suffolk, and again apply the test. The name, not the residence, of his breeder is given ; and we will therefore say that he was probably, but not certainly got by a horse called Engineer. Breeder of dam not given, and we will, therefore under the rule, lay aside the "Plato, son of Messenger" pedigree that has been gractiously donated to this "bay mare that ran well," and under the rule stated her blood is also unknown.
Nothing is left now but the original Engineer, and the only pedigree given to him is the inevitable " got by imp. ]\Iessenger." Again we apply the test, and, as his breeder is wanting, his alleged pedigree also seems about to disappear — but hold, says the pedigree manufacturer ; there are circum- stances which account for his breeder's not being known, and they are suffi- cient to establish that he was a son of Messenger. It is fair to give these circumstances a candid examination ; possibly they might be such as to afford a reasonable presumption that his sire was the horse designated.
Allowing, then, that in those rare cases wherein the breeder is unavoid- ably lost sight of, other evidence must be resorted to, to afford a reasonable "said to be" to the horse's breeding; what evidence is most pertinent and satisfactory? Experience and reason alike tell us that contemporaneous advertisements of the horse by his owners, if they then claimed to have any knowledge of his pedigree and history, would afford the best evidence ; con- temporaneous declarations of his owners, fairly made and carefully proven the next ; and next to these, probably, the build, quality and characteristics of the horse might assist in forming some uncertain conjecture as to his blood. Among the things that would not be considered evidence should clearly be classed, in case of a fine animal, the declarations of those not con- nected with the horse, but interested in a given family, to the effect that
xxii INTRODUCTION
such excellent animal belonged to their special family. Assuming that these propositions are reasonable, and are generally accepted, we will apply them to Engineer.
We have not seen any advertisement of Engineer, but Mr. Wallace has. Was it of a character to show that the horse was a son of Messenger? Let us see what we can glean from what Mr. Wallace is graciously pleased to say it contains, for he deals out evidence in such kind and quantity as he thinks will not hurt his weaker constituents. In Volume I. of the Register he says :
"For a number of years this horse was represented to have been imported into Canada by a British ofificer, and to have found his way by surreptitious means into the State of New York, about 1S14. His advertise- ment of that period conveyed this impression."
This volume was published in 1S71. In the May number of his Monthly, 1876, Mr. Wallace, in an editorial, gives us another nibble of these advertisements, saying :
"The advertisement contains the following very unsatisfactory paragraph relating to his pedigree, viz. : 'The manner he came into this country is such that I cannot give an account of his pedigree, but his courage and activity show the purity of his blood which is better than the empty sound of a long pedigree.' It is here intimated that the horse was imported, and the story which Jackson (one of his owners) told was 'that he was brought from England to Canada by a British officer and by some surreptitious means found his way from Canada to Long Island.' "
And in an editorial in the Monthly for June, 1883, Mr. Wallace in an unguarded moment of honesty says :
"When we struck the advertisement of this horse for the year 1816 in the Long Island Star, and there found him represented as an imported horse, we were taken all aback."
This is all that he tells us about the advertisements. It was not, then, either from the breeder or from advertisements of the horse or the contem- poraneous declarations of his owners that Mr. Wallace learned that he was a son of Messenger. The breeder was unknown ; the owner said he was imported; and the advertisements so flatly contradicted the Messenger theory as to take the mortal mouth-piece of the dead Messenger "all aback." It would seem that he could not longer honestly hold to the Messenger theory, even though he should find that in build, character and quality Engineer was the exact counterpart of the old horse. But it appears that the two horses were as essentially unlike as two light gray horses of similar size could well be. Probably before John H. Wallace, Messenger had no more ardent worshiper than this same David W. Jones, of blessed memory ; a description of the horse by Mr. Jones might therefore be expected to be complimentary, and doubtless is so ; but he never ventures to give him any touch of elegance. In a description of him recorded on page 29, Vol. I., American Trotting Register, Mr. Jones says he had a large bony head, rather short neck, with windpipe and nostrils nearly twice as large as ordinary, low withers, shoulders somewhat upright, hocks and knees unusually large. We
PEDIGREE MANUEACTURING xxiii
submit that no great fineness, beauty or elegance went with that description. If we can judge of his appearance by the varying degrees of hideousness which mark his descendants through Mambrino at the present day, he surely was not a handsome horse.
On the other hand. Engineer is described in the first volume of the Register as a gray horse "sixteen hands and an inch high, and of the most perfect proportions." Again in Vol. I. of the Monthly, page 743, Mr. Wallace says he was "very elegant in his form, style and proportions," and that " his fine appearance was so captivating that he was a dangerous com- petitor" and the same David W. Jones says his buyers were "impressed with his fine appearance."
Considering Messenger's own plainness, it surely could not have been argued with a grave face that he must from similarity of form and character- istics have been the sire of this other animal so distinguished for fineness, elegance and beauty. It was not then from any such similarity that Mr. Wallace selected Messenger as the sire of Engineer,
And now, the ordinary ways of proving, or even guessing, out a pedigree having all failed, or tended to prove the contrary, probably no man in the United States except John H. Wallace would have shown such a degree of infatuation, not to say of idiocy, as to claim that such was the pedigree. Yet he does so, and practically without qualification, and shields himself behind the veriest "cock and bull " story out of the mouth of a man whom he himself first proves a liar and would-be taker of stolen goods, coming not direct to him, but stored up for half a century in the versatile and prolific brain of this same Jones before it is given to the public. The value of space forbids our copying this precious piece of lunacy in full. It may be found in Volume I., Wallace's Monthly, page 43, and consists of an extract of a letter dated February 28, 1870. It is to the effect that Thomas Jackson and George Tappan, owners and keepers of stallions in Long Island and in Orange and Dutchess Counties, purchased Engineer of a stranger who "rep- resented him as having been imported from England into Canada and ridden in the army by Gen. Brock, who in an engagement with our troops was shot and killed. The horse escaping into our lines, was secured by our soldiers and brought to the State of New York." Mr. Jones afterwards occasionally rendered Mr. Tappen a favor by preparing his horse bills. On one of these occasions Mr. Tappen made a statement to Mr. Jones, of which the latter says : " Some of the details have escaped me, but the essential facts are dis- tinctly recollected. The owner, with Engineer in his possession, was met at some public place, and the purchase was soon completed," and this state- ment then made " that he had become involved in debt, and that his credit- ors had begun a prosecution, with a view to levy on the horse, the only property he possessed, and he was determined not to lose it all." This was certainly enough to arouse their suspicion in regard to his history. He declared the horse was bred and raised in Pennsylvania, and that he was got by imported Messenger. Whether any further pedigree was given is not
xxiv INTRODUCTION
recollected. He was at this time, 1814, a horse considerably advanced in years and perfectly white. Mr. Tappen also told me that they had after- wards traced the horse, and was entirely satisfied of the former owner's veracity.
This was a great compliment to the former owner and one that he could not conscientiously have retunted; for the above statements, if correctly reported, establish but one fact, and that is that Mr. Tappen was a liar. It will be borne in mind, however, that this Jones, who, after so long a silence, finally lets this remarkable story escape him, long after the witnesses are all dead, was an enthusiastic admirer of Messenger and always largely interested in his stock. Yet it is upon this unaided story that Mr. Wallace (honest, they say, but prejudiced) makes, in the American Trotting Register, the unqualified statement that " subsequent investigation clearly established the fact that he was got by Messenger," and thus completed the rascally work of manufacturing this pedigree. —Judge IV. H. Bliss in Middlebury ( Vf.) Register, Dec. 18, 188 j.
FANNY JENKS.
THE GREAT LONG-DISTANCE TROTTER.
WE were very fortunate in securing from Dr. Norman D. Ross, of Mid- dlebury, Vt., an intelligent horseman, the following facts regarding the birth and early life of Fanny Jenks. Dr. Ross, said :
"Fanny Jenks was bred by a Mr. Hatch, a farmer, who sold to Mr. Jenks of Exchange Hotel, West Troy.
" Hatch bred three colts from same mare. I drove Fanny Jenks often when Jenks owned her ; bay, 900 pounds, two little white lines on feet. A beauty, mane and tail wavy, square as a brick. She had two colts at White- water, Wis., where she died. I drove out to see her. Gen. Dunham made a bet, won $20,000. He took her to Wisconsin.
" She was Morgan all over ; INlorgan mane and tail. A perfect picture of old Gifford, except he was chestnut and she bay. I lived at Cohoes and kept drug store. I think she was bred a httle north of Saratoga. Jenks said he bought her of Jerry Hatch, a farmer, who raised her. Owned her two years or more before she made a race."
Chester has: "Fanny Jenks, b. m. (3:053-5), George Ferguson, Centreville, L. I., Nov. 14, 1844, Troy, 30:56. Ten miles. Gen. Dunham, Albany, N. Y., May 5, 1845, 9 :42 :57. To beat 10 hours; one hundred and one miles."
It has been frequently suggested that Fanny Jenks was by Gifford Morgan. If so, she was doubtless bred the year that he was owned and kept near Fort Ann, N. Y., which was about 1836, and agrees with above dates. See Gifford Morgan in this volume.
Sunset Rock. Kattskill M.^untains.
Mount Ethan Allen, Washington and Chittenden Counties, Vermont, from the East, Nt
CASOL HORSES INTERVIEW WITH GEN. J. T. WILDER, U. S. A.
BRIG. GEN. G. T. WILDER, born in New Hampshire, now of Tennessee, and whom we met at Washington, D. C, said :
"I left my home in New Hampshire when a l)oy and went to New York State, in the vicinity of the Catskills, where I remained some years. Horse dealers of Kingston, N. Y,, and farmers, about 1843-5, used to go to Montreal and buy horses. Most all pacers, go like the wind, splendid travelers. Generally brown, some black and bay; very heavy manes and tails. A horse of splendid courage ; some of them stallions great big necks. Good looking horses, substantial sturdy stock, heavy bodied for height, strong limbed and wonderful courage. A generous stock of horses in war. I had some 3000 in my command ; served in the country and excellent forcavalrj', short backed, big in belly, strong boned, very high withers, narrow between fore legs, admirable saddle horses, running or walk. Narrow between legs, don't jolt you like a cat. The most enduring horses I ever saw for their size, save mustangs.
"I remember seeing Morgans in Ohio in 1S45-52. They were very fine trotters ; three-quarter Morgans. That Morgan stock were all generous horses, very energetic. I don't remember the French in Ohio or Indiana. One man went to Montreal and brought in 50 of them; buy low; sold for $100. Brought into Montreal in the fall. They looked quite a good deal like the Morgans; only have one idea in their head at once."
KERSAUL, KASAUL, OR CASOL HORSES.
QUITE a number of times in tracing pedigrees in southern Vermont, the name Kersaul, Kasaul, or Casol was introduced, which seemed to refer to horses of more or less pronounced cream color, with black list down back. From the first we were interested, but this interest was much enhanced when we learned that this blood entered into the pedigree of Flora Temple, one of the most enduring of all trotters, and the first to trot under 2 :2o; and possibly may also connect with the Blue Bulls.
In letter Dr. Warren B. Sargent, Pawlet, Vt., born 1803, a gentleman from whom we got much information of early Vermont horses, said :
" Sixty years or more since, I used to hear a stud horse talked about called Old Consol, or Consul. He was said to be a horse of uncommon energy and bottom. I think he was owned east of here, but by whom I do not know. I think he was an imported horse. If I ever saw him his color was cream."
The following letter from Dorson Eastman, another gentlemen from whom we got much valuable information of the horses in south-western Ver- mont, dated East Rupert, Vt., Aug. 21, 1889, throws more light upon this breed of horses.
Joseph Battell, Esq.,
Dear Sir: — Yours of June 27th came duly to hand. About fort)' years
xxvi INTRODUCTION
ago I saw a cream-colored stallion at a Washington County Fair held at Salem, N. Y. He was a magnificent looking animal while standing, but when he moved faster than a walk I lost interest in him. He was of massive build, as I viewed him then. I judged him to weigh 1300 pounds. He was free from marks, except his mane and tail, which were brown. He was said, by those apparently best acquainted with him, to be of the Casol breed, and an excellent stock getter but my own opinion is that he was of Hanoverian descent.
About thirty-seven or thirty-eight years ago Mr. Philetus Hulett brought to Pawlet a beautiful cream-colored mare. I think he bought her in Weston, Vt. I often used to see her on the road in harness, and every time I saw her my admiration increased ; which led me to inquire after her pedigree, for I thought there was a fortune in her. I contemplated buying her to breed from, and consulted the late James Biggart and Ephraim Jones, neighbors of said Hulett.
When I asked of what breed she was, they answered Casol. Further interrogations convinced me, — though they were positive in their opinions, — that their knowledge of the iDreed was hearsay, borrowed from others equally as ignorant as themselves.
The mare proved by her breeding all that I anticipated. There was another horse in Rupert, the very counterpart of the one aforesaid, except a size smaller. She was celebrated as a breeder of fine stock and was owned by Jonathan Ransom, at the time the Judson Hamiltonian was born. The exact year I cannot call to mind. It is my opinion that these horses had a common origin at some remote period of the past. They were of the same shade of color from their noses to their hoofs, except manes and tails being brown. Counting the Hulett mare for the first generation, we count three more generations of them, bearing the same color as the first. Those that own them speak very highly of them.
I am acquainted with two geldings of the third generation. They retain the color of their grandmother, but lack her finish. They rank No. i in the ''all powerful class." They are perfect farm horses — no great style in them when on the road, yet they are high-spirited, with great ambition.
There is a fine mare in this district that was bred in Weston, as I understand — a fair sample of the Hulett mare. I think she is of the same strain of blood. I think her a beauty. I wish you could see her.
Wishing you much success, I remain,
Yours truly, Dorson Eastman.
Daniel Kelly of Wheaton, 111., formerly of Rutland County, Vt., writes :
"The third dam of Vermont Chief, by Black Hawk, was bred by Barton Brown, Danby, Vt., foaled 181 6, got by Kersaul."
D. C. Linsley, author of " Morgan Horses," gives this third dam as by imported Yellow Bird.
From a grandson of Barton Brown, living on the old farm in Danby, we learned that the origin of the cream-colored stock in that section, was a cream-colored horse owned by a peddler who stopped over night with his grandfather about 181 5. This stallion was turned into a pasture over night, and got with a fine young mare of Mr. Brown's, part English, and begot a cream-colored filly from which this stock has sprung. The young man showed us in his stable a handsome cream-colored mare of this stock, which has ever
CASOL IlORSJiS xxvii
since been kept in the family. The peddler is thought to have come from Connecticut. His horse was the original Kersaul Horse, and old gentlemen in Danby and vicinity, including Dr. Sargent, thought the name came from that of the peddler. Dr. Sargent said the stock resembled the Morgans. E. Kelley, Clarendon, Vt., born about 1802, said :
*' Barton Brown of Pawlet raised his cream-colored mare from a Casol horse that came along, and from this mare quite a race of horses sprung. They were good horses and good size. Cole had one of the mares from Brown's old mare; his colts were all cream colored. Father bought the last colt of the Brown mare, which she had when very old. I came from Danby when twelve and this colt was five years old when we moved. It was sixty- eight years when father bought the colt, and Brown's mare was from twenty to twenty-five years when this colt was foaled. Father said the Casol or Kasaul horse was a large, square, chunked kind of a cream-colored horse. I think they called him imported. Brown came from Connecticut, and I think a man acquainted with him stopped with him a year or two and had this horse."
Amos Brown, Pawlet, Vt., in interview, 1890, said :
" My grandfather owned a fine gray mare. A peddler stopped over night with him, having a stallion which was turned into the lot ; got with the mare and she had a cream-colored filly. The peddler stayed but one night. Father remembered the peddler and his horse and has often told me about it. My father and uncle kept these cream-colored horses."
Silas Hulett, Rutland County, Vt., born 1S07, said (1890) :
"The Brown horses were ambitious kind of horses ; tough little fellows ; generally little smallish arm ; 900 to 1000 pounds ; they did not generally have a black list on back. There were a good many Morgans here fifty or sixty years ago."
Joshua Hulett, born 18 14, said :
"The Barton Brown horses were cream, not very large."
Mr. Bromley of Pawlet said :
"Mr. Train, a relative of the Browns, told me that the sire of the Brown mare came from Rhode Island or Connecticut."
. Dr. W. B. Sargent, Pawlet, further said :
"The peddler's horse that got the Brown mare was a little smart French horse, small, similar to the Morgan. On an average these Brown horses were not large. I got this information of stud from Barton Brown. The peddler came from Connecticut."
Dr. Albert Barrows of Newark, O., formerly of Dorset, Vt., in interview Oct. 12, 18S9, said :
"I owned old Gray Eagle bred in Kentucky, and his sire Red Eagle. Gray Eagle died mine. Daniel the Prophet I raised. He was by Red Eagle : dam Napoleon, a horse raised in Albany, of Maine blood. I own now a son of Woodford Mambrino, from a daughter of Red Eagle.
xxviii INTRODUCTION
"Leonard Hodges, Wallingford, Vt., brought at first a pair of Green Mountain stallions, to Newark. Later he brought another by Vermont Morgan, to Newark; later he brought three more Morgans to State of Ohio, and another to Perry County.
"The next man, by name of Pease, brought in a son of Black Hawk to Utica, Licking County, a black horse, fine manner and was called Pease's Black Hawk Morgan.
" Then a man named Bailey brought a Black Hawk Morgan, and took him to Granville, O., a big horse fine manner. Pease's Black Hawk got the dam of George A., 2 :2i^,
"A Casol horse, when I was at school at Granville 64 or 65 years ago (1824) was kept at Pawlet, Vt. Was a cream colored stallion, very attractive. I think, was called Casol, after a man who owned him. My father raised some 30 colts from Judson's Hamiltonian ; I tried to have him breed to the Casol horse but he did not.
" I went to Ohio in 1846, and there were quite a number of Morgan stallions about Dorset, Vt., before I left there. The Morgans were the speediest horses we had ; but we bred more to the Hamiltonians on account of size.
" Old Gurney was dark brown, regular Canadian pony, never saw him pace. Gurney bought wood for Geo. Smith, and Smith let him have care of a pair of Canadian ponies ; both stallions that he drove from Cleveland. He called them Canadian. He used every spring to bring down some Cana- dian ponies.
"Think Gurney about 13 hands, stout built, heavy mane and tail, weight about 800 or 900. He was bred to Bertrand, Sir Charles and Eclipse mares in that region, which accounts in a great measure for his getting speed. I never saw him pace. Got one pacer kept entire until four years old — got a few colts ; one of which beat 2 :30. Dam of the sire was by a son of Ameri- can Eclipse. Gurney left no sons to my knowledge that were kept older than four years.
