this country, and there are two very striking features connected with
it, namely, its bad grammar and the absence of the name of the importer
and owner. The former we may attribute to the times, but to the latter
I have been disposed to attach no trifling significance. It is a fact
that till this day we have no direct information as to who imported this
horse. The name “Benger” was developed indirectly as the man, but not
till years after the horse was dead, and probably the importer too, did I
learn from an advertisement of a son of his that stood in Jersey that the
importer’s name was “Thomas Benger.” In 1791 and for two years afterward
he was advertised to stand at “Mount Benger, two miles from Bristol,
Pennsylvania.” When I visited Bristol for the purpose of identifying
“Mount Benger,” which I supposed was the country seat of the owner of
Messenger, I was greatly surprised to find that none of the “oldest
inhabitants” had ever heard of such a place, and when I was informed
that there was no locality within half a dozen miles of Bristol where
the ground rose to a hundred feet above the level of the Delaware River,
the name “Mount Benger” assumed the character of an absurdity as well
as a myth. From a very intelligent man of middle age, who had learned
the blacksmith trade with his grandfather, I learned that he had often
heard his grandfather speak of Messenger, and as having put the last set
of shoes on him when he was taken away to New York the fall the yellow
fever was so bad in Philadelphia. The tradition was still preserved in
the family that Messenger reared up in crossing the river in a boat, and
struck his groom on the head with one of those shoes, from the effects
of which he died. As our informant was able to name two other horses,
Governor and Babel, brought over by Mr. Benger, we were ready to accept
his tradition that he lived at a point known in old times as “China
Retreat,” two miles below Bristol on the Delaware. This point has been
known later as “White Hall.”
After all traditions were exhausted, without yielding anything tangible
or satisfactory, we turned with great confidence to the records of the
county of Bucks, in which Mr. “Benger” had lived for a number of years.
After a diligent and protracted search, embracing a number of years
before and after his known residence in the county, we were not able to
discover that any person by the name of “Benger” had ever owned a foot of
real estate in the county or had been in any way publicly connected with
its affairs or its administration. We had search made in Philadelphia
with the same fruitless results. There is a faint tradition that Thomas
Benger, if that was his name, was a fox-hunting Irish baronet, and if
this was so, it is probable he returned to the old country about the time
he sold Messenger in 1793. However this may be, the owner is forgotten,
but his horse will live forever.
Among the many eulogies and word-paintings of Messenger, by writers
who knew the horse personally, we select the following from the pen
of the late David W. Jones, of Long Island, as the most striking and
picturesque. He says:
“Having scanned in my boyhood the magnificent form and bearing
of this noble old horse, and for more than half a century
having drawn reins over his descendants, I have for a length of
time felt it incumbent to furnish such facts and impressions,
as, when considered with those of others, will give the younger
portion of the present generation, as well as posterity, a
fair knowledge of the general characteristics of the noblest
Roman of them all. The first time I ever saw old Messenger
my father sent me to the farm of Townsend Cock, Esq., of the
County of Queens, L. I., where the horse was then standing,
to receive his services. On my arrival at his harem, I found
the groom, whom I knew, and he at once placed me with the mare
a short distance from the stable, by the side of a barrier
erected for security. Having at home heard frequent and long
discussions in relation to the wonder I was now to behold, you
may suppose I was all eyes. Presently the stalwart groom, James
Lingham, with, at the extreme end of the bridle rein, all the
blood of all the Howards, turned the angle of the stable and
came in full view. The moment the old horse caught sight of
the paragon of beauty I had brought to his embrace, he threw
himself into an attitude, with the grandeur of which no other
animal can compare, and at the same moment opened his mouth,
and distending his nostrils, raised his exultant voice to such
a pitch as gave unmistakable evidence of the capacity of his
lungs and the size of his windpipe. Indeed, if his nostrils
were as much larger than ordinary as my boyish vision pictured
them, I can almost suppose that Mr. McMann with his little bay
mare (Flora Temple), and sulky, could drive in at one, down the
windpipe, turn under his immensely long arching loin and out at
the other.... At that early day I was only impressed by those
extraordinary developments; but in after years as I sit behind
his offspring, they invariably remind me of what was then to
my youthful judgment less apparent—the extraordinary strength
of his loin, the length and beautiful molding of the buttock,
the faultless shape of the crupper bone, giving an elegant set
to his fine flowing tail, as well as the remarkable swell of
his stifle, altogether forming a most perfect and powerful hind
quarter.”
A good many years ago I made a special study of all that had been written
about Messenger, and I was fortunate in being able to supplement this
information by interviews with a few old gentlemen who knew the horse
personally. Nearly all that generation of horsemen had passed away before
I commenced this personal search for them. But a few then remained with
excellent memories and with characters above suspicion or reproach. From
these sources I gathered a great many incidents, facts and descriptions
which I succeeded in harmonizing, to my own mind at least, and thus was
able, to compile a complete description of the horse at every point. That
description was written out more than twenty years ago, and in presenting
it now I will not change a single word. At the time it was written,
as will be seen from its perusal, I had really no doubt the horse was
thoroughbred. It will not be charged, therefore, that the coarse traits
brought out in the description were influenced in any degree by a theory
of his breeding:
“Messenger was a grey, that became lighter and flea-bitten with age.