" Smith is dead and Gurney is dead. I saw^ him the day that Smith brought him in. Think he bought in Canada or some one for him. He brought in two pairs of this same stamp of stud colts. Gurney owned the horse till he died. He used to drive him buying wool.
"I think the first Morgan I ever saw was Gifford Morgan ; he was driven at Arlington as early as 1830. Think Smith got Gurney across the lake.
"William Pierce bought one pair of these ponies.
" I knew James Wilson of Rushville well. He was all at sea about the origin of Blue Bull. I suggested to him that I knew a horse of that color and description, was bid off at auction at Cherry Valley, Newark Township, O., by Abraham Flary, at N. B. Hogg's auction, then of Newark, — a two year old colt that spring. It was right date for the Wilson's Blue Bull, so he and I both made.
"This colt was a very dark brown pacer. Flary had this same Geo. Smith take him to Cincinnati at five years old, and he said he sold him to a man from Kentucky.
" This colt was got by a son of Cheshire Morgan that was owned by Hogg.
"Cheshire Morgan was bought by Hogg near Walpole, N. H. Think he was a son of Gifford. Wilson believed this to be the same colt."
Whilst we were at Warrensburgh, N. Y. tracing the dam of Happy Medium, Mr. Hammond, a prominent citizen, suddenly remarked :
CASOL HORSES xxix
" The prettiest horse, the prettiest colored horse, dark cream with dark spots all over, I think the neatest horse all over I ever saw, white mane and tail, called Morgan Tiger, was from Rutland way, kept at Oranville, N. \. about 1850. Father bred two mares to him ; a thick set Morgan shajjcd horse, about 15-2 or 15-3 hands, 1050 pounds."
For Morgan Tiger, see American Morgan Register, Vol. II., page 241.
John Moore, Fleetwood Park, N. Y., born 1823, said :
" Kersaul was a chestnut or dun that stood west of Chenango Falls, a good many of them had a list on the back. They were all good trotters and road horses. We had two Highlanders, nearly a mouse color with list, straight hips. A. Cook, a lawyer in New York, owned die in 1841. Kersaul was a well-bred horse. I think English.
"Yellow Bird was in Sherburne, Chenango County ; had black list : a good business horse. He was a dun color, with strip on his back. I cannot tell where he went. They were good horses, but a little ugly. We had a pair of them and they were matched close, but rather too high strung to suit me."
Dr. McCarthy, a very intelligent horseman, born in New York State about 1826, moving to Wisconsin 1S36, and to Tennessee 1876, and whom we met in Tennessee, said :
"Copperbottom used to be the stock horse of the country as far as pacers were concerned. Came here early. Went to Wisconsin 1836.
"A breed of horses called Indian pony breed sprang from French horses introduced during the French war at time the French came in at Green Bay, Wis."
"Dominix that went to California, was owned by Carson Newman, Fon du Lac, Wis. I handled him. He bought him of parties at Green Bay; of the Six-Penny breed, 15 hands, dapple gray, full mane and tail. Wonderful horse ; fully developed in quarters^ very strong at all points, show- ing great substance. A grand piece of machinery; pacer, about 1852.
"The Six-Penny, when I went there, were crossed up from stallions brought in during the French war, and bred to Indian ponies. Many of this breed could pace faster than any horse could run.
"The French horse is not a pacer. There were in the family a distinct race of pacers, every one of them. The horses they crossed to Indian ponies were not pacers. Color generally chestnut or red roan (the Six Penny). Indian ponies from 13-2 to 14 hands; 700 to 800 pounds. All small ; some of beautiful form ; have seen some perfect horses.
" I have seen the Mustang horses twice in California. They are larger, will average 14 to 14^ hands, occasionally one 15 hands. I am 65.
"The Messenger stock recognized good in New York. Another breed of horses called Magnum Bonum, and the Consol breed of horses, a class of horses that had a black list running down their back. They were considered of the very best family of horses when I was a boy, and I have often heard my father speak of them. I think it was spelled Consall. ]\lost of them a clay bank, I saw plenty of them.. Owned in West Martinsburgh. Consall stallion, I think, owned by some one of the Curtis fam.ily; 15-3 hands ; very blocky horse, that was the character of the whole family whenever you saw them ; with black list, good style, not a coarse horse, all good shape, well cut in throat latch, with nice ear set well, fine eyes well set, showmg a good deal of breeding. I think the original Consall was an imported horse.
XXX INTR OD UCTION
He indicated too much breeding for the family of Morgans. If from Ver- mont they must have been Morgans. Many Morgans show uniformly flashy, powerful built horses, very large arm, not like the Magnum Bonums; they more rangy and coarser bone.
" Magnum Bonum not like Messenger ; coarser boned than Messenger; Messenger all style; Magnum Bonum not so much; never seen any horses out style, some of the present blood of Messenger horses. Recollect Gen. Ruggles' Messenger. Never saw horse with more style; gray; i6 hands; full iioo pounds; big enough for a stallion.
"Ruggles lived in West Martinsburgh, Lewis County, N. Y. I think he shipped that horse to Fon du Lac, Wis. ; took: him to Wisconsin as late as 1850."
Another gentleman present said: "In 1857 I lived near Fon du Lac, Wis., and Black Hawks were all the rage there."
The Doctor, continuing, said: "The Ruggles Horse was the first Mes- senger horse taken to Wisconsin at this point. ISIy father owned a Mes- senger stallion, steel gray, perfect picture. A few Alorgan horses had come into New York before I left, 1836.
"The Messenger horse in New York not coarse; as fine as Hamble- tonian horses of today, with more thoroughbred. They showed life, sparkle and spirit when lead out, seemed to know they were handsome.
"Consall horse's eye stuck out just as a thoroughbred, always full over the eye. Could stand behind him and shoot his eye out, a feature of the thoroughbred. Another horse was brought to Wisconsin from Canada. A very remarkable horse, a stallion, pacer, from Three Rivers. ]\Iy brother and self owned him at one time ; called Jack ; very blocky, red roan in the type of Morgans. Up headed, very stylish ; a horse of the greatest of endurance; about 15^4 hands; strong 1050 pounds; a most powerful horse to pull ; very rapid pacer.
"Sol. Pier brought the horse and a mare, not a French mare, but Canadian, I think ; brought in about 1847-8. We owned him about 1854. Mr. Pier had him. He kept him several seasons. We gave him to Fisher (Andrew) in 1 85 5. I was married in 185-; brought in before; left good stock, part pacers. He was about eight or ten years old when he was brought in from Three Rivers, where he paced a race.
"The Black Hawk Morgan was the first horse that could trot in three minutes in Wisconsin.
" Dandy Jack, got by Black Hawk Tiger, son of Sherman Black Hawk, died 1876", then 25 years old. Bred in Stanstead, Canada West, by Bigelow : dam a Morrill, bay, 15}^ hands, looked larger. Bought of Miller, Colerain, Mass.; brought to Hawkins County, Tenn., 1869. I paid $1000 for him. Stock distributed here quite a good deal; best son, chestnut, taken to Atlanta, Ga. Used as a driver by Mr. Price. Foaled 1871. Went to Atlanta 1878.
" I am satisfied the Six-Penny horse was introduced into Wisconsin about 1765. Too much finish, I think, for common running blood ; a great deal of breeding in them ; Kentucky pacer slimmer and taller, not so blocky. The Six-Penny red roan or chestnut, some gray, some bay, not a single black. The Melendy horse was owned in Tennessee when I came in 1876, a Morgan. [We suppose this to have been Morgan Bulrush, got by Bulrush Morgan, son of the original Morgan horse ; bred by Jack Melendy, Benning- ton County, Vt.] King, a Frenchman, brought a trotter to Fon du Lac from Montreal, light bay, white marks. I left Wisconsin in 1855. Thor-
CASOL HORSES xxxi
oughbred stock in Tennessee when I came here seventeen years ago, except the Melendy horse, i6 hands, iioo pounds.
"The Copperbottoms were (piite compact horses, remarkable for their staying quahties. A blocky horse, 151^ hands, rather fine; shoulders and neck of the finest. Morgans naturally up-headed, prompt. Copperbottom more straight neck. Tom Hal like Copperbottom, blocky ; Hal Pointer an exception, a big styled horse. Hobkirk's Sir Henry had a mean disposition. The Copperbottoms are remarkably prepotent."
When visiting central New York in spring of 1889, especially to look up the pedigree of Flora Temple and that of Pilot, we learned that a son of Geo. W. W. Loomis of Sangerfield, who owned the sire of Flora Temple at the time she was bred, was living at Higginsville, N. Y., some 60 miles dis- tant, and visited him. Mr. Loomis said :
" One-eyed Kentucky Hunter was bred by Geo. W. W. Loomis, Sanger- field, N. Y. j and got by old Kentucky Hunter called the Sherrill Horse, of New Hartford, N. Y., dam also bred by my father, sire, I think, a Messenger horse owned west of Hamilton village. The Casol breed of horses were here, her dam [2d dam of Kentucky Hunter] that breed. I think they came from Vermont ; brought here 60 years ago. Rodney Ackley, Hamilton, would know [Mr. Loomis at first thought the dam Casol, but changed it as above].
" Bogus was got by Old Lame Bogus, what we used to call the Ellis Bogus Horse ; bred by Geo. W. W. Loomis of Sangerfield, from a Casol mare. It was another Casol mare that was 2d dam of One-eyed Hunter. We sold the grandam of One-eyed Hunter to Horace Fox of Morrisville, a great big fine mare, nicest parade mare you ever saw, 16 hands, 1150 pounds, dun with black holsters. The dam of One-eyed Hunter was bay with star, 1050 pounds, 15^ hands, a fine built chunked mare.
" The dam of Bogus was dun, black legs, the one we let Fox have. This mare was foaled from a mare that father drove cattle with. I was about 10 years old, now 69. I think I was about 20 when Bogus was foaled. Bogus extra good horse for stock. Hamilton and Eaton sold a pair from him for $800. We took Bogus to Canada near Belleville before the war. He was dapple chestnut with white stripe in face, two white hind and one white fore foot, i6]'2 hands, 1200 pounds. We called him the nicest appearing horse you ever saw. Hind parts not so good as front, little peaked. Very fine stepper, I think the finest appearing horse ever brought out of a barn, so everybody said ; feet right under him. The Tippoo horse was by the Scott horse at Bridgwater ; got very good colts ; dam Messenger. This within 30 years ; sold to Stephen Cotton •; to a Mr. Mills, and went to Oneida. He got one colt that sold at 3 years for $800.
" We had a Black Hawk from Canada, a very good horse, black, no white, 16-2, 1200 pounds, seven years old when we bought him; kept him five years ; he was burned up.
"The first Messenger I remember was a big bay, when I was a little boy, at Hubbard's Corners, Hamilton, N. Y.
" The ]\Iorgan horses and Kentucky Hunters were very much alike. The ]\Iorgan horses a little more chunked, thicker set.
" The Bogus horses had great durability j nothing could beat them ; good to work or for the road."
We have received the following letter from Mr. Hiram Ackley, Hamil- ton, N. Y. :
xxxii INTRODUCTION
"There was a Casaul horse here that was brought from Vermont. He was a dun color with black stripe on his back. I cannot tell where he went. They were good horses, a little ugly. We had a pair of them and they were matched close, but rather too high strung to suit me."
For further suggestion regarding the Casol horses in New York State at about this time, see Bolivar (Pintler's) Vol. I., p. 342, of this work.
FLORA TEMPLE.
THIS Casol breed of horses, which are introduced several times in the pre- ceding interviews, seem to have been quite a remarkable breed in their day and to have originated in Vermont. As we have mentioned, the dam of Bogus, sire of Flora Temple, was by a Casol horse, which, the son of the breeder, who remembered the horses well, says was by a Casol horse that was brought from Vermont.
Flora Temple has to her credit 106 recorded races, at the time more than any other trotter. She was, too, the first to trot below 2 :20. Her pedigree is given correctly in the "Breeders' Stud Book" by J. H. Sanders, but we have never seen it so anywhere else. She is generally said to be by Bogus Hunter, son of Kentucky Hunter ; but there never was a horse called Bogus Hunter, nor any called Bogus, got by any horse named Kentucky Hunter. One-eyed Kentucky Hunter, and Bogus, by Lame Bogus, were bred by G. W. W. Loomis, Sangerfield, Oneida County, N. Y., and both owned by the Loomises when Flora was bred. The following letter received by us from her breeder Samuel Welch, whom we found to be universally regarded as an intelligent and very truthful man, is decisive as to which horse got Flora. Mr. Welch allows himself to use the name "Bogus Hunter" for Bogus, which we and others used in writing to him, though in closing the letter he says the horse's name was Bogus, and this is what we found it was when later we visited Oneida County, and interviewed the son of his breeder. The name of the horse was Bogus, after his sire, and he was known as Loomis' Bogus :
Reedsburg, Wis., March 18, 1887.
Dear Sir : — Yours making further inquiries in relation to Flora Temple is at hand. Cannot say that Bogus Hunter was any relation to One-eyed Kentucky Hunter. They did not look alike. One-eyed Hunter was a small chestnut horse, and Bogus Hunter was a large sorrel horse with three white feet and a white stripe in his face. Both horses were there when I bred the mare. I bred her to Bogus Hunter. The mare was not taken to the horse but once and I took her myself and saw her covered.
I cannot tell whether the two horses were in any way related or not. I don't know. The horses did not look at all alike. Bogus Hunter was a large, rangy horse, high-headed. One-eyed Hunter was not so large and the mare was small ; would weigh only eight or nine hundred ; so I bred to the largest horse. Bogus is what they called the horse I bred the mare to. I knew the horse for a number of years. I only lived a mile and a half from where the horse was kept and knew him well.
Respectfully yours, Samuel Welch.
FLORA TEMPLE
LETTER FROM THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES, FEB. i8, 1857, CONCERNING FLORA TEMPLE AND HER BREEDING:
Dear Sir : — I notice with pleasure, in several of the recent issues of your paper, a flattering sketch of the life and exploits of "Flora Temple." Having once been the owner of Flora's dam, and having therefore been quite familiar with the various changes that have attended her career, I have thought a brief notice of her early history might not be uninteresting to your readers.
Madame Temple, the dam of Flora, was foaled the property of Elisha Peck, Esq., of Waterville, Oneida County, N. Y., in the spring of 1840. Her dam was a small but fleet bay mare. Madame Temple was by a spotted Ara- bian stallion, owned by Horace Terry, Esq.
Mr. Peck disposed of Madame Temple when four months old for a mere trifle, to William Johnson, Esq., of the same place, who always had a keen eye for good points in a horse. This latter gentleman kept her till she was three years old, when he sold her to Sam Welch.
In the month of May, 1845, Mr. Welch transferred "Madame," and her colt afterwards Flora Temple, then five weeks old, to Archer Hughes of the same place. The colt was the picture of her dam in all respects but nothing extraordinary was predicted of her. To all appearances, she was simply a very pretty and rather promising colt. Sometime in the fall after she was foaled, Mr. Hughes sold her to Nathan Tracy of Hamilton, Madison County, N. Y., for the insignificant sum of $13. Mr. Tracy, it seems, had not the slightest idea of her really extraordinary parts, for after keeping her about two years and a half, he in turn, disposed of her to Mr. Congden of Smyrna, Chenango County, N. Y. How long she was the property of ]\Ir. Congden is not precisely known. He did not however understand her worth, for on the first good opportunity he sold her to Messrs. Richardson and Kellogg of Eaton, Madison County, N. Y. These gentlemen kept a livery and on their property she was kept at pretty hard service as a livery horse. It was here, however, that she began for the first time to develop those wonderful powers of speed and bottom which have since rendered her so famous. As a horse in the livery, she speedily became a favorite with the public and was uni- versally regarded as a remarkably free and sharp traveler. But she was not considered a first rate animal and no predictions were made concerning her at all, commensurate with the triumphs she has since achieved. Still Mr. Richardson considered her altogether too brave and spirited an animal to be ingloriously worn out as a livery horse, accordingly he took her with a drove of cattle to Washington Hollow, Dutchess County, N. Y., and without any conception of her matchless speed and bottom, he relinquished all right and title to her for ^175. From that time to the present Flora has been the heroine of a brilliant history, which has been so capitally told in "Porter's' Spirit of the Times," that I shall not undertake to enlarge upon it.
The sire of Madame Temple was a spotted Arabian horse brought from Dutchess County, N. Y., to Waterville, N. Y., by Horace Terry, Esq., and kept at that place a number of years. He was a remarkably strong, restless, fast trotting horse ; and is said to have been got by a full-blood Arabian stallion on Long Island. He was a great favorite in this section and his stock, for general use, possessed probably more excellent qualities than that of any other horse ever known in this vicinity ; they were uniformly strong with race speed and bottom.
The general high repute in which his stock was held here may be judged
xxxiv INTRODUCTION
from the fact that George W. Crowingshield of Boston owned a pacing gray mare of his get, so fast and enduring that he sold her for $1,500.
Madame Temple has always been regarded as a remarkable roadster. Mr. Hughes sold her in 1846 to J. B. Cleveland of Waterville, who soon parted with her to N. W. Moon of the same place, but now of Osage, la. By him she was kept as a horse of all work for several years, from whom she was purchased by James M. Tower in the Spring of 1854, and by him subse- quently sold to H.^L. Barker of Clinton, N. Y., in January, 1855, who now owns her.
Flora was her first colt. Her second a horse colt was killed by lightning when three months old„ Her third a horse colt was foaled in the spring of 1855 and purchased by J. W. Taylor of East Bloomfield, N. Y., for R. A. Alexander of Kentucky for $500. This colt was got by H. L. Barker's Edwin Forrest (a Kentucky Hunter colt), now owned by J. Downing of Lexington, Ky. Edwin Forrest trotted when three years old at the United States Horse Fair at Springfield, Mass., in 1854, half a mile in one minute and thirty seconds and received a premium.
The fourth also a horse colt was foaled 1856 and is now owned by Mr. Barker and by the same horse, Edwin Forrest.
Madame Temple now in her 17 th year is looking finely at the residence of H. L. Barker, Clinton, N. Y., and is with foal by his horse Norman.
Jas. M. Tower.
The foregoing is true according to the best of my knowledge and belief.
r Elisha Peck, I A\'m. Johnson, I Horace Terry, Subscribed and sworn before me, Feb. 24, 1857. I Archer Hughes,
G. H. Church, J. P.
G. B. Cleveland, Jas. M. Tower, H. L. Barker, ^Chas. Webster.
FROM THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES, MAY 20, 1854.
"The celebrated trotting mare. Flora Temple, is offered for sale. She is well known in American sporting circles as one of the best mares that ever appeared on the turf. She is nine years old, a bay roan in color, 14^ hands high and perfectly sound. She has trotted in 2 -.28 in a wagon race — the fastest on record. Also in 2 127 twice in harness. She is perfectly kind in single or double harness or under the saddle. Apply to the editor of ' Spirit of The Times,' 3 Park Place. Price, $7500.
" Flora can be seen at the stables of B. B. Boram at the ' Old Homestead.'
New York, May 9, 1854."
INFORMATION OF SECOND AND THIRD DAMS.
Bloomington, III., Feb. 8, 1892. Mr. Joseph Battell, Middlebury, Vt.,
Yours of January 28 received. In reply will say my father owned the 2d dam of Flora Temple; also the ist dam was foaled his. My father bought her of a man by the name of Randal, who lived then in the town of Paris, Oneida County. AVe lived in Marshall, but I cannot tell what Mr. Randall's
MA C XXXV
first name was. Neither can I refer you to any one who can. It must have been about the year 1S40 when father got the mare. He owned her a num- ber of years. I rememl)er her very well; she was ])locky built, bay, without mark, mealy nose, weight about 1000 or 1050, free, good driver and fine looking.
Respectfully yours,
John L. Peck.
Bloomington, III., Vth. S, 1892. Mr. Joseph Battell, Middlebury, Vt.,
Dolly, the dam of Madam Temple, was five or six years old when my father bought her of Mr. Randall, and I think that was about i84o^not more than a year either way from that. I was a small boy at that time, but I re- member the mare well, as she was the first horse I rode. I was born April 2d, 1S32. ]\Ir. Randall was a tall, rather slim man, about 40 years old at that time.
Respectfully yours,
John L. Peck.
MAC.
One of the greatest of the early trotters was Mac, 2 :28, 15^ hands; foaled 1843 ; bred by Thomas Record, Canton, Me.; got by Morgan Caesar (Morgan Post Boy), son of Woodbury Morgan by the original Justin Morgan : dam bay, with dark points, breeding unknown. Mac trotted 10 races with Lady Suffolk, winning seven, and losing three when lame.
Mr. Wallace gives the breeding of his dam, by Bush Messenger, no breeder given.
We have received a letter from John Record of Livermore Falls, Me., son of Thomas Record, breeder of Mac, who writes :
" Mac's dam was a bay mare, dark points, breeding unknown. Father bought her of Dr. Coolege, of Canton, Me. She was fourteen years old when father bought her. He owned her two years before she had Mac. She was a good mare and one of the best road mares of her day."
This makes the mare foaled in 1827. Bush Messenger was foaled in 1833, or six years after the mare. This is another of the many Messenger pedigrees for important animals inserted in the Trotting Register, while under the management of Mr. Wallace, which are not correct, and which have not since been corrected.
A very full history of Mac, who was kept as a stallion till three years old and got fifteen colts, will be found in Vol. III. of this work.
THE TROTTING HORSE TACONY.
''On Thursday morning, 20th April, 1854, at 11 o'clock, at the stable, Cherry Street above Fifth, in rear of 189 Arch Street, Philadelphia, will be sold to the highest bidder, the well known trotting horse Tacony, believed to be the fastest young trotting horse in the world. Tacony is a strawberry
xxxvi INTR OD UCTION
roan, about 15 hands 2 inches high, and only nine years old, is perfectly sound and kind, has been well wintered, and is now in first rate condition. Tacony's performances are too well known to require enumerating. He may be seen previous to sale, and any further information obtained by applying to or addressing the auctioneer at Philadelphia.
Alfred M. Harkness, Auctioneer. April I, \%^\:'— Spirit of The Times, April 15, 1854.
BLACK HAWK STALLIONS.
"Col. S. C. Hall & Co., of Manchester, N. H., have just arrived in this city with three beautiful Black Hawk studs, one ten-year-old horse and two four-year-old colts of this sire. They are all of a jet black color, and are the best specimens of horse flesh ever seen in this part of the country. They are on the way to Kentucky.
Boston, March 29, 1854." — Spirit of The Times, April ij, 18J4.
EDWIN FORREST (NED FORREST).
The following article regarding another of the very fast early trotters we take from Porter's Spirit of The Times of Nov. 6, 1858 :
Antique House, Palmer, Mass., Oct. 23, 1858. Dear Spirit : — I have observed in the New York Times of this date an obituary notice headed: "Death of the Bashaw Trotting Horse, Ned Forrest," in which his wonderful performances are honorably mentioned, and he is represented as a son of Grand Bashaw, which is surely a mistake. He was raised in South Hadley, ISlass., from there sold to a gentleman in Amherst, and bought from him by Mr. Goodrich of Springfield, Mass., and sent to New Haven by him with a drove of shippers, but, as $85 could not be obtained for him, was brought back. It being soon after discovered that he possessed a great turn of speed, he began to attract notice and was sold to General Cadwallader. From this time forward his performances are well known to the public. He was a Morgan horse, and possessed a greater share of Morgan blood than any living horse of the Bashaw blood does, having been born thirty years ago ; while the Bashaws and Morgans of the present date are at least two generations of crosses further removed from their respective blood. Sinda.
It will be seen that this history of the horse, so far as given, agrees with that given on page 186 of this volume, excepting that this correspondent of The Times states that the horse was Morgan, which both his description and the locality where he was raised will sustain.
FRENCH CHARLEY AND COLUMBUS.
As both of these horses have aided materially in the production of the American trotter and roadster, and but comparatively little is known of either of them, we add the following notes which we took in our return in 1887 from a trip to Canada. A. W. Goff of Richford, Vt., said :
VERMONT BOY xxxvii
"The Stone Horse was a medium-sized dark bay horse and a stepper; cross in stable; iioo fat, 1025 lean; 151^ hands. Owned by Frank Stone, East Berkshire ; he took horse to New York and sold him, 1 think, to go to Pennsylvania, for $600. Sold, I think, 1850 or '51. See Dan Moran or Adolphus Paul. Horse came from Canada, 1 think St. Hyacinthe.
"We traded our Morgan mares in Canada, old mares. They would trade to get our mares ; Stone Horse pony built ; fine, likely built horse ; heavy front, heavy breasted, lightish behind ; built for a goer. I think called French Charley. He was the first stepper I really saw. He had the sand in him. I think he came here about 1850.
" Ten Eyck Horse died at Dunham, claimed to be by old Black Hawk, kept by Ten Eyck, large, black, nice style; 16 hands; kept there till he died; I think foaled 1853 or '54. Comet Horse a Swanton horse.
" Farmer's Beauty handsomest horse I ever saw, never saw anything that could begin with him, Morgan horse. Joe Wheeler, Richford, owned him about 1865, chestnut, 1000 pounds, 15 hands. Died here 1875-8.
" He raised two stallions ; Anthony Wheeler bred one ; Frenchman from Canada, John Lahue, bred one in Dunham ; a good one, dam by Royce Horse; Lahue Horse dark bay, iioo pounds, 15}^ hands, black points; foaled 1875 ; good looking horse.
"Gov. Royce Horse was got by Black Hawk, I think. Dam bred by Gov. Royce, got by Nimrod. A great many trotters from Nimrod.
"The Page Horse was by Columbus. See Stillman Page, Bakersfield. Nimrod stock, smooth, heavy built, good size; Hamilton of Montgomery bought a Gifford Morgan. Black Diamond was at Newport. Ira Allen and he in race at St. Armand's. Ira Allen a very fine horse.
" Wiers Horse at Sheldon by Nimrod ; heavy horse, good stepper. Root went through here first with Comet, by Billy Root, afterwards with Root Horse, by Streeter Horse, a small black horse ; went to Swanton ; both step- pers, and stopped here.
"Old Steele Horse raised in Barton, and a^young Streeter Horse, got by old Streeter Horse, blood bay, black points, prompt, 1050 pounds, 15 hands.
" Bulrush Morgan, blood bay ; George F. Dunkley of Burke owned him. Dunkley bred a mare to old Willoughby Lake Tiger, iioo pounds; four white feet, white stripe ; sold to Lyon, Westmore, 10 years old, 900 pounds, very pretty horse ; got awful good colts. Pettis of Sutton traded in Massa- chusetts and got Dictator."
J. P. Goddard, Richford, Vt., said :
"Goddard Horse got by old Steele Horse (Royal Morgan, by Sherman Morgan), bred by Reuben Goddard, Farnham, Can.; chestnut, low, black horse, 15 hands."
Mr. Boutelle, Bakersville, Vt., in interview, 1887, said:
" Forty-two years ago the Lothrop Horse (Columbus) was brought here 4th July. No business that year. Very bad horse to manage. Not a noted horse in Canada. Man an old man that sold him ; one-half way between Chambly and Longuille, I think in direct route.
"About 15 or 16 years old when brought out. That is, we supposed he was. Lothrop bought him ; paid in buggies ; gave three or four buggies for him. Think not a great sight of stock there.
"Frank Stone's horse left splendid stock here, and Stone lived at East Berkshire. They brought out this colt, about five years old, about 1850. Horse raised in neighborhood of man that sold him; 1847 I saw him;
xxxviii INTRODUCTION
had peculiar white mark up and down on nose, white stripe across belly two inches wide, six inches long; natural mark; chestnut; looo pounds; one white near hind foot ; natural pacer, could trot fastest.
" I saw St, Lawrence at four, when Bachaud o\\'ned him. Blood bay ; 950 pounds at four or five years old, 15 hands; don't think a Morgan, think a Canadian French horse.
" Columbus, steep rump, very round hip ; small ear, good as ever saw on horse ; very heavy mane and tail ; well cut up ; clean limb as you ever saw. The horse that was his sire was kept near by ; I saw the dam, brown, a little white on nose ; 1000 lbs., low frame. [See Columbus Vol. I., p. 554.]
" Harrison Chadwick was with Lothrop when he brought Columbus out, worked for Lothrop.
" Tecumseh, I think, was owned in Upper Canada.
*'The Stone Horse was claimed to be a Morgan horse; always called him a Morgan."
Mr M. B. Walker, of Whiting, Vt., now (1910) 77, of whom we have obtained much valuable information of old-time Vermont horses, has just visited the office of the American Publishing Company, and, to questions, says :
"I saw French Charley at the Vermont State Fair, Rutland, 1852 I think, but anyway the year that Black Hawk and Green Mountain Morgan were both exhibited there. Mr. Stone claimed this horse to be related to Columbus. His color was similar to that of Columbus. A sort of sorrel chestnut, white stripe in face, one white leg (nigh I think), most to gambrel."
In the Mark Field Monthly of July, 1885, in a long article of several columns concerning this horse (known in the west as Vermont Boy), taken from a poster of the horse, advertising him at Long Ridge, Marshall County, Iowa, the following statement is given :
" Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, procured three stallions and four mares from the government of Barbary, which he bred through successive generations that he might produce superior animals for the French cavalry service. By a law none of this stock could be sold for exportation. Though probably purchased, this law was indirectly evaded by Vermont Boy being presented, when one year old, in 1852, to John A. Trask and Louis Barboo, celebrated French sheep importers, of Chambly, Canada East, with a lot of imported sheep. When three years old he was presented or sold to G. V. Gadcomb and Sanderson, of St. Albans, Vermont, also importers of fine stock. He was kept by them one year and sold to Frank Stone of the same place, who in turn sold him to E. K. Conklin, proprietor of the Hunting Park course, Philadelphia, in whose hands and Stone's he was first trained and trotted in races. Conklin next sold him to one Joseph Brown, a silk merchant in Philadelphia, who presented him to his brother, M. B. Brown, of Pittsburg, Penn., from whom he was purchased by his present owner, James Torrence, then of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
"This printed handbill gives in detail the record of the races in which Vermont Boy trotted and the premiums he won and places where he trotted. Two samples of these are, one trotted over the Hunting Park course, a ten- mile heat race, against Sagarro, Cotton Tail and Gen. Scott, for ^500 each, and won by Vermont Boy in 26 150 ; the other at the Pennsylvania State Fair at Pittsburg in 1858, a twelve-mile heat exhibition in 32 :i2."
See French Charley, page 448, also The Morgan Horse and Register, Vol. I., page 762.
RIPTON RIPTON, 2 :33,
AND WINNER OF 1 9 RECORDED RACES.
Another of the early trotters, and one of the best, was Ripton, bay geld- ing with blaze and four white legs, 15 hands, foaled about 1829 ; bred by Burr ]\Ieeker, Westport, Conn. \ got by Heron Horse, said to be running bred : and dam Morgan.
We have received the following interesting letter dated Westport, Conn., November 27, 1889 : Joseph Battell, Esq.,
Dear Sir : — Ripton was bred by the late Burr Meeker, Sr. ; the year I cannot state. He was got by a horse called the Heron Horse. All I can state about the origin and history of the Heron Horse is that the late Morris Ketchum, the New York banker, whose country residence was at Westport, bought a mare with a colt by her side somewhere on Long Island. He sent a man up to this place with the mare and the colt. The man rode the mare and the colt followed by her side. This journey gav« the colt what are called sand heels, from which he never recovered. He always had bunches on his heels, but they never made him lame. The colt grew up an entire colt and when old enough got Ripton. The dam of Ripton was a good-sized, brown mare, no white on her, low headed and not fast. I can not now ascertain where Meeker, Sr., got her. She was quite old when she foaled Ripton. The sire of Ripton grew up and became a mature horse, and was traded about from place to place ; was owned at one time by the old Heron family of Redding Ridge, Conn., and then by the late Nathaniel Lyon of Dodging- town, a few miles north of Redding Ridge. Then he was returned to West- port and an Irish carman by the name of Welch owned him and used him as a cart-horse. While he was thus owned by Welch he covered a number of mares at a nominal price. Welch used to run him short distances over our common roads for small wagers and he was always the winner. When the colt Ripton grew up William Meeker, son of Burr Meeker, Sr., used to ride him, and a man by the name of Henry Nichols of Weston, Conn., owned a horse that could trot then a mile in about three minutes. Ripton was about a match for him. Sometimes one would win and sometimes the other. It very soon became noised about that Ripton was a trotter and Samuel H. Blackman, then of Norwalk, Conn., bought him of Burr Meeker, Sr., for $250 and then sold him to a man by the name of Hutchinson of New York, and he then went into the hands of the late Hiram Woodruff of New York. I am aware that this letter falls far short of a definite and exact pedigree of the horse Ripton, but it is the best I can do, aided by a gentleman of this place by the name of W. J. Finch, who is personally cognizant of all the above facts.
Burr IMeeker, Sr., died March 20, i860, aged 75 years. ISIorris Ketchum is also dead. Any other information possible will be cheerfully furnished you on request. Yours respec.fulU, moses W. W,:.o..
AMERICUS.
STILL another of the famous early trotters was Americus (1-16), 2 :335^, and winner of fifteen recorded races ; bay gelding, foaled 1832 ; bred by John Tunnacliffj got by Blind Duroc (o\\Tied by Henry S. Orendorff,
xl INTRODUCTION
Columbia Center, N. Y.), son of Utica Duroc : dam said to be by a Morgan horse owned by Leonard Brown, Columbia, N. Y. Trotted 1839-46.
LADY SUTTON.
LADY SUTTON (3-16) 2 130, was foaled 1839; bred by Peter Nichols, Barre, Vt. ; got by Morgan Eagle, son of Woodbury Morgan : dam said to be a large, brown or black mare of high mettle.
Sold to George Colamer for $100, who showed her on the road one-half in I :30, in those days called very fast, and he sold to Mr. Fisk a peddler for $400. Mr. Chester in his " Complete Trotting and Pacing Record," says her dam was a Morgan mare. He credits Lady Sutton with winning two races against Lady Suffolk, the last two-mile heats.
Her sire, Morgan Eagle, is described as a horse of great beauty and power. He was also sire of the famous Michigan stallion. Magna Charta. Information from John Grow, Barre, Vt.
DARIEL (LADY WONDER).
THE fastest harness horse bred in Vermont, to date, is Dariel (Lady Wonder) (1-16), pacer, 2 :ooi^, bay, little white in face and one white ankle, 15^ hands; foaled May 30, 1893; bred by Whitcomb Bros., Essex Junction, Vt. ; got by Alcander, son of Alcantara : dam Topsy, bay, bred by L. D. Whitcomb, Essex Junction, Vt., got by Holabird's Ethan Allen, son of Ethan Allen ; 2d dam Fanny, bay, bred by M. Griffith, Col- chester, Vt., got by McCuUif Horse, son of Flying Morgan. Sold to Potter Bros., Greenfield, Mass. ; to Mr. Hobinger of Connecticut ; to Mr. Chapin, Rochester, N. Y. Pedigree from breeders. This mare carries a good per- centage of Morgan blood, as sires of first and second dams are inbred Morgans.
DORA J. Letter from R. S. Dora : Charleston, III., March 26, 1906. Mr. Joseph Battell, Middlebury, Vt.,
My Dear Sir : — In the interests of the breeding of the Morgan horse I may be able to give you some information which may be of some value and interest to you, considering the Morgans. If I mistake not, a few years ago you wrote to my father (now deceased), John F. Dora, for some informa- tion concerning the great brood mare Dora J., got by Dr. Herr, son of Mam- brino Patchen : dam Black Belle, the intensely inbred Morgan mare, who was got by Frank Hinds' (of Hindsboro, 111.) Green Mountain, son of Dorsey's Green Mountain of Kentucky (L. L. Dorsey of Anchorage, Ky., is the man referred to, I believe) . Black Belle's first and second dams were also by Hinds' Green Mountain. Dora J. is now the dam of Argonaut, 2 years, 2 1155^, 4 years, 2 :o9% ; Gus Waible, 2:115^; A. J. GUck, 3 years,
MAN'S DEBT TO THE HORSE xli
2 :io^ ; Ronald Crews, 2 :i5^ ; Paris, 2 :i9J4', ''^"d Argolet, 2 :29i^, Paris (dam Dora J.) is a great sire, having produced the great pacer, John M., 2 :o2^, the best class pacer on the Grand Circuit in 1904, and a number of others, including Sweet Bay, 2 woyi, Oakland P^oy, 2 :i2^, etc. A. J. Click (dam also Dora J.) got the good three-year-old Central G., 2 :i6^, a trotter of considerable class in 1905, having won a five-heat race at Springfield at the State Fair and others. Gus Waible is the sire of the good pacer Fanny Waible, 2 :i4^. Another good brood mare is Cora, who is a full sister to Dora J. Cora is the dam of Argue, 2:173^ (I think this is the correct record; I know Argue has a record better than 2:20); Arguenot, 2:10^, and Alfalfa, 2 '.iiji, the great class pacer of last season, who was second in 2 :os}{ and 2 :o6i4^ at Columbus, Ohio, in 1905.
Dora A. also from Black Belle is the dam of Alma B., 3 years, 2 :i5^, 4 years, 2 :io^. Now, I think this is no mean showing for one brood mare (Black Belle), being the dam of three mares who have produced nine per- formers in the 2 :20 list, ten in the 2 :30 list, one in the 2 :io list, five in the 2 :ii list, and six in the 2:12 list. Dora J. and Cora were got by Dr. Herr and bred by John F. Dora of Charleston, 111., while Dora A., dam of Alma B., 2 :io3^, was got by Dr. Herr Jr. and bred by myself (R. S. Dora).
Among the Morgan bred horses of this vicinity is the good pacer, Beth D., 2 -.i^yi, record taken in 1904. Beth D. was got by Paris, 2 •.ig}(, and from a daughter of Black Hawk Messenger, sire of Larry C, 2 :i9^, son of Morgan Messenger. I beheve Beth D, 2 -.1^%, was bred by C. C. Ashra«re, of Oakland, 111., owner of Paris, 2 119 3^. By the way, Paris was bred by John P. Dora, of Charleston, 111. Paris, 2 :i95^, was got by Edgar Wilkes, 2 :2 2, son of Ethan Wilkes. The other performers I enumerated from Dora J., Cora and Dora A. are by Argot Wilkes, 2 :i4ji, son of Tennessee Wilkes. The Wilkes, Dr. Herr and Morgan blood combined has proven a good nick and almost certain of good results in the production of extreme speed, as is evidenced by the list I have given you.
Hoping that this information may prove of interest to you, and admiring the blood of the Morgan horse as I do, I shall be glad to furnish you any further information concerning Morgans that I may observe that I feel is worthy of mention, if you so desire. I remain.
Very sincerely yours,
R. S. Dora.
MAN'S DEBT TO THE HORSE.
" No Animal on the face of the earth works like the horse ; no animal anywhere is his equal in usefulness to man. He is the one real slave of humanity ; for never lived a human slave in any age or in any land who went about his task and his crushing labors more uncomplainingly, more steadily and more faithfully than does the horse. He brings help when the home is aflame ; he drags in the harvest that feeds millions ; he scurries over the ground to bring the physician to the bedside when we come into the world ; he paces solemnly onward as he drags us to the grave. He carries the joyous children upon his broad back, and he thunders to the hospital with the clang- ing ambulance. Through the streets he drags the mighty iron supports for giant skyscrapers, and over the boulevards of the park he sweeps with fashion and beauty at his hoofs. In the midst of plenty he carries food in abund- ance to countless homes, and in the midst of starvation he yields up his own body to keep life in the human frame.
xlii INTRODUCTION
" And for this sublime devotion, this lifelong labor, this noble martyrdom, how often is the faithful animal repaid with atrocious cruelty and vile and inhuman neglect ! The treatment of horses by some people is immeasureably base ; and it is all the more hideous and scoundrelly because the poor animal has no means of defense, no chance for aid, no voice to demand help.
" He is driven at terrific speed for immense distances ; he is forced to wear rough and heavy harness over a sore and lacerated body, dragging after him heavily laden wagons, all the while suffering silently the most awful torture. He is compelled to drag overloaded wagons up steep hills, often cruelly lashed with the whip, and then after a long day of dreadful slavery he is poorly housed, often with insufficient food.
"There are men into whose hardened soul no appreciation of the value and devotion of the horse is allowed to penetrate. They misuse the animal to an atrocious degree, and are impervious to his appealing look, when he is racked by pain or worn down with toil, as though the poor beast were but a senseless rock. Such men as these know no pity, and because they know no pity, they know no horse.
"There is nothing overdrawn in this recital of man's inhumanity to his one best and most constant friend. Happily, though, it is not a recital of the usual treatment of the horse. Turning from the consideration of ill-treat- ment, it is pleasant to know that in the hearts of the vast majority of men, women and children there is genuine love for this fine and good friend in the animal kingdom. And assuredly he deserves that love.
"When you love a horse, you love man's best, truest, and most useful friend in all the rans:e of the world of animals." — Our Dii77ib Animals.
THE HORSES OF AMERICA
Our country ! 'tis a glorious land,
With broad arms stretched from shore to shore ;
The proud Pacific chafes her strand — She hears the dark Atlantic roar.
WHEN America was discovered by Europeans, the natives of both the northern and southern continents were strangely- lacking in those things, in both the vegetable and the animal world, that are now classed among the necessaries of life. There was little beyond one cereal, Indian corn ; one esculent, the potato ; one species of dog elsewhere unknown, and one feeble beast of burden, the llama, limited to the uplands of the southern Cordilleras, in Peru, Chili and that vicinity. In North America there was no domesti- cated animal except the dog. The llamas, the only hoofed domestic animals of the western world, were kept not only for their value as beasts of burden, but also for their flesh, hides and wool — supplying, in fact, the place of the horse, the ox, the goat and the sheep of the Old World. The llama was a small animal, standing little more than three feet high at the shoulder, with straight back, short tail, neck and head like a doe, large ears, legs like a sheep, deer-like hoofs with peculiar bosses or cushions on the under side ; body deep at the breast, but smaller at the loins, covered with long, soft and very fine hair, usually white or spotted with brown or black, and some- times altogether black. He Avas spoken of as a sheep by the early Spanish adventurers, though he possessed rather the characteristics of the camel and the goat. The earliest account of this animal is by Augustin de Zarate, treasurer-general of Peru, in 1544, giving a sum- mary of the general character and uses to which the llama was put by the Peruvians at the time of the Spanish conquest, as follows :
"In places where there is no snow, the natives want water, and to supply this they fill the skins of sheep with water and make other living sheep carry them ; for these sheep of Peru are large enough to serve as beasts of burden. They can carry 100 pounds or more, and the Spaniards used to ride them and they would go four or five leagues a day. When they are weary they lie down upon the
xliv THE HORSES OF AMERICA
ground, and as there are no means of making them get up, either by- beating or assisting them, the load must of necessity be taken off. When there is a man on one of them, if the beast is tired and urged to go on, he turns his head round and discharges his saliva, which has an offensive odor, into the rider's face. These animals are of great use and profit to their masters, for their wool is very good and fine, particularly that of the species called pacas, which have very long fleeces ; and the expense of their food is trifling, as a handful of maize suffices them, and they can go four or five days without water. Their flesh is as good as that of the fat sheep of Castile. There are now public shambles for the sale of their flesh in all parts of Peru, which was not the case when the Spaniards first came ; for when one Indian had killed a sheep his neighbors came and took what they wanted, and then another Indian killed a sheep in his turn."
Gregory de Bolivar estimated that in his day as many as 300,000 llamas were employed in transporting from the mountains to the coast the produce of the mines of Potosi alone.
Leaving now this solitary and feeble predecessor of the horse in the New World, let us return to the horse himself. Columbus brought the first horses from Spain, in his second voyage to the West Indies islands in 1493. They were largely of the Anda- lusian breed. They multiplied on these islands and the Span- iards took them to use as cavalry in their expeditions to North and South America. In 1528, Pamphilo Narv^a sailed from Xagua, Cuba, for Florida with 400 foot and 40 horse. These are the first horses known to have been introduced into the United States, and they are supposed to have all perished, as did all the men of the expedition except Cabeca de Vaca and three others who made their way to Mex- ico, after great hardships.
The next expedition to Florida was by Ferdinando de Soto, in 1539. He sailed from Havana, Cuba, and took with him 900 foot soldiers and 350 horse. Florida at this time was of undefined limits and included the Mississippi River, which De Soto discovered and on whose banks he died of a fever. After his death the remnant of his force, reduced more than half by exposure, famine, disease and nearly three years constant warfare with the Indians, built boats, sailed down the river and returned to Cuba.
Nearly all of their horses, to which the Spaniards owed many a victory over the Indians, perished. But it is stated in " A Relation of the Expedition of Don Ferdinando de Soto to Florida in 1539-40," preserved in Force's Historical Tracts, that in leaving Florida the
EARL V IMPOR TA TIONS xlv
Spanish soldiers killed most of their horses, but left five or six alive. La Vega states that the number of horses was reduced to less than fifty before the embarkation on the Mississippi. On the whole it seems probable that several horses were left, perhaps of both sexes, and it is possible that some of the horses later owned by the Indian tribe of this locality were descended from these abandoned war horses of Spain ; but of this there is no proof.
Garcelossa de la Vega, in his history of the conquest of Florida by De Soto, says of these horses: "There were also some ships in which sailed a quantity of horses of all colors and sizes, the most beautiful in the world." Illustrations in this book, published in the seventeenth century, represent these horses as of Arab type and decidedly handsome.
In 1565 St. Augustine, Florida, was settled by the Spaniards. John Bartram, of Philadelphia, describing East Florida in a book published in London in 1769, says:
"The horses are of the Spanish breed, of great spirit, but little strength. They are seldom over 14 hands high. The Indians here, by mixing the Spanish breed with the Carolina, have excellent horses, both for service and beauty." And William Roberts, in a book enti- tled "Florida," published in London in 1763, says: "Horses are also bred here, very good both for the saddle and draft, and so cheap that one of them may be purchased for any trifle that is brought from Europe."
From the Spanish horses are descended all the native or wild horses of South America, Mexico, Texas and California, and a part, at least, of the blood that exists in the Louisiana purchase, and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to Florida ; and undoubtedly they were mixed more or less with the horses of the Carolinas and Georgia.
A large majority of this native breed of horses at the present day are small, and not very valuable ; but I have seen in the streets of Mexico horses of great beauty and symmetry, weighing perhaps 900 pounds, resembling much in finish and form some of our Mor- gan stock. In California, too, I have seen some of the native or wild stock, of great excellence, though not large. I remember especially a bay stallion that I used to notice going through the streets of Santa Barbara, in 1876, ridden by a Spaniard. I priced this horse one day at one hundred dollars, and would quickly have bought him, but learned that no one but this Spaniard had ever been able to ride him. I insisted on mounting him, and got well on,
xlvi THE HORSES OF AMERICA
but when I went to take the reins from the Spaniard he saw that I was unused to the Spanish bit, and refused to let them go ; so I got off, and undoubtedly thereby saved being thrown, for a few days after I bought a gray half-breed, somewhat larger and a very fine horse, far more manageable, but the first time I rode him, annoyed by my handling of the bit, he became so restive that I gave him the rein and let him run for a mile ; after which we became the best of friends. And this being before the Southern Pacific Railroad was built, I started to ride him from Santa Barbara to New Orleans, but was stopped at the border of Arizona by sickness.
Both these horses, the one full-bred Spanish and the other from a Spanish dam and said to be by a Morgan sire, were superb animals of great vigor, power, speed and beauty.
Of the horses brought over by the Spaniards and their distribu- tion, perhaps the most interesting and reliable account is given in the "Commentaries of Peru," by Garcelossa de la Vega, who ^\•as born toward the middle of the sixteenth century, at Cresco, in Peru, and went to Spain in 1560. These Commentaries were written about 1600 and translated in London in 1788. They have the merit of almost contemporaneous history :
" Of the mares and horses and how they zuere bred in the begin- ning, and of the great price and value of them.
"For the better information and satisfaction, as well of the pres- ent as of future ages, it will be necessary to know what things were not in Peru at the time when the Spaniards first entered into Peru, and therefore I have thought fit to make a satisfactory chapter thereof, to enumerate how many things these people wanted, which we esteem necessary for the welfare and convenient living of man- kind, and yet, notwithstanding, they lived happily and contented without them. In the first place we must know that they^had neither horses nor mares, cows, oxen, nor sheep. * ^ -^ As to the Horses and Mares the Spaniards brought them over with themselves, having been very serviceable and useful to them in making their con- quests in the New World, of which the Indians had no great neces- sity, for they were unusually hardy and nimble of foot. All those horses and mares which are in the kingdoms and provinces of those Indies which have been discovered by the Spaniards since the year 1492 until this time, are of the race of those which were brought from Spain, and particularly from Andalusia. The first were landed on the Isle of Cuba and St. Domingo, and the other islands of Bar- rotento, as they were discovered and subdued; where they increased
]l'EST LXDIES HORSES xlvii
and multiplied abundantly, and thence they were transported to Mexico and Peru for their services and use in those conquests. At first for want of care in the masters, who put their horses out to i)as- ture into places without fences, they could not easily be catched again, and so roving in the mountains they became wild, flying like deer at the sight of a man and not being seized or preyed upon by any fierce creature, they increased and multiplied in great abundance. "The Spaniards who inhabited the islands, observing how neces- sary horses were for the conquests, and their countries producing such as were very good, enhanced the prices of them to a consider- able rate. There were certain men who kept thirty, forty and fifty horses in their stables, as we have mentioned in our history of the Florida.
"After all parts of the West Indies were subdued, there was no such occasion for horses as before, nor encouragement given for breeding and managing them as formerly, so that the inhabitants of those islands turned their trafftc another way, and began to trade and deal in hides. Considering often with myself at how great a price horses are held in Spain, and what an excellent race these islands yield, both for their size, shape and color, I have much wondered at the reason why they have not been transported thence into Spain, though it were only in acknowledgment of those which Spain did first send thither and which were the sires and dams of that new race, especially since they may be transported with so much facility and ease from the island of Cuba, which is one great part of the way, and many ships come empty thus far. The horses of Peru are much more forward than those in Spain ; for the first time I started on horseback in Cozco was upon a horse newly broken, and which had scarce arrived at three years of age."
(As the author speaks of seeing things in 1550 and 1590, this must have been written about 1600).
The works of Samuel Purcheas, "Purcheas, His Pilgrimes ; In Five Bookes: London, 1625," contain English voyages to the East, West, and South parts of America by Right Honorable George, Earl of Cumberland, who, writing from Puerto Rico, 1596, says:
"About their horses, none of which I have seene by much so tall and goodly as ordinarily they are in England : They are well made and well mettled, and good store there are of them, but methinks there are many things wanting in them which are ordinary in our English light horses. They are all trotters; nor do I remem- ber that I have seen above one ambler, and that a very little fiddling
xlviii THE HORSES OF AMERICA
nag. But it may be if there were better breeders they would have better and more useful increase, yet they are good enough for hack- neys, to which use only almost they are employed."
In a work entitled "Natural History of Man," by Dr. James Cowles Pritchard (3d ed., London, 1848), the horses of Peru are thus referred to :
"Two other very important observations made by M. Roulin in South America, were pointed out by M. Geoffrey St. Hilaire in his report to the Academy of Sciences. They refer to the fact of the hereditary transmission of habits originally impressed with care and art upon the ancestors. Of this fact I shall adduce other examples in the sequel; at present I only advert to M. Roulin's observations. The horses bred on the grazing farms on the table lands of the Cor- dillera are carefully taught a peculiar pace, which is a sort of running amble. This is not their natural mode of progression, but they are inured to it very early, and the greatest pains are taken to prevent them from moving in any other gait; in this way the acquired habit becomes a second nature. It happens, occasionally, that such horses, becoming lame, are no longer fit for use ; it is then custom- ary to let them loose, if they happen to be well-grown stallions, into the pasture grounds. It is constantly observed that these horses become the sires of a race to which the ambling pace is natural, and which require no teaching. The fact is so well known that such colts have received a particular name; they are termed aguilillas."
We do not know when these observations of M. Roulin were made, only that they were referred to in Berenger's work on Horse- manship, published in 1771.
The following sketch was written by Mr. J. Sharpies, a gentle- man who had spent twenty years, ending in 1875, in various parts of South America. It is preserved in Sidney's Book of the Horse, and is somewhat abridged as given here :
HORSES OF THE RIVER PLATTE STATES.
"The horse was introduced into the southern continent of America in the sixteenth century, by the Spanish 'Conquistadores.' During the frequent commotions and 'guerillas' which distracted their early settlements, some of their horses (both stalhons and mares) escaped into the immense plains (pampas), and there formed themselves into herds, which were sub-divided by the natural instinct of the animals into families, called by the Spaniards ' Man- adas.' These herds, being left in peaceful possession of the plains,
SOUTH AMERICAN HORSES xlix
multiplied in the course of time to such an extent that they now form an essential part of the national wealth of the Argentine Republic.
"The number of horses pasturing on the plains of the Argentine Republic at the present day (1876) has been roughly computed at two and a half millions, not including the east coast of the river Uruguay, which probably contains an additional half-million. The annual net increase may be set down as 300,000, the residue finding their way to the slaughter-houses (saladeros), or perishing in the long droughts from want of pasture and water.
"The provinces of Buenos Ayres, Entre Rios, Santa Fe, Cor- rientes and Cordova are the chief horse producers; the remaining provinces, indeed, are insignificant contributors towards the grand total.
"The breed is undersized, averaging about 14. i or 14.2 hands, and are of every conceivable color. Piebalds and skewbalds, when curiously marked, were much sought after some twenty-five years ago and brought more than average prices. A very beautiful color, now unfortunately almost extinct, is the 'plateado' — a white horse with black skin, magnificent black eye and bluish black muzzle. There are also some beautiful shades of dun, with black stripe along the back and across the shoulders, and black bands on the legs. Horses of this color are supposed by the natives to be descended indirectly from the donkey, probably on account of the black cross on the back. An exception as to size is to be found in the southern districts of Buenos Ayres, notably in the Monies Grandcs, where horses of 15 hands and 15 hands 2 inches are frequently to be met with. The difference in size is owing to the richness and abundance of the herbage, also to the shelter which the woods afford from the heats of summer and the cold of winter. On account of their size they command far above average prices in the city of Buenos Ayres as hacks and carriage horses ; but for work on a cattle farm or for a long journey, they are quite inferior to their smaller brethren. Plenty of large, roomy mares might be selected from these districts for crossing, with imported sires, and would give what is at present the great desideratum — size.
"The breed of horses in the Argentine and Oriental republics is extremely hardy and enduring and exempt from nearly every ailment that afflicts horseflesh. Hence I consider the breed as con- stituting a good foundation for the building up of a superior class of horses ; and to my mind there is no doubt but that the liberal intro-
I THE HORSES OF AMERICA
duction of thoroughbreds from England and elsewhere, combined with a judicious selection of mares, will in a short time so improve the existing breed that exportations from those countries will become an extensive branch of business.
" During the last thirty years many attempts have been made in the right direction by the introduction of European sires, and with the best results, as far as the production of useful, shapely and good-sized horses is concerned.
"As far as I can learn, the first thoroughbred sire introduced into the province of Buenos Ayres since the conquest was in the year 1850, and in the following year a second was sent out from this country. Since then numbers of European stallions have been introduced, and, notably during the past year (1875), scarcely a steamer leaves for the river Platte without having on board one or more thoroughbreds or heavy cart stallions. The latter, however, is totally unfit for the small * South American mares. After the thoroughbred, what is most required is an active, clean-legged, smart-looking horse, about 15.2 hands, such as I have often seen in the tradesmen's goods carts in the streets of London.
"Breeding horses in the River Platte States, so much favored by pastures and climate, and with an unlimited quantity of mares from which to select, cannot but prove lucrative if carried on by men of intelligence and with a fair knowledge of their business. But they must be prepared to expend time and money in the introduction of thoroughbred stock and be content to await the result. The day will come when the southern continent will be a formidable rival of the northern in the exportation of horses, and it depends upon the exertions of the breeders whether that day be remote or otherwise.
HORSE-BREEDING IN THE RIVER PLATTE STATES.
"The common system of breeding in the settled districts at the present day differs very little from the natural system which the horse had re-established for himself on the open plains some 300 years ago. The herds are divided into families called Manadas, which pasture all the year round in the open, exposed to all the vicissitudes of weather and seasons, and are, as occasion requires, driven up to the homesteads and enclosed in the ' corral ' for the branding of the foals, denuding the mares of their manes and tails for the sake of the hair, and the domestication of the colts. Newly formed Manadas are frequently enclosed during the night as a pre- caution against straying; also when horse-stealers are about and
SOUTH AMERICAN NORSES \{
mosquitoes are prevalent, the annoyances from these being such that horses will stray long distances up wind during the night. Each of these Manadas has a stallion at its head, and consists usually of twenty or thirty mares, with a sprinkling of colts and fillies. Over these the stallion keeps most jealous watch, pursuing and bringing back, in no gentle manner, any marc which attempts to wander. By instinct the stallion does not allow full grown fillies, his own progeny, to remain in his harem, and he suffers them to be appro- priated by his rivals without opposition. He will also appropriate any stray mare which may come his way, and occasionally he will make a raid on a neighboring Manadas and attempt to steal away a mare or two, when right royal fights take place between the rival stallions, and the prize is carried off by the x'ictor. These fights are ver\- frequent in the plains and occasionally are to be witnessed between horse and stallion donkey, ofter^ ending with the victory of the latter; indeed, the horse as a rule does not seem to care much about attacking the donkey, having a wholesome dread of his te^th, which he uses in fight with the same tenacity which distinguishes the bulldog.
"The selection and occasional changing of stallions for their Manadas is the onh' improvement or modification of the s\'stem established by the horse himself at the time of the conquest, at least as far as concerns the great majority of native breeders; exceptions are to be met with in a few of the native and most of the foreign breeders.
"There is a remarkable exemplification of instinct in horses, which may or may not be peculiar to horses bred in the Pampas, but which I have never seen in print. It is the wonderful manner in which horses, taken away from their birthplace, will return as soon as they regain their liberty. I have known horses return two or three hundred miles, swimming rivers and overcoming every obstacle. It matters not if they be taken aw^ay at night or by a circuitous route, they will find their way back — not, indeed, by the circuitous way they may have come, but in a direct line. It always appeared to me a marvellous instinct which could guide them so unerringly over such long distances, over immense open plains with scarcely a land- , mark to assist them. This instinct, though common to all horses that are taken from one breeding ground to another, is, however, much stronger in some than in others. For instance, horses reared on rich pasture have the instinct much stronger, or at least they retain it longer, than those reared on the poorer lands. Those bred in the
lii THE HORSES OF AMERICA
districts of the Montes Grandes, where the grasses are especially luxuriant, scarcely ever lose this home-pining; and though they are the finest-looking horses in the Republic, they are of little value to farmers, as it is next to impossible to keep them from straying. As hacks in the city of Buenos Ayres they soon lose this instinct, probably owing to total change of diet and the comforts of a stable. A very marked exception to this instinct is to be found in the ' Baqual ' — strictly speaking, the wild horse of the Pampas, as dis- tinguished from his domesticated or semi-wild brethren of the settled districts. The ' Baqual, ' when captured, tamed and taken to the settled districts, seems to lose this instinct entirely. He has also another very singular peculiarity — the transformation from a wild to a domesticated state causes him to lose his gregarious habits. He will stray away here, there and everywhere, but seldom will he associate with other horses, and never with the same for any length of time. This horse is popularly supposed never to become thor- oughly confidential for riding, being, it is said, apt to buck-jump and plunge when least expected. I, however, had one for five or six years. He was very quiet and steady, and a good useful horse for general purposes.
HORSES OF THE BANDA ORIENTAL.
" Or east coast of the river Uruguay, are much the same in gen- eral characteristics as those of the Argentine Republic. In size they are a trifle smaller than, those bred in the southern districts of Buenos Ayres, but they stand almost unrivalled in powers of endur- ance, frequently compassing journeys of one hundred miles in the day. Owing to civil wars, revolutions and petty broils, few attempts have been made to improve the existing breed by the introduction of European sires.
HORSES OF THE WEST COAST (CHILl).
"The republic of Chili, on the west coast of the southern con- tinent, produces a breed of horses superior in size, quality and shapeliness to those of the River Platte States. Bays, blacks and browns are the prevailing and most esteemed colors. The origin of .this breed is identical with that of the Argentine horses, and their superiority may be traced to more careful selection and breeding. In height they vary from 14.3 to 15.2, but their chief superiority consists in their fine action and perfect education.
"As far as my experience goes, no pleasanter or more perfect hack exists ; for what better qualities are to be looked for in a hack
HORSES OF CHILI liii
than an exquisite mouth, easy paces, good up action that renders stumbling almost an impossibility, fine courage, high mettle and ex- traordinary tractability? I speak here of the superior and not gen- eral class of horses in Chili. The Chilian horses have usually high action, but the trotting pace is two-fold, some being trained to throw their feet outwards their arms. These are called ' brazeadores,' from ' brazas,' Anglice 'arms'; others have straight, high action (much preferable to the former), and are called ' pisadorcs,' steppers. Their high action is partly natural, inherent to the breed, according to some, and the result, according to others, of the nature of the land on which they have been reared, which is strong, rugged and intersected by numerous watercourses. Their natural high action is increased and improved during the process of breaking by means of bolitos, (wooden balls about an inch and a half in diameter, loosely beaded into a string and tied around the pasterns of the forelegs, which have the effect of causing them to throw their legs high). The high action towards the arms {hrazj'-adoirs) is produced by tying strong strips of rawhide round the pastern, and which are allowed to trail on the ground to the length of six or seven inches. To avoid treading on them the horse throws his legs outwards, and in process of time this becomes a second nature and clings to him through life. A Chilian horsebreaker is a breaker in the best acceptation of the word; he is a perfect master of his art, and quite at the top of the tree as an educator. The Argentine, on the other hand, is a breaker in the worst meaning of the word, and the best among them cannot turn out a horse with perfect manners. The Chilian requires a much longer time to educate a horse, but the delay is amply compensated for by the accomplished manner in which he does his work.
"I have ridden hacks by the score, both in England and South America, and the pleasantest one I ever crossed was a Chileno. He had extraordinary mettle, but was so gentle and tractable that a girl seven years of age has frequently ridden him ; his mouth, paces and manners were perfection, and I never remember him to have com- mitted a fault either in the stable or in the saddle. He would have been an invaluable horse for a timid lady to ride in the Row ; I don't think he would have gone wrong in a crowd with the reins thrown loose over his neck.
"The bit in use in Chili is, I believe, similar to the Moorish bit introduced by the Spaniards 300 years ago. It is very severe, and requires good hands, especially with young horses."
Hv THE HORSES OF AMERICA
IMPORTATIONS TO SOUTH AMERICA FROM THE UNITED STATES.
We have found no record of importations to South America of horses from the United States until very recent times, although there may have been horses so taken there. But recently, from 1886 to 1889, there was quite a large transportation of horses from western Vermont to Buenos Ayres in the Argentine Republic and of some to Montevideo in Uruguay. Some of these were entire horses, used for stock purposes after their arrival. Probably the pioneer in this enterprise was Charles R. Witherell of Cornwall, Vermont, who took horses to Buenos Ayres as early as 1887. The horses transported from Vermont to South America during this period, from 1887 to 1889 inclusive, were mostly of Morgan or Hambletonian lineage or a mixture of the two. In 1887 Page G. Potter of Middlebury, Vermont, took to Montevideo the entire horses Col- eraine by Addison Lambert (2:27), son of Daniel Lambert, and Limber Dick, by Broken Leg, son of Rysdyk's Hambletonian. In 1888 Addison Lambert himself was taken by Page G. Potter to Buenos Ayres, where he made a season in the stud, being bred to thirty-three mares before his return to Vermont in 1891.
Also in 1888, Mr. Potter took to Buenos Ayres the stallion General Grant, by Vermont Boy, son of Benedict Morrill. Another son of Addison Lambert was taken there the same year by E. C. Eells, then of Middlebury, now of Buenos Ayres. About the same time the stallion Gen. Knox, son of Eastern Boy, by the famous Vermont bred horse. Gen. Knox, was taken to Buenos Ayres by Gen. E. H. Ripley of Mendon, Vermont.
The beautiful horse Harvester, an entire son of Daniel Lambert, was taken to Buenos Ayres by J. E. Wright of Middlebury in 1889. The above-named horses were all of Morgan blood (except Limber Dick) and were extensively patronized. Among the horses of Hambletonian lineage taken to Buenos Ayres during this period were General Arthur and Middletown Jr., by Middletown, son of Hambletonian, taken by H. C. Potter and George Hammond of Middlebury; and Blackstone Jr., son of Blackstone, by Hamble- tonian, taken by Dr. E. O. Porter of Cornwall.
We understand that most of these Vermont horses were suc- cessful as sires in their new homes.
THE INDIAN PONY.
When the red Indian of North America first began to ride on horseback there is no evidence to show; but Captain Butler, in his
THE INDIAN PONY Iv
" Great Lone Land," states that the Indian word for horse also means " bi<^ do^."
The following account of the animals on which, Tartar like, the Indians have for centuries carried out their border raids against the settlers of the border is from " Hunting Grounds of the Great West," by Lieut. -Col. Dodge of the U. S. army, who commanded a force employed to keep them in check:
"The pony used by the red Indians of America is scarce!)- four- teen hands in height, rather light than heavy in build, with good legs, straight shoulders (like all uncultivated horses?) short, strong back, full barrel ; he has no appearance of 'blood,' except sharp, nervous ears and bright, intelligent eyes; but his endurance is incredible. He is never stalled, nor washed, nor dressed, nor blanketed, nor shod, nor fed. When not under saddle he is picket- ed or turned loose to shift for himself.
"In winter he is a terrible object — an animated skeleton. His pasture being buried beneath the snow, he would perish if the squaws did not cut branches of the cotton-wood tree for him to browse on. But when the spring brings out the tender grass he sheds his coat, scours his protuberant belly and moves with head erect, ears and eyes full of intelligence. He will climb steep rocks like a mule, plunge down a perpendicular precipice like a buffalo, only the elk can more successfully cross swamps, and he will go at speed through sand-hills and ground perforated with holes where an American horse would fall in the first fifty yards of a gallop. The work he can do is astonishing; no mercy is shown.
"The Indian pony is the same animal as the mustang, or wild horse of Texas. He is suiificiently tractable to the rough-riding Indian, but when stabled and fed on corn and oats, he becomes either a vicious, dangerous brute or a fat, lazy cob.
"An Indian will ride a horse from the back of which every par- ticle of skin and much flesh has been torn by the ill-fitting saddle, ride him at speed until he drops, then force him to his feet and ride him again.
"There is a 'plain ' saying that a white will abandon a horse as broken down ; a Mexican will then mount and ride him fifty miles further; an Indian will then mount and ride him for a week. Riding is second nature to the Indian, strapped astride of a horse as soon as he can walk.
"The bit is the Mexican bit; the bar bent in the centre, from two to four inches long^ extends backwards to the horse's throat.
Ivi THE HORSES OF AMERICA
To the upper end is attached the bar with reins of horsehair or rawhide. The head-stall is of horse-hair, elaborately ornamented with silver or plated buckles. With his bridle the horse can be turned on its haunches with one turn of the wrist.
"The saddle is a light frame of wood, the side pieces shaped to fit a horse's back. The seat is almost straight and nearly forms a right angle with the pommel and cantle ; these are about eight inches above the seat. The pommel ends with a knob. The cantle, rather wide at top and bottom, is cut away in the middle to fit the leg or heel of the rider and form his support when he throws him- self (out of sight) 'On one side of the horse, right or off-side, leaving the left hand free to grasp the reins, while the right grasps the mane or pommel. When riding under ordinary circumstances his seat and carriage are very ungraceful ; the short stirrups force him to sit almost on the small of his back ; his head pokes foi-wards as far as his neck will let him ; his left hand holds the reins, his right is armed with a short stick with a lash of rawhide. With a light blow of this he marks every slip of his horse. He has no spurs, but his heels are constantly drumming his horse's ribs with a nervous motion. He scarcely ever turns his head, and when most watchful appears to see nothing. Looking stiff, constrained, uncomfortable on horse- back, he yet will, with his horse at full speed, pick a small coin from the ground and throw himself on the side of the horse in such a position that only a small portion of his leg or foot can be seen on the other side.
" The ponies are as carefully trained as the riders. Colonel Dodge relates (but does not say that he was present) how a Comanche pony in Texas, 'a miserable sheep of a pony, with legs like churns, three inches of rough hair all over the body, with a general expres- sion of neglect and helplessness and patient suffering, w^hich struck pity into the hearts of all beholders,' ridden by a stalwart Comanche of one hundred and seventy pounds (12 st. 2 lbs.) armed with a club, first won a race of five hundred yards from the third best horse of the garrison by a neck; then another race against the second-best horse. ' The officers, thoroughly disgusted, proposed a third race and brought to the ground a magnificent Kentucky mare of the true Lexington blood, which could beat the other two at least forty yards in four hundred. The Indians accepted the challenge, and not only doubled the bets, but piled everything they could raise on it. The riders mounted, the word was given. The Indian threw away his club, gave a whoop, and the sheep pony
THE INDIAN PONY Ivii
pricked his ears and went away two feet to the mare's one. The last fifty yards of the course was run with the rider sitting with his face to the tail of the pony, grimacing horribly, and beckoning the rider of the mare to come on ! '
"The woodwork of the saddle is covered with green hide, which, drying, binds all the parts together and makes the saddle almost as strong as iron. The girth is a broad band of plaited hair, terminat- ing in iron rings, which are attached to the saddle on the principle of the Mexican cinche, by which a man of ordinary strength can almost crush a horse's ribs. The stirrup is of thin wood, fastened to the saddle with rawhide. The skin of a wolf or calf, or a pair of old blankets, is used as padding between the horse and saddle. The stirrups are extremely short and of little use, except to mount or rest the feet."
Either different people see with different eyes, or the wild horse of the prairies contained finer specimens early in the century than at present, and were less uniform. A writer in the American Turf Register in 1833 says:
" I was once in a village of the Comanches in the valley where the Colorado rises. There are probably three thousand horses in that valley, and I never saw any finer horses than some of them. At the same time a large proportion were the poorest horses in existence. If fine, delicate heads, wide nostrils, slim and tapering and clean limbs, small and hard hoofs and an Arabian symmetry of form will make a fine horse, there are fine horses in abundance on the prairie. I have seen one leader of a herd, while the whole body was coming at full speed, circle round and round the body like a hawk, driving up the laggards in the rear, and then returning to the front, seemingly with great ease."
Colonel Dodge's story of the beating of the thoroughbreds by the little mustang many will be inclined to take with a grain of allowance ; yet it is the universal testimony that almost any Indian pony can beat a thoroughbred for a short distance, but that when the distance is a mile or more the tables are turned. Col. Theodore Ayrault Dodge, in "Some American Riders," expressly so states. Berenger, in his "Art of Horsemanship," (i77i),Vol. i, p. 208, speaking of the South American horses, says : " One sort of these horses, called Aguilillas, not only excel in the amble, a pace univers- ally practiced here, but are so superior in their gallop that no other horse can contend with them." And Ulloa writes, in his "Voyage to South America" : " The boasted swiftness of European horses
Iviii THE HORSES OF AMERICA
is dullness when compared with those of South America. * * * I possessed one of the Aguilillas which often carried me from Callao to Lima, two measured leagues and a half, over a very bad and stony road, in twenty-nine minutes. The species is not hand- some, but easy to the rider, very gentle and docile, yet full of spirit
and intrepidity."
THE CHICKASAW HORSE.
In " Smyth's Tour in the United States," published in London in 1784, the author, speaking of a town in North Carolina, says:
" Whilst I remained at this place I purchased a beautiful Chickasaw horse — named so from a nation of Indians, who are very careful in preserving a fine breed of Spanish horses they have long possessed unmixed with any other."
From North Carolina Mr. Smyth passed to Kentuck}-, where he joined two Virginians in a trip by boat down the Mississippi to New Orleans, and in this trip they stopped on shore two days at the mouth of the Yazoo River, where they met a party of Chickasaw Indians, of whom he thus speaks :
" The Chickasaws are a very brave and respectable nation, not for their numbers, for they are few, but for their virtue and uncon- querable spirit. They are also remarkably handsome, and what is very singular, have a beautiful breed of horses amongst them, which they carefully preserve unmixed. The Chickasaws, it is said, and I make no doubt of the fact, came originally from South America, having traveled across the continent for upwards of 2000 miles, and brought these horses along with them, which are of the breed of that much admired kind called Spanish gennets, having long since taken them from the Spaniards.
"There is no Indian nation on the continent of North America near so handsome as the Chickasaws. The Hurons come next to them in beauty. * * * Another singularity that seems to be peculiar to this nation is their frequently going out to meet their enemies on horseback, which with their very fine horses that they take such delight in, renders them, in fact, a nation of cavalry."
Later he describes meeting at New Orleans a gentleman who, with a large number of British sailors and French emigrants, landing in Mexico, were made prisoners by the Spaniards and carried to a town in New Mexico, inland, no less than 86 days' journey. Here a priest interested himself to procure their liberty and furnished them every day with a fat bullock.
" But," the account says, " so numerous were his flocks of
HORSES OF GENERAL WASHINGTON lix
cattle, as well as of horses, that although they received above one hundred oxen from him, yet they could not be missed out of the whole flock. And Mr. Ford assures me that he possessed more than 15,000 horned cattle and near 10,000 horses and colts, which were kept fat the whole year around by the luxuriant pasture which that country affords."
Returning by boat, he stops at Florida, where he says horses are from £4. to £^ each; cow with calf, £2.
HORSES OF GENERAL WASHINGTON.
From " Travels in North America, " by the Marquis de Chas- tellux in 1780, 1781 and 1782, we get a glimpse of the horses of Gen. Washington and those about him, as noted by a very keen- eyed observer:
" Whilst we were at breakfast horses were brought and Gen. Washington gave orders for the army to get under arms at the head of the camp. The horses brought were a present from the state of Connecticut; he mounted one himself and gave me the other. Mr. Lynch and M. de Montesquieu had each of them also a very hand- some blood horse, such as we could not find at Newport (whence his journey began) at any money. * * * j distinguished with pleasure among the colonels, who were extremely well mounted, M. de Guinot. This whole vanguard consisted of six battalions, forming two brigades ; but there was only one piquet of dragoons, or light cavalry, the remainder having marched to the southward with Col. Lee. These dragoons are perfectly well mounted and do not fear meeting the English dragoons anywhere. They have gained several advantages."
And again he speaks of Gen. Washington's horses as follows :
" The weather being fair on the 26th, I got on horseback after breakfasting with the general. He was so attentive as to give me the horse he rode on the day of my arrival, which I had greatly commended. I found him as good as he is handsome; but above all perfectly well broke and well trained, having a good mouth easy in hand, and stopping short in a gallop without bearing on the bit. I mention these matters particularly because it is the General himself who breaks all his own horses : and he is a very excellent and bold horseman, leaping the highest fences and going extremely quick."
In "Washington's Letters to John Sinclair, Bart., M. P.," dated Philadelphia, July 20, 1794, Gen. Washington himself says:
Ix THE HORSES OF AMERICA
" Our domestic animals (as well as our agriculture) are inferior to yours in point of size, but this does not proceed from any defect in the stamina of them, but to deficient care in providing for their support, experience having abundantly evinced that where our pastures are as well improved as the soil and climate will admit; when a competent share of wholesome produce is laid up and proper care used in issuing it, that our horses, black cattle, sheep, are not inferior to the best of their respective kinds which have been imported from England."
PONIES IN MARYLAND. "The little nag I bestrode was barely fourteen hands, and although I rode thirteen stone and a half and had come twenty miles over very bad roads, she was just as fresh and anxious to push on as if she had just left the stable. All I saw would have been regarded as extraordinary little creatures for their inches. More lasting, more valuable, not so high but stouter, are the Beach ponies, brought from the island of Chincolique, a long, compara- tively waste on the Atlantic sea-board, where they roam about in large herds, wild as the mustangs on the prairies of Northern Mex- ico. Since their capacity for work, high courage and sure-footed- ness have become known they have become expensive. Ten of the the Beach ponies which I saw at Baltimore reminded me much of the admirable ponies which are found in Morocco. The outline, topping shape of head and setting on of both were the same. Their origin is unknown. Probably they are of Spanish breed, bred originally in Mexico." (Parker Gilmore.)
IMPORTATIONS TO CANADA.
The next known importation to America after the Spanish was by M. L'Escarbot, a French lawyer, in 1604, who brought horses with other domestic animals to Acadia. Herbert says that in 1608 the French extended their colonization into Canada and introduced horses into that country "where the present race, though it has somewhat degenerated in size, owing probably to the inclemency of the climate, still shows the blood, sufhciently distinct, of the Norman and Breton breeds." We have found no other authority that they were thus early taken to Canada. On the contrary, Charlevoix, in his history of New France, pubhshed at Paris in 1764 (Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par le P. De Charlevoix de la Compagnie de Jesus, Paris, 1764) says (Vol. i, p. 381) that the first horses were brought to Canada in 1665 :
IMPORTATIONS TO MASSACHUSETTS Ixi
(" Le restc du Regiment de Caregnan arriva avec M. de Salieres sur line Escadrc, que portait aussi un grand nombre de families. * * * Les premiers chevcaux, qu on ait vas en Canada; des boeufs, des moutons, en un mot une Colonie plus considerable qui celles, qu'on renait renforcer.")
This statement of this early historian has been usually accepted as correct, though why Canada should have gone so long without horses does not well appear. The history of the horses of Canada will be considered in a future chapter.
IMPORTATIONS TO VIRGINIA.
In 1609 the English ships landing at Jamestown, Va., brought besides swine, sheep and cattle, six mares and a horse. This is the second importation of horses to the United States, and the first made by the English, so far as known. But these animals all perished the next winter, in the " starvation time," as fully shown in the article on Virginia within; and as late as 1649 it would appear that there had been no considerable increase, as it is stated in "A Perfect Description of Virginia," London, 1649: "That there are in Virginia about 15,000 English and of Negroes 300, good servants. That of kine, oxen, bulls, calves, 20,000 large and good ; and they make plenty of butter and very good cheese. That there are, of an excellent race, about 200 horses and mares. That of asses for burthen and use there are 50, but daily increased. That for sheep they have about 3,000, good wool. That for goats their number is 5,000; thrive well. That for swine, both tame and wilde (in the woods) innumerable; the flesh pure and good, and bacon none better. That for poultry, hens, turkeys, ducks, geese, without number," etc. (See Virginia.)
IMPORTATIONS TO MASSACHUSETTS.
In 1629 horses and mares were brought into the plantation of Massachusetts Bay by Francis Higginson, formerly of Leicester- shire, from which county many of the animals are said to have been imported. The same year seven mares and one stallion were landed at Salem, together with 40 cows and forty goats. And in 1635 two Dutch ships arrived at Salem with 27 mares valued at ^34 each, and three stallions.
These are the first and principal importations of horses to America that history records, and from these the principal part of the original stock descended. It \\\\\ be seen that the Spanish,
Ixij THE HORSES OF AMERICA
the French, the Dutch and the English horses were equally drawn upon. Probably of these the Spanish was the best blood. The French and the Dutch made serviceable and enduring stock. And from the English, improved by Narragansett blood, came the pacer or New England and Virginia pony, afterwards exported in large numbers to the West Indies.
Si.
<ii"
THE THOROUGHBRED Ixiii
THE THOROUGHBRED.
"Choose with like care the courser's generous breed, And from his birth prepare the parent steed. As yet a colt he stalks with lofty pace, And balances his limbs with flexile grace : First leads the way, the threatening torrent braves ; And dares the unknown arch that spans the waves. Light on his airy crest his slender head. His belly short, his loins luxuriant spread : Muscle on muscle knots his brawny breast. No fear alarms him, nor vain shouts molest. But at the clash of arms, his ear afar Drinks the deep sound, and vibrates to the war : Flames from each nostril roll in gather' d stream, His quivering limbs with restless motion gleam." — Virgil.
BY referring to Chapter IX. of Volume I. of this work, giving a history of the horses of England and the British Isles, it will be seen that Great Britain, when invaded by the Romans, possessed many horses, and from that time on they were more or less carefully bred, the blood being reinforced occasionally by foreign importa- tions, including that of Europe as well as the East, large as well as small. It also appears that racing and hunting had always been in vogue in the British Isles, and that therefore many of their horses must have been bred for such purposes, thus combining and per- petuating in long line the blood of winners.
In the early part of the sixteenth century additional importa- tions of Eastern horses and mares were made and a systematic effort inaugurated to improve the running stock. To these im- portations the English thoroughbred horse, from which the Amer- ican is descended, is credited. That the English thoroughbred is largely descended from these later Eastern importations is unquestionably true, but undoubtedly with more or less admix- ture of the native English blood, as evidenced by the increased size, and in the incomplete pedigrees, especially of the dams, of nearly or quite all of the foundation stock. It is very possible,
Ixiv THE HORSES OF AMERICA
too, indeed almost certain, that some of the pedigrees as given are incorrect. Judicious selection in breeding, with liberal feeding and care as more generally practiced in later years, undoubtedly had more or less to do with the increase in size.
In i6i6 the Markham Arabian was purchased by James I. He is usually spoken of as the first Arabian horse brought to Eng- land, but this is unquestionably an error. Previous to this time, however, Eastern blood does not appear to have been a dominant or even an important factor in English runners. Mr. Gervase Markham. in a book on the horse, published i6o6, says:
"For swiftness, what nation has brought forth the horse which excelled the English ? When the best Barbaries that ever w^ere in their prime, I saw them overcome by a black Hobbie, of Salisbury, and yet this black Hobbie was overcome by a horse called Valentine, which Valentine neither in hunting nor running was ever equalled, yet was a plain English horse, both by sire and dam."
And in a description of the city of London by William Fitz- stephen, 1174, he says that in a certain " plane field without one of the gates every Friday, unless it be one of the more solemn festivals, is a noted show of well-bred horses exposed for sale. The earls, barons and knights, who are resident in the city, as well as a multi- tude of citizens, flock thither either to look on or buy." After de- scribing the different varieties of horses brought into the market, especially the more valuable chargers, he says : " When a race is to be run by such horses as these, and perhaps by others which, in like manner, according to their breed are strong for carriage and vigor- ous for the course, the people raise a shout and order the common horses to be withdrawn to another part of the field. The jockeys, who are boys expert in the management of horses, which they regu- late by means of curb bridles, sometimes by threes and sometimes by twos, as the match is made, prepare themselves for the contest. Their chief aim is to prevent a competitor from getting before them. The horses, too, after their manner, are eager for the race ; their limbs tremble, and impatient of delay they cannot stand still ; upon the signal being given they stretch out their limbs, hurry on the course, and are borne along with unremitting speed. The riders, in- spired with the love of praise and the hope of victory, clap spurs to their flying horses, lashing them with whips, and inciting them by their shouts."
Of all the early English iinportations two horses — the Godolphin Arabian and Darley Arabian — stand pre-eminent as contributors to
IMPORTATIONS INTO VIRGINIA Ixv
the foundation upon which was buildcd the famous EngHsh and American race horse; and while both are called Arabians, and prob- ably were descended from that blood, it is not certainly known where or how they were bred. The Darley Arabian, a bay, about 15 hands, powerfully built and of elegant carriage, was brought from Aleppo, in Asia Minor. He was taken to England in 1703, twenty-five years before the arrival of the Godolphin Arabian. The latter, described as a brown bay, about 15 hands, was brought to England from France.
Many of the most famous English race horses trace in direct male line to one or both of these stallions ; a number of others in the maternal line, and a large majority of successful race horses and progenitors of race horses, both in England and America, carry more or less of their blood. Nor did any Eastern horse imported after them become prominent in the English thoroughbred.
The first mention of English thoroughbreds brought to America that we have account of, was the stallion Tamerlane and several mares said to have been imported into Pennsylvania by William Penn about 1697. Nothing further appears concerning these horses and the statement of their importation may be a mistake. The first of English thoroughbreds brought to America whose blood appears in American pedigrees, was the stallion BuUe Rock, foaled about 1718, got by the Darley Arabian : dam by Byerly Turk ; 2d dam by Lister Turk; 3d dam Arabian mare. Imported into Virginia in 1730.
Among the more important thoroughbred staUions imported into America since BuUe Rock, are the following, given in the order of their importation :
INTO VIRGINIA.
Dabster, sorrel, blaze in face, white legs, flaxen mane and tail, glass eyes; said to be foaled 1735 and imported 1741 ; got by Hob- goblin, son of Aleppo: dam by Spanker; 2d dam by Hautboy. Edgar says he get, in general, very good stock.
Crab (Routh's), by old Crab, dam Coneyskins mare by Counsel- lor, 2d dam by Hutton's Gray Barb — Hutton's Royal Colt — Byerly Turk — Bustler (Son of the Helmsly Turk). Said to have been im- ported into Virginia about 1745. See Othello.
Monkey, foaled 1725, bred by Lord Lonsdale, imported 1747; got by the Lonsdale Bay Arabian : dam bred by Mr. Curwen, got by Curwen's Bay Barb — Viola Turk — Arabian mare. He is said
Ixvi THE HORSES OF AMERICA
to have got about two hundred and fifty colts iw America and to have died in 1754. Kept in Virginia and North Carolina. His stock were excellent. — Pedigree from General Stud Book.
Jolly Roger, chestnut; foaled 1741 ; bred by Mr. Craddock, England; imported about 1748 and died in Greenville County, Va., 1772. Under the name of Roger of the Vale he won a number of rich stakes in England, his name being changed to Jolly Roger after landing in America. He was got by Roundhead, son of Flying Childers, by Darley Arabian ; Roundhead's dam the famous plate winner Roxana (dam of Lath and Cade, by Godolphin Arabian), by the Bald Galloway ; the dam of Jolly Roger by Craft's Partner, son of Jigg, by the ByerlyTurk; 2d dam by Woodcock — Croft's Bay Barb — Makeless — Brimmer, etc. Jolly Roger got many fine racers, stallions and brood mares. Skinner's "American Turf Journal" says he was the first horse that gave distinction to running stock in Vir- ginia.
Janus, foaled 1746, imported into Virginia about 1752 by Mor- decai Booth, and was one of the most famous of imported horses, his stock being greatly noted for their individuality and speed at short distances. He was advertised at Goodbridge, Chesterfield County, Va., in the "Virginia Gazette," 1775, by John Goode, Sr. Janus came nearer to being the founder of a family than any other horse owned in the Southern States, and crosses to him were long and highly valued. Janus was got by Old Janus (son of Godolphin Arabian, out of the little Hartley mare) ; dam by Fox, son of Clumsey, by Hautboy, son of Darcy White Turk ; 2d dam by the Bald Galloway. Janus died in 1779, the property of J. Atherton, Northampton, N. C. His best son was Celer, bred by Mr. Mead of Virginia, foaled 1774: dam by Imported Aristotle, son of the Cullen Arabian. Celer died 1 802. A correspondent writes to the " American Turf Register," 1829: " I have heard Revolutionary ofificers say that the imported Janus had a blaze in his face, and both hind legs about half up white, and he was about 15 hands high, of singular strength and roundness of form; and that he died in Northumberland County, N. C, at about thirty-four years old. The "Sporting Magazine," Vol. 3, in a list of the stallions of North Carolina, says: "Janus was a small but beautiful horse. He was a chestnut; speckled on the rump as he grew old ; a small blaze in the face and hind foot white. His stock were celebrated for beauty, great speed in short distance, hardy constitution and long life."
Morton's Traveler, foaled 1748, imported to Virginia and kept
MORTON'S TRAVELER Ixvii
at Richmond from 1754. Morton's Traveler was one of the best of the early importations. Skinner in his "Turf Magazine" writes: "Not until the get of imported Traveler and Fearnaught ran, were Virginia horses able to compete with those of Maryland in races of four-mile heats."
Traveler was bred at Raby in Yorkshire, Eng., by Mr. Crofts, foaled 1747 ; got by Crofts' Partner, son of Jigg, by the Byerly Turk, dam Bay Bloody Buttocks, foaled 1729, bred byMr. Crofts, got by Bloody Buttocks, Arabian; 2d dam foaled 1722, bred by Mr. Crofts, got by Grayhound, Arabian; 3d dam Brown Farewell, foaled 1 7 10, bred by Mr. Crofts, got by Makeless, son of the Oglethorpe Arabian ; 4th dam thought to have been bred at Hampton Court, got by Brimmer, son of Yellow Turk; 5th dam said to be by Place's White Turk; 6th dam by Dodsworth, Arabian; and 7th dam the Layton Barb mare.
Partner was chestnut; foaled 1718; bred by Mr. Pelham and got by Jigg, son of Byerly Turk : dam by Curwen's Bay Barb ; 2d dam by Curwen's Old Spot; 3d dam by the Chestnut White-Legged Lowther Barb.
Jigg was owned by Sir R. Mostyn. He was a common country stallion in Lincolnshire, till Partner, a capital horse, was six years old.
The Byerly Turk was Captain Byerly's charger in Ireland, in King William's wars (1689, etc.).
Bloody Buttocks was a gray Arabian, with a red mark on his hip, whence his name. He was owned by Mr. Crofts.
Grayhound was bred in Barbary, where his dam (in foal with him), and sire, Chillaby, were purchased and brought to England by Mr. Marshall.
The breeder of Makeless is unknown. He was by the Ogle- thorpe Arabian : dam unknown.
Brimmer was bred by the D'Arcy family ; got by D'Arcy Yellow Turk : dam a Barb.
Place's White Turk was the property of Mr. Place, stud-master to Oliver Cromwell.
Dodsworth was bred in Barbary about 1674, and, with his dam, a natural Barb, afterward called a Royal mare, imported into England.
Very little is known of Morton's Traveler. He was imported into Virginia by James Morton. Edgar states that he stood at Rich- mond Court House in 1754. His blood enters very largely into the American thoroughbred horse, especially through his sons, Lloyd's Traveler from imported Jenny Cameron ; Yorick and Tyrall from
Ixviii THE HORSES OF AMERICA
imported Betty Blazella, a daughter of Jenny Cameron ; and Partner and Ariel from Tasker's imported Selima. The last of his get that we have record of were foaled in 1769, and he probably died about that time. No description of him has been handed down, but of his get, that appear in Edgar, two are bay, two brown, three gray, three chestnut, one sorrel and two black. Of these, one is fourteen and three-quarters hands, one fifteen hands, two fifteen and a quarter hands, two fifteen and a half hands, two fifteen and three quarters hands, and three sixteen hands.
The famous Widdrington mare, dam of Shepherd's Crab and other capital racers, was full sister to Traveler.
The sire of the original Morgan horse was a horse called True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, which was captured from Col. James De. Lancey of the English army near King's Bridge, N. Y., in 1780 by several American scouts, who sold him to parties at Hartford, Conn., where he passed into the possession of Selah Norton, who kept him for stock purposes and repeatedly advertised him. In these adver- tisements he is described as a full blooded English horse, bay, 15 hands, got by imported Traveler that stood in New Jersey, dam De Lancey's imported racer.
As advertisements of the sale of stock by Capt. James De Lancey in 1775 showed that he had bred his racing mare, Betty Leedes, to Lloyd's Traveler, son of Morton's imported Traveler, and which is supposed to have stood in New Jersey, it seemed most probable that this Traveler was the sire of Beautiful Bay, or True Briton, and this probability is suggested in Volume L of the American Morgan Reg- ister. But further information in regard to True Briton preserved in the De Lancey family, is to the effect that he was imported from England by Capt. James De Lancey, importer of VVildair and the Cub Mare. This account furnished by Mr. Edward F. De Lancey, now residing at New York and a grand nephew of Governor James De Lancey, for Volume IL of the Morgan Register, appears in this chapter under the importations of stallions to New York.
Fearnaught, bay, 15 hands 2;^ inches high; foaled 1755; bred by Mr. Warren; got by Regulus, son of Godolphin Arabian: dam Silvertail by Heneage's Whitenose, foaled 1722, son of Hall's Arabian — Rattle, son of Sir J. Harper's Barb — Darley Arabian — Old Child Mare by Sir T. Gresley's Bay Arabian — Mr. Cook's Vixen by the Helmsley Turk — Dodsworth's dam. See General Stud Book, Vol. L, page 183. Fearnaught was a successful race horse.
Edgar says : " He was imported by John Baylor, of Virginia
SHADOW Ixix
and brought into that State in March, 1764. His first cost, including freight, insurance, provender, commissions, etc., was ;^289, 5 s., Qd., sterling.
" Fearnaught afterwards became the property of Mr. William Edwards at Hick's Ford. Greenesville County, Va. He covered at that place in the spring of 1775 and 1776 and died in the fall of the latter year. His service fee was £6, Virginia currency, the season, equal to nearly ii"i 5 at the present time, comparing the value of the property and the price of the country produce during these periods.
"Fearnaught was one of the most distinguished stallions ever in America. Very many deservedly celebrated horses sprang from him and his distinguished name is to be found in almost any thorough- bred horse's pedigree, in Virginia, which traces back to this time. He left behind him a most brilliant and lasting race."
The most noted of the sons of Fearnaught, on the turf and in the stud, were Nonpariel, dam by Janus ; Nimrod, dam by Part- ner; America, dam by Jolly Roger; Fitzhugh's Regulus, dam im- ported Jenny Dismal ; Godolphin, full brother to Regulus ; Speci- men, another full brother and sire of the noted racer Paul Jones; Shakespeare, dam by Cub; Shakespeare, dam by Shakespeare; General Spottswood's Apollo; Harris' Eclipse; Matchless; King Herod, dam by Othello ; Whynot, dam by Othello ; Dandrick's Fearnaught and Symmes' Wildair, the last two probably the best of the descendants of old Fearnaught.
Aristotle, brown ; foaled 1755 ; bred by Mr. Bladen, England ; got by CuUen Arabian : dam by Crab — Hobgoblin — Godolphin Arabian, — out of the famous mare called White Cheeks. This pedigree is certified to by his breeder. Imported about 1764. Advertised 1773 by Benjamin Harrison, at Berkeley, Va. ; died 1776. Ran three times in England, winning twice. Not in General Stud Book.
Shadow, bred by the Duke of Northumberland and got by Babraham, son of Godolphin Arabian: dam by Starling, son of old Starling by Bay Bolton, son of Gray Hautboy by Hautboy, son of White Darcy Turk ; 2d dam Coughing Polly, by Bartlet's Childers, full brother to Flying Childers; 3d dam by Counsellor, son of Lons- dale Counsellor, by the Shaftsbury Turk — Snake — Luggs — Davill's old Woodcock. Shadow was imported to Virginia in 1767, and kept in Mecklenburg County; soon after went to South Carolina. He was quite a race horse and left a valuable progeny from which have descended many first-class horses of the present day.
Ixx THE HORSES OF AMERICA
Merry Tom, said to have been an exceedingly beautiful bay horse, 14)4^ hands; foaled 1759; bred by William Parker, New- castle, England ; got by Regulus, son of the Godolphin Arabian : dam by Locust, son of Crab, Imported previous to 1767. He ran several successful races in England in 1762-64. Advertised in Prince George County, Va., by John Baird in 1767-68, ^TJl-T^ and kept in that county up to 1784. He left some very good stock.
Medley, gray; foaled 1776; got by Gimcrack, a gray, and from his low stature called the "little gray horse Gimcrack," foaled 1760, son of Cripple, by the Godolphin Arabian. Gimcrack was said to be one of the best bottomed horses that ever ran in England. Though small, his ability to carry weight was very great, as he frequently gave the odds as high as 28 pounds; he continued on the turf until 1 1 years old. The dam of Medley was Arminda by Snap ; 2nd dam Miss Cleveland, by Regulus; 3d dam Midge, by a son of Bay Bolton ; 4th dam by Bartlet's Childers ; 5th dam by Honey- wood's Arabian ; 6th dam the dam of the two True Blues. Medley was imported 1784 by Malcomb Hart of Hanover County, Va., who paid iJ"ioo, 15s. I id., for him and in 1792 sold a half interest to John and James Wilkinson of Southampton County, Va., for 29,000 pounds of tobacco. Medley died that fall.
Col. John Tayloe, one of the most extensive importers and breeders of thoroughbreds in Virginia, writes of Medle)-: "He was one of the most beautiful horses I ever saw. I cannot at this remote period pretend to describe him further than to say he was a gray horse of the finest proportions, and not more than 14^ to 15 hands high. J have always esteemed him one of the best horses ever imported into the United States, and concur with you in the opinion that his stock is decidedly the best we have had. His colts were the best racers of their day, although generally small, but their limbs were remarkably strong and fine, and they were dis- tinguished for their ability to carry weight."
The blood of imported Medley has proved not only a most important factor in the production of our greatest runners, but is found in many of the speediest light harness horses of the present day. The dam of the Morgan stallion Black Jack was by a son of imported Medley. Black Jack got the grandam of Lady Yeiser, who produced Lottie Loraine, 2:05^, Don Pizarro, 3 years old, 2:143/^, Mistake, 2:291^, Don Lorenzo (3 years ) , 2 : 1 7 3/^, Chastine 2 :29^, Galena, 2 \2Z%, Griselda, 2 129^, and Chief 2 :32 i^.
BED/' OR D ■ Ixxi
Shark, considered in luigland the best horse of his time, beating nearly all his contemporaries at every distance, clearly demonstrating his superiority both fc^r speed and bottom. lie was brown, 15)^ hands; foaled 1771 ; bred by Mr. Pigot; got by Marske, son of Squirt, by Bartlet's Childers; dam by Snaj) ; 2nd dam by Marlborough, son of Godolphin Arabian; y\ dam a Natural Barb Mare.
Imported to Virginia in 1 786 by Benjamin Hyde of Fred- ericksburg. He proved a successful sire of running stock, and his name frequently appears in trotting pedigrees. His son Cam- den got Simpson's Blackbird, a fast runner and long-distance trotter, and he in turn begot speedy trotters and producers, such as Califor- nia Blackbird, 2 :22, and Alf Richmond, sire of the dams of Anteeo, 2:16, Antevolo, 2:19; and these, together with their full brother Anteros, have furnished nearly a hundred members of the 2:30 list. Shark died in the stud of General Washington about 1796.
Dare Devil, bay; foaled 1787; bred by the Duke of Grafton; got by Magnet, son of King Herod: dam Hebe, by Chrysolite, son of Blank, by Godolphin Arabian. Imported by Col. Hoomes of Virginia, 1795, and sold to Mr. Starke. Kept at Warrenton in 1800. Dare Devil was a successful racer in England and got in this country some excellent stock.
Bedford, bay; foaled 1792; bred by Lord Grosvenor ; got by Dungannon, son of Eclipse: dam Fairy, by Highflyer, son of King Herod; 2d dam Fairy Queen (2d dam of imported Citizen), by Young Cade, son of Cade, by Godolphin Arabian; 3d dam Routh's Black Eyes, by Routh's Crab, son of Crab, by Alcock Arabian.
Imported by John Hoomes and advertised at Bowling Green, Va., 1796, at four guineas. Sold to Wade Hampton, October, 1803. In his three-year-old form Bedford ran some good races, though badly managed. His progeny proved first class performers. Fairy, the first of his get in this country, won thirteen races out of fifteen. Fairy's full brother, Gallatin, when three years old, won a three-mile heat in 5 minutes 43 seconds, the best time on record up to that day. Dungannon, a son, was a consistent performer at all distances and many of the best race horses of early days, such as Kosciusko, Crusader, American Eclipse, Bertrand, Gohanna, Kate Kearney, Sussex, Giles Scroggins, Caswell, Trifle, and others, trace to Bedford mares, and in the pedigrees of many of our fastest and gamiest harness horses of the present day are found their names, or those of their descendants.
Ixxii THE HORSES OF AMERICA
Diomed, chestnut; foaled 1777; bred by Richard Vernon, of Newmarket; got by Florizel, son of Herod: dam by Spectator — Blank — Childers — Miss Belvoir by Gray Grantham — Paget (or Pigot) Turk — Betty Percival by Leedes Arabian — Spanker. Diomed was imported into Virginia by John Hoomes, in 1798. He was a successful racer in England and proved a very successful sire in this country, Herbert says of him : " Diomed is probably the greatest sire of the greatest winner getters ever brought into this country, and again one of the best horses ever imported, and who has told the long- est tale on American stock." A note in Weatherbee's English Stud Book says of him: " Sire in America of Sir Archie, Duroc, Florizel, Dinwiddie, Gracken and Hampton, and many other first-class runners, and themselves sires of runners. Indeed, his get were among the best ever sired in the United States, being large and powerful." Diomed was not only the begetter of speed at the run, but his blood enters very largely in the pedigrees of American trotters and pacers. He was sold to Goode, Selden & Co. Died 1808.
The blood of Diomed has also been very widely distributed over the country. In the South many of his sons, grandsons and great-grandsons were kept as stallions and became very noted, so that there is hardly a pedigree of note in that whole region includ- ing Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky, whether of runners, trotters or pacers, in which this blood does not appear. His descendants were also numerous throughout the West ; and in New York and New England the blood became prominent through his son, Duroc, and his grandson, the very celebrated American Eclipse, as well as from other sources.
The well known and brilliant turf writer, S. W. Parlin, editor-in- chief of the "American Horse Breeder," Boston, Mass., gives the following history of this remarkable horse and his ancestors :
THE HISTORY OF DIOMED.
"The following account is given by an English writer, briefly outlining the career of this truly celebrated horse before he came to this country :
" ' Diomed, the first winner of the Derby stakes at Epsom, a chestnut horse, foaled in 1777, bred by the Hon. Richard Vernon of Newmarket, and sold to Sir C. Bunbury, Bart. Diomed was got by Florizel, out of the Spectator mare, dam of Pastorella, Fame, etc.
'"At Newmarket second spring meeting, 1780, Diomed won a
DIOMED Ixxiii
sweepstak'cs of 600 f^s. each, six subscribers. At ICpsom, Ma}- 4, he won the Derby stakes of 50 gs. each, 36 subscribers, the last mile of the course, beating Mr. Kelley's Boudrow, Mr, Waller's Spitfire, Sir C. Colinson's Wooton, Mr. Panton's Drone, Duke of Cumber- land's Polydore, Lord Grosvenor's Diadem, Duke of Bolton's Bay Bolton and Mr. Delme's gray colt, by Gimcrack, from Woolscy's dam ; six to four against Diomed, four to one against Boudrow, and seven to one against Spitfire. At Newmarket July meeting, he walked over a sweepstake of 100 gs. each, seven subscribers across the flat.
'"On Tuesday, in the first October meeting, a sweepstakes of 100 guineas each. Next day he won the Perram purse of £^0, with i^50 added. On Friday he received forfeit from Catalpha, by Turf, R. M. 100 guineas. In the second October meeting, 1781, Diomed received forfeit from Susannah, b. c. 500 guineas h. ft. In the Spring meeting, he won the claret stakes of 200 guineas each, h- ft. and a hogshead of claret each, p. p. fourteen subscribers.
'" At Nottingham, he was beat for the first time by Fortitude, and at Newmarket in October by Boudrow. In 1782 he did not start, but paid a forfeit to Crop.
'" Diomed was beat six times in 1783, viz.: at Newmarket for the Craven stakes, won by Arabic, in the first Spring meeting ; for the ;^50 purse by Laburnum and Drone, also for the King's purse, won by Drone at Ascot Heath, by Soldier and Oliver Cromwell ; at Win- chester for the King's purse by Anvil ; and at Lewes for the King's purse by Mercury and Diadem. Diomed fell lame in running and was put out of training.
'" He w^as sold in 1798, by Sir Charles Bunbury, for fifty guineas to go to America, where he was sold for 1000 guineas. Was alive in 1807.'
"It will be noted from his pedigree when fully extended that Diomed 'traces back to the following-named horses, through his sire and dam, viz.: Leedes' Arabian, nine times; Darley's Arabian, seven times; Byerly Turk, five times; Curwen's Bay Barb twice, Bald Galloway once, Godolphin Arabian twice. Flying Childers four times. Fox once, Basto twice. Crab twice, Herod once, Bay Bolton once, and several other Arabians, Barbs and Turks.
"All the above-mentioned horses have a history that is worthy of note, and it is my purpose to give this history as related by this English writer, as it lies at the root of the question as to the powers of what we call thoroughbred horses.
Ixxiv THE HORSES OF AMERICA
"The Leedes Arabian, sire of Ariadne, was first called the North- umberland Arabian, and afterwards being disposed of to Mr. Leedes of North Melford, Yorkshire, was distinguished in his stud by the name of the Leedes' Arabian. He was foaled in 1655 and was pur- chased in Zamie of the Immanum or King of Sinna, in Arabia Felix, at a very great expense, and brought into England by Mr. Phillips, a gentleman well known for his extensive skill and nice judgment in the peculiar and distinguished points and qualifications necessary in a race horse.
"The following is the account given of this horse by Mr. P. Pick :
'"Mr. Phillips was sent into Arabia by the Earl of Northumber- land, purposely to select and purchase for his lordship such Arabian horses and mares as might appear best calculated to improve the breed of horses in this country. The Leedes Arabian was a private stallion in Lord Northumberland's stud until the year 1666, when he served mares at Mr. Leedes' at 3 gs. and 5s. the groom; in 1667. 1678, and several years afterwards, at 5 gs. and 3 s. He was also sire of his Lordship's Nonesuch, Actaeon and Grizelda, of Mr. Shafto's Mittimus, Mr. Jenning's Ultra-marine, Sir John Douglas' Phillippo, Mr. Morrisson's DoUy-O, etc. He served very few mares, notwithstanding which there was not above two or three of his get but what were winners. The Darley Arabian (sire of Childers) was the property of Mr. Darley of Buttercramp, near York. A brother of that gentleman being an agent in merchandise abroad, became a member of a hunting club, by which means he acquired interest to procure the said Arabian for a moderate sum, and which he sent over to England as a present to his brother. He also got Almanzor, a very fleet horse ; the Duke of Somerset's Whitley, own brother to Almanzor, and thought to be as good, but meeting with an accident he never ran in public; Cupid and Briskgood horses; Daedalus, a very fleet horse ; Skipjack, Manica, Aleppo, Brisk, Bully, Rook, Whistlejacket and Dart, good plate horses, though out of indifferent mares, and Lord Tracey's Whimsey, a good plate mare. He covered only a few mares besides Mr. Darley's.'
"The Byerly Turk (sire of Basto) was Capt. Byerly's charger in Ireland in King William's wars (1689, etc.), and afterwards proved a most excellent stallion, though he did not cover many well-bred mares.
" He was sire of the Duke of Kingstone's Sprite, who was allowed to be nearly as good as Leedes' ; of Sir Roger Moyston's Jigg (sire of Mr. Croft's Partner) ; of the Duke of Rutland's Archer
DIOMED Ixxv
and Black Hearty (sire of Bonny IMack) ; of Lord Bristol's Grass- hopper, Lord Godolphin's liycrly gelding, Mr. Knightley's mare, etc., all in very high forms as racers. He got the dams of Lord Halifax's Farmer Mare (dam of his lordship's Miss Halifax), Sir W. W.. Wynn's Looby, Mr. Smales' Childers, etc. The great-grandam of Lord Godolphin's VVhitefoot, Wryfoot and Morat, which grandam of the said three was the dam of Grey Ramsden and great-great-gran- dam of the Bolton Fearnaught.
"The Curwen Bay Barb (sire of the dam of Partner) was a present to Louis XIV. from Muley Ishmael, King of Morocco, and was brought into England by Mr. Curwen of Workington, Cumber- land, who being in France when Count Bizham and Count Thoulouse (two natural sons of Louis XIV.) were (the former was master of the horse, and the latter admiral),. he procured of them two Barb horses, which he conveyed to England, both of which proved to be most excellent stallions. The Curwen Barb was distinguished for several years, by the bare style of the Bay Barb, and was as well known to sportsmen by that name as he would have been had there never been another Barb horse of his color in the kingdom. He did not cover many mares except Mr. Curwen's and Mr. Preham's.
"The Bald Galloway (sire of Buckhunter) was bred by Capt. Ryder of Whittlebury Forest, Northamptonshire. He was got by a Barb of Monsieur St. Victor, of France, well known to the sportsmen by the name of St. Victor's Barb ; his dam was a mare of Captain Rider's, got by Mr. Fenwick's Whynot (son of his Barb); his grandam was a royal mare. The Bald Galloway was also sire of Lord Portmore's Snake and Daffodil, Mr. Elstob's Cartouch, Mr. Buncombe's Dart (that won the King's Plate at York in 1722) ; he also got Mr. Howe's Foxhunter, and Grey Avington, Bald Avington, Roxanna (Cade and Lath's dam), Silverlocks (Brilliant's grandam) and several others that won plates in the north, which brought him into great repute as a stallion. He covered at the Oak-tree, Leem- ing-lane, Yorkshire, where he died.
"The Godolphin Arabian. — This extraordinary horse was of a brown bay color, with some white on the off heel behind, and sup- posed to have been foaled in 1724; he stood about fifteen hands high. He was long considered an Arabian, although his points resembled more those of the highest breed of Barbs. It is now gen- erally believed that he was imported into France from Barbary, and there is reason to believe was sent as a present from the Emperor of Morocco to Louis XIV. So little was he valued in France, says the
Ixxvi THE HORSES OF AMERICA
author of the ' Sportsman's Repository,' that he was actually employed in the drudgery of drawing a cart in Paris. He was brought into England by Mr. Coke, who gave him to Mr. Roger Williams, pro- prietor of the St. James's Coffee House.
"As we intend giving the performances of the most celebrated , of his get, it would be superfl.uous to do more here than to remark that every superior race horse, since his time up to the present day, partakes of his valuable blood. By Mr. Williams he was presented to the Earl of Godolphin, in whose possession he continued as a private stallion till his death. He was teazer to Hobgoblin in the years 1730 and 1731, and on the latter refusing to cover Roxanna, she was put to the Godolphin Arabian, and from that cover produced Lath, the first horse the supposed Arabian got.
" Lath was one of the finest horses of his day, and was pro- nounced by the most skilled at that time to be the best that had ap- peared at Newmarket for many years previous to his time, Childers only excepted. The Godolphin Arabian died at Hog-Magog in Cambridgeshire in 1752, being supposed to have been then in the twenty-ninth year of his age, and is buried in a covered passage leading to the stable, with a flat stone over him without any inscrip- tion. At his interment cake and ale were given, as at that after- wards of the celebrated race horse Eclipse.
"There is an original portrait of this remarkable horse, by Sey- mour, in the collection of the Marquis of Cholmondely, at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, and another picture of him with his favorite cat in the library at Hog-Magog, in Cambridgeshire. He was represented in all the prints of the day with his favorite cat, and such was the regard existing between them, that the cat really pined to death for the loss of the horse.
"The Godolphin Arabian was remarkable also for the almost unnatural curve of his crest. The Duke of Portland, it is well known, once possessed a horse with the same singularity. It is worthy of remark that the production of both colts and fillies pro- duced by this celebrated horse were of a bay color, like himself. This blood has now, however, been so much crossed that his descendants are to be met with of all colors.
"Childers, also called Flying Childers, a chestnut horse with part white on his nose and four white legs, foaled in 171 5. Bred by Leonard Childers, Esq., of Carr-House, near Doncaster, and was purchased when young by the Duke of Devonshire. Childers was got by the Darley Arabian ; his dam, called Betty Leedes, by Old
DIOMED Ixxvii
Careless; his grandam (own sister to Lccdcs), by Lecdes' Arabian; his great grandam by Spanker, out of the Old Morocco mare that was the dam of Spanker.
" Childers started several times at Newmarket against the best horses of his time and was never beaten. In April, 1 72 1 , he beat the Duke of Bolton's Speedwell, eight stone seven pounds each, four miles, 500 gs., and in October following he received of Speedwell 500 gs. forfeit. In October, 1722, Childers beat the Earl of Drog- heda's Chaunter, ten stone each, six miles for looo gs. In April, 1723, received of the Duke of Bridgewater's Lonsdale mare, and Lord Milsintowne's Stripling, fifty gs. forfeit, each, and in November following he received 100 gs. from Lord Godolphin's Bobsey.
"About the year 1721 Childers ran a trial against Alamanzor and the Duke of Rutland's Brown Betty, carrying nine stone two pounds over the round course at Newmarket, in six minutes and forty seconds; and it was thought he moved 82 1-2 feet in one second of time, which is nearly at the rate of one mile in a minute, a degree of velocity which no horse has been known to exceed. He likewise ran over the Beacon course in seven minutes and thirty seconds ; and it was supposed that he covered at every bound a space of twenty- five feet. He leaped ten yards on level ground with his rider. He was allowed by Sportsmen to be the fleetest horse that ever ran at Newmarket, or, as generally believed, that was ever bred in the world. He was not only eminent as a racer, but allowed by breeders to be a very valuable stallion, though he covered only a few mares, except the Duke of Devonshire's. He died in his grace's stud in the year 1741, aged twenty-six; and the last of his get that was trained was Velters Cromwell, Esq.'s Nestgul, foaled in the year 1740.
"Fox, commonly called Old Fox — a bay horse, foaled in 1714. Bred by Sir Ralph Ashton, Bart., and sold to Mathew Liston, Esq. Sir Ralph Ashton purchased two mares of Mr. Leedes, and had them both covered in one season (1713) by Clumsy, son of Mr. Wilke's Hautboy, one of which produced Fox, the other Fox-Cub or Squirrel. The dam of Fox was called Bey Peg, by the same Arabian, sire of Leedes' out of Spanker's dam. At York in 1719, Fox won the ladies' plate for five-year-olds, eight stone four miles, beating Lord Londale's Bay Jack, Duke of Ancaster's Blacklegs and others. He was then sold to the Duke of Rutland, in whose possession he beat the Duke of Wharton's Stripling at Newmarket for a considerable sum. He won Iavo King's plates at Newmarket, the King's plate at
Ixxviii THE HORSES OF AMERICA
Lewes, and received 250 gs. from the Duke of Wharton's Swallows. Fox then became the property of Mr. Cotton of Sussex, in whose hands he won the 300 gs. stakes at Ouainton Meadow; he afterwards beat Lord Hillsborough's Witty, gelding, for 2000 gs., from whom he also received a forfeit of 100 gs. ; he likewise beat Lord Drogheda's Snip three matches- for considerable sums, and Mr. Frampton's Miss Worksop, for 200 gs.
"Fox was a stallion in Lord Portmore's stud, and died in his lordship's possession in the spring oi 1738, aged twenty-three. He was sire of Capt. Appleyard's Cuddy and Conqueror, of the Duke of Bolton's Goliah and Merry Andrew, of Lord Portmore's Victorious and Slipby, of Mr. W'itty's Meliora (dam of the famous Tartar, sire of King's Herod), of the dam of the Duke of Cumberland's Crab, Sir William Middleton's Childerkin, Mr. Shafto's Snap, Northumber- land, Swiss, Legacy, etc.
"Basto, a brown horse, foaled in 1703, bred by Sir William Ramsden, Bart., of Byram, near Ferrybridge, Yorkshire, and sold when young to the Duke of Devonshire. He was got by the Byerly Turk ; his dam was called Bay Peg, a daughter of Leedes' Arabian, sire of Leedes and of the grandam of Childers. Basto's grandam was out of a daughter of Mr. Leedes' Bald Peg, and got by Old Spanker. Bald Beg, Basto's great-grandam, was bred b}' Lord General Fairfax, out of a mare of the same name, and got by his lordship's Morocco Barb.
"Basto won several matches at.Newmarket, but the accounts are deficient for several years in mentioning the sums that he, as well as many other horses, ran for at that place. The horses Basto beat are as follows, viz.: In October, 1703, at eight stone three pounds, he beat the Lord Treasurer's Squirrel, seven stone twelve pounds, four miles ; and in November following, at eight stone five pounds, he beat the Lord Treasurer's Billy, eight stone three pounds, five miles. In ]\Iarch, 1709, Basto, at eight stone five pounds, beat Lord Rayl- stone's Chance, seven stone, four miles; and in October following, at eight stone five pounds, he beat Mr. PuUeine's Tantivy, eight stone five pounds, five miles. In 1710, Basto, carrying eight stone seven pounds, four miles. He then became a stallion in the Duke of Devonshire's stud, and died about the year 1723.
"Basto was looked upon, when in keeping at Newmarket, to be a very fine form for running; he had an appearance of pride and spirit, which added greatly to his figure ; he was remarkably strong, and was allowed to be one of the most beautiful horses of his color that ever appeared in this kingdom.
BUZZARD Ixxix
" Basto was sire of the Duke of Devonshire's Old Coquette, Gim- crack, Soreheels and Little Lear ; of the Duke of Rutland's Black- eyed Susan, Dimple and Brown Betty, dam of Mr. Cole's Foxhunter; he also got the dam of Bay Motte, Old Crab, Blacklegs, Hip, Puff, Snit, etc., and the grandam of Vernon's Milliner, the Duke of Graf- ton's Magnet, Madam, etc. He covered very few mares beside the Duke of Devonshire's and Rutland's."
In addition to the above, Mr. Parlin writes us as follows, dated Boston, Aug. 28, 1901 :
"Very few horsemen of the present generation realize what Diomed accomplished in the wa)' of improving the speed and other valuable racing qualities of the horse stock of America. In Youatt's work on the horse, which was edited by Skinner and published early in 1843, are four tables. These tables occupy one page each, and begin on page 36. The first gives the best races at mile heats that had ever been run in America.
"Table No. i contains 18 names and they were the 18 best per- formers at mile heats. By carefully tracing the pedigrees of these 18 I find that 14 of them are direct descendants in the male line of imported Diomed. Just think of it ! A horse that was 22 years old when imported in 1 799, and only lived nine years after that beats all the other thoroughbred sires that ever stood in this country 14 to 4.
"Table No. 2 contains 31 names of all the best performers at two-mile heats, and 21 of them trace directly through their sires to old Diomed. In this table he beats all the other thoroughbred sires that had ever stood in this country 21 to 10.
"Table No. 3 shows 24 of the best performers in races of three- mile heats, and 16 of these 24 trace directly in the paternal line to imported Diomed. Here old Diomed beats all the others in the ratio of 16 to 8.
"The best races at four-mile heats are shown in table No. 4. This contains 17 names, and 10 of the 17 are direct descendants of old Diomed in the paternal line, showing a ratio of 10 to 7 against all other sires. The simple facts shown in these impartial tables tell the merits of old Diomed as a perpetuator of all the qualities of first class race horses in a more eloquent and convincing manner than the most gifted writer can express in song or story."
Buzzard, chestnut; foaled 1787; bred by Mr, Bullock; got by Woodpecker, son of Herod: dam Misfortune by Dux, son of Matchem by Cade, son of Godolphin Arabian ; 2d dam Curiosity by
Ixxx THE HORSES OF AMERICA
Snap, son of Snip, by Flying Childers ; 3d dam by Regulus, son of Godolphin Arabian ; 4th dam by Bartlet's Childers, full brother to Flying Childers; 5th dam by Honeywood's Arabian; 6th dam the dam of the two True Blues. Buzzard was imported to Virginia about 1804 by John Hoomes, and soon after taken to Kentucky by Benja- min Graves, where he was kept until his death in 181 1.
Whip, bay, 152/4 hands; foaled 1794; bred by Mr. Durand; got by Saltram, son- of Eclipse: dam by King Herod, son of Tartar by Partner, son of Fox, by Clumsy, son of Hautboy, by D'Arcy's White Turk — Oroonoko — Cartouch — son of Seabright's Arabian, Whip is said to have been a horse of great strength and beaut}', which qualities he impressed to a remarkable degree upon his descendants. He was imported about 1801 to Virginia, and owned at one time, if not imported, by Captain Richard Bland. Died in Kentucky, 1825.
The very noted racehorse. Hickory, brown, 15^ hands, foaled 1804; dam Dido by imported Dare Devil; 2nd dam by imported Clockfastwas a son of his. Sir Walter, chestnut, 15)4^ hands, foaled 1 8 16; dam Nettletop by imported Diomed, 2nd dam by imported Shark, 3d dam by Lindsay's Arabian ; was a son of Hickory. Sir Walter went to the Province of Quebec, Canada, where he ran races and was used as a stock horse, many of his get being kept as stal- lions. Moscow, the third horse to trot in 2:30 (1840), was by a son of his. Tacony, the ninth horse to trot in 2 130, was also by a son of his. And Highland Maid, 2 127, the eleventh horse to trot in 2 130, was by a son of Blackburn's Whip: dam by a son of Hickory.
Cook's or Blackburn's Whip, bred in Virginia, which went to Kentucky, was also a son of imported Whip. Of this last a corre- spondent in Kentucky writes to the American Turf Register:
" Cook's or Blackburn's Whip was the favorite horse in Ken- tucky for fifteen or twenty }^ears ; went to nearly all our best mares; was a uniform winner at one and two miles; of great speed and incomparable beauty. His stock was of the best. He was got by imported Whip : dam Speckleback by Randolph's Celer, son of Mead's Celer; 2d dam by Mead's Celer, son of imported Janus."
INTO MARYLAND.
The importations into Maryland were among the first and include some of the best imported horses:
Spark said to be by Aleppo, son of the Darley Arabian : dam by Bartlet's Childers ; 2d dam by old Spark, son of Honeycomb
OTHELLO Ixxxi
Punch; 3d dam by Rutland Concyskins, out of Swectlips ; imported about 1746 by Governor Ogle of Maryland, presented to him by Lord Baltimore, who received him as a gift from TVcdcrick the Prince of Wales.
Othello one of the best stallions of his day in America. Othello is advertised in the "Maryland Gazette," in 1756, as follows :
" In the hands of John Pearson, at Colonel Tasker's plantation, in Prince George's County, a beautiful black horse, full fifteen hands high, and will cover mares this season at four guineas. The dam of this horse was bred by the Duke of Somerset, and got by the Hamp- ton Court Childers. His sire was my Lord Portmore's Crab, sire of Oronoko, Sloe, Black-and-all-Black, and many other stallions now in great repute."
It will be perceived that the horse in this advertisement has no name, which would indicate that he was young and not then named. The next two seasons he is advertised under the name of Othello, in the same paper, to stand at the same place, in the same hands; but the pedigree is omitted. The statement that Lord Portmore's Crab was the sire of Oronoko, Sloe and Black-and-all-Black, would appear to be a mistake, as it was his sire. Cotton's or Panton's Crab, that got these horses ; or it is possible that at some time this last Crab was owned by Lord Portmore.
Othello is advertised again in the "Maryland Gazette," 1766, as follows :
"The horse Othello, that was bred by Colonel Tasker, and by him sold into Virginia, is now at Whitehall, on the north side of the Severn river in Anne Arundel County, and will cover mares this season at four guineas, and five shillings to the groom, the money to be paid before the mares are taken away. Robert Gay."
He is advertised the next year, by Mr. Gay, to stand near Annapolis at the same terms. The last advertisement that appears of him is in the same paper, 1770, as follows:
"The horse Othello, that was bred by Colonel Tasker, will cover this season at Whitehall. Four guineas each mare, and a dollar to groom."
Edgar, Bruce and Wallace all confound Tasker's Othello with English Othello, also called Black-and-all-Black, foaled 1743, bred by Lord Portmore and got by Crab son of Alcock Arabian.
From the above information it would seem quite probable that Colonel Tasker purchased Queen Mab of her breeder, his Majesty's
Ixxxii THE HORSES OF AMERICA
groom, Thomas Smith, in England. It would appear, too, that Miss Colville was the dam of Queen Mab and whether imported by Col- onel Tasker or not, was owned by him in 1755. It would also appear that Miss Colville was the dam of Othello, and that Othello was probably foaled in 1752. As in the first advertisement of Othello when at Colonel Tasker's plantation in 1756, when Colonel Tasker was alive, it is not stated that he was imported, and as later advertisements of him after Colonel Tasker's death state that he was bred by Colonel Tasker, it would seem probable that Othello was bred by Colonel Tasker, possibly in England before importation of his dam, but perhaps more probably in America.
Herbert, in his tabulations, gives Othello by imported Crab, son of Crab. Both Edgar and Herbert mention Routh's Crab, gray, foaled 1736, as having been imported about 1746, and having died in Virginia in 1750. Herbert says of him: "One of the oldest and finest of the old English thoroughbreds." Possibly he may have been owned at one time by Lord Portmore.
OTHELLO'S ])A^L It will be noticed that the first advertisement of Tasker's Othello states that his dam was bred by the Duke of Somerset and got by the Hampton Court Childers. In the American Turf Register Vol. VI., pages 207-208, under the heading "Pedigrees of Horses of the Olden Times" the following information is published :
Dear Sir: — In looking over some old papers of my father's a few days since, I accidentally found the following pedigree, which may perhaps be of some use to the sporting world, as I do not find either of them in your magazine. John M. Garnet."
Old Spark was got by Aleppo, son of the Darley Arabian (sire of Childers) ; his dam was full sister to Squire Bathurst's Look- about-you ; she was got by Bartlet's Childers ; her dam by old Spark ; her grandam by the Rutland Coneyskins, out of Sweetlips.
" Queen Mab was got by Musgrove's Gray Arabian ; her dam by the Hampton Court Childers ; her grandam by Governor Harri- son's Arabian ; her great-grandam by the Chestnut Arabian ; her great-great-grandam was a Leedes ; her great-great-great-grandam was a bay mare brought over by Mr. Marshall, and was the dam of Mr. Croft's Grayhound.
"The above pedigrees of old Spark and Queen Mab I have now by me from under the hands of their breeders.
May 20, 1758. Benj. Tasker, Jr.
OTJIKJ.LO Ixxxiii
"Mille, the fill}' I sold Mr. Sprif,r^^ was got by Old Spark, and her dam Oueen Mab. l^KNJ. Taskkr, Jr."
"Ouccn Mab had but two foals after she came to America. The first was Pacolet, that Colonel Tasker ran several times in Virginia; the second was Mille, which my father bought at six months okl, on the death of Queen Mab. Colonel Tasker never was possessed of any of the produce from Mille; he had many from old Spark. ' RiCllARD Sl'RKiO."
The following advertisement appears in the " Maryland Gazette," 1761 :
"To be sold at public auction, pursuant to the testament of the Hon. Benj. Tasker, deceased. May 21, 1761, at Bellaire, near Queen Anne, the noted bay mare called Selima, four of her foals, the breeding mare of the late Governor Ogle, and their increase, in all thirty. Robert Carter."
From this last advertisement it w^ould appear that Selima im- ported by Governor Ogle passed to Benjamin Tasker.
It becomes, too, very evident from all of above information that the dam of Othello was the dam of Queen Mab. And it is very probable that she was imported at the same time as Queen Mab and that all after the death of Governor Ogle passed to Colonel Tasker. In several contemporaneous advertisements it is stated that the dam of Queen Mab was Miss Caldwell.
On page 115 of the General Stud Book a Leedes Mare is recorded, got by Leedes from a Moonah Barb Mare. This mare in 1 72 1 has a filly by the Hampton Court, Chestnut Arabian and this filly was probably the third dam of Queen Mab.
Edgar records Spark as imported by Governor Ogle ; got by Honeycomb Punch : dam Wilkes' old Mare called Miss Colville, also imported into America by the late Col. Colville, of Virginia, and got by old Hautboy : dam by Brimmer. It does not appear in what part of Virginia the Colonel lived.
Bruce, as usual, copies Edgar, but without credit, and adds that the pedigree cannot be authenticated from the English Stud Book. He also says that Miss Colville is said to have been the dam of Spark.
Under this mare (Vol. I., page 109), Bruce enters for produce a filly by imported Spark, and 1756 the colt Young Traveler by Morton's imported Traveler.
The record of this horse Young Traveler is from an advertise- ment in the Maryland Gazette of April 2, 1761, as follows:
Ixxxiv THE HORSES OF AMERICA
"Young Traveler is five years old, i6 hands i inch high, to stand at Mr. Rogers' at two guineas. He was bred by Col. Tasker; got by Morton's Traveler, dam Miss Colville." This advertisement shows that Colonel Tasker owned Miss Colville in 1755.
Lord Portmore's Crab is thus registered in the English " General Stud Book": "Crab (Duke of Cumberland's), gray, foaled 1744, bred by Lord Portmore ; got by Crab : dam Fox Mare (sister to Slipby), bred by Lord Portmore in 1740; her dam Gypsy, black, foaled 1725, (bred by Duke of Bolton), by Bay Bolton — Duke of Newcastle's Turk — Byerley Turk — Taffolet Barb — Place's White Turk— Barb Mare.
Crab was gray; foaled 1722; bred by Mr. Cotton and Mr. Panton; got by the Alcock Arabian : dam, sister to Soreheels, by Basto, son of Byerley Turk; second dam, sister to Mixbury, by Curwen's Bay Barb ; third dam a daughter of old Spot, by the Sellaby Turk; fourth dam a daughter of the White-legged [Lowther Barb; fifth dam old Vintner Mare. Died Christmas, 1750. Basto's dam was Bald Peg, by Leedes' Arabian ; second dam Young Bald Peg, also by Leedes' Arabian; third dam. Spanker's dam, the old Morocco Mare, by Morocco Barb ; fourth dam old Bald Peg, by an Arabian ; fifth dam a Barb Mare. Basto died 1723.
Fox was by Clumsy, son of Hautboy. Hautboy was bred by the D'Arcy family and got by D'Arcy White Turk, out of a Royal Mare, a Barb. Dam of Fox, Bay Peg, given above. Dam of Clumsy, Miss D'Arcy 's Pet ]\Iare by Sedbury; second dam, a Royal Mare.
Bay Bolton was foaled 1705, got by Gray Hautboy, son of Hautboy: dam by Makeless, son of Oglethorpe's Arabian ; second dam by Brimmer, son of the D'Arcy Yellovv^ Turk; third dam by Dia- mond, out of a sister to the dam of old Merlin. The dams of Gray Hautboy and of Makeless are unknown. The Taffolet Barb stood in England in the time of Charles H. (1660-1685). Place's White Turk was owned by Mr, Place, studmaster to Oliver Cromwell, when Protector (1653-1658). The