He was fifteen hands three inches high, and for a thoroughbred his
appearance was coarse. He did not supply the mind with an idea of beauty,
but he impressed upon it a conception of solidity and power. His head was
large and bony, with a nose that had a decided Roman tendency, though
not to a marked degree. His nostrils were unusually large and flexible,
and when distended they were enormous. His eye was large, full, very
dark and remarkably brilliant. In this particular he does not appear to
have inherited the weakness of his great-grandsire, Sampson. His ear was
larger than usual in the blood horse, but thin and tapering and always
active and expressive. The windpipe was so unusually large and stood
out so much as a distinct feature that it marred what otherwise would
have been a gamelike throat-latch and setting on of the head. His neck
was very short for a blood horse, but was not coarse and thick like a
bull’s; neither did it rise into such an enormous crest as that of his
sire. It was not a bad neck in any sense, but like Lexington’s of our
own day, it was too short to be handsome. His mane and foretop were thin
and light. His withers were low and round, which appears to have been
a family characteristic in the male line, back for three generations
at least. His shoulders were heavy and altogether too upright for our
ideas of a race horse. His barrel was perfection itself, both for depth
and rotundity. His loin was well arched, broad and strong. His hips and
quarters were ‘incomparably superior to all others.’ The column of the
vertebra being of unusual depth and strength, gave the setting on of the
tail a distinctive, but elegant character. The tail was carried in fine
style; like the mane, it was not in superabundant quantity, but there was
no such scantiness as to detract from the beauty and grace of the animal.
His stifles were well spread and swelling, but there appears to have been
no unusual development at this point. From the stifle to the hock and
from the elbow to the knee, no writer that we can now recall has given us
any description of either length or strength. We may, therefore, take it
for granted that these points had no unusual development of muscle, but
were in harmony with the general contour and make-up of a great strong
horse. His hocks and knees were unusually large and bony, with all the
members strong and clearly defined. The cannon bones were short and flat
and the ligaments back of them were very large and braced a good way off,
so that the leg was broad and flat. Mr. Jones says this part of the limb
was of medium size, but other writers all agree that he had an unusual
amount of bone at this point. Considering the whole style and character
of the horse, and especially the character of his ancestors in the male
line, and of Turf, the [reputed] sire of his dam, all of whom were
distinguished for their quantity of bone, we are disposed to think Mr.
Jones’ memory has not served him with entire accuracy in this particular.
The conviction is reasonable and grows out of evidence that comes from
every quarter, and we have no disposition to surrender it, that the bones
of Messenger’s limbs were unusually large and strong for those of a
thoroughbred. His pasterns and feet were all that could be desired, and
as an evidence of the excellence and health of his underpinning several
writers have put it on record that whether in the stable or on the show
ground he never was known to mopingly rest one leg by standing on the
other three, but was always prompt and upright. This is our conception
of the form and appearance of the horse as we have reached it after a
diligent and careful study of all that has been said by those who saw him
while he lived. From this description it is a very easy matter to pick
out the features which gave him his coarse and badly bred appearance.
His big head, long ears, short neck, low withers, upright shoulders,
large bones and, possibly, coarse hair, complete the catalogue. From
these features the purity of his blood has been doubted and denounced,
just as that of his sire, his grandsire and his great-grandsire had
been denounced. The coarseness, the cart-horse appearance was in the
family, but it did not seem to prevent some of them from beating some
of the best that England produced in successive generations. There are
many traditions that have been handed down to us concerning his temper,
some of which, no doubt, have accumulated and gathered strength and
ferocity in the years through which they have rolled. There have been
perhaps half a dozen stories about his killing his keepers, but we
are not able to say whether any one of them is true. It is known with
certainty, however, that he was willful and vicious and would tolerate no
familiarity from strangers.”
The ownership of Messenger, after he was transferred from Philadelphia
to New York, like his earlier history, seems to be very much muddled.
Henry Astor, a New York butcher, certainly bought him in the fall of
1793, and located him at Philip Platt’s, four miles from Jamaica, on
Long Island. In the spring of 1796 Mr. Cornelius W. Van Ranst bought
one-third interest in him and removed him to Pine Plains in Dutchess
County, New York, and, without specifying the time, he says he afterward
purchased the remaining two-thirds, for which he paid two thousand seven
hundred and fifty dollars. There appears to have been some mistake about
this, for in 1802 we find Henry Astor, of New York, conveying one-third
interest in the horse to Benjamin B. Cooper, of Camden, New Jersey. Some
other parties also claim to have owned an interest in the horse, and I
heard that there was a lawsuit about him between Astor and Van Ranst.
The latter claims to have owned an interest in him till the time of his
death, in 1808. It is not known how much Mr. Astor paid for him when he
bought him, nor have I any data from which to determine the probable
market value of the horse except that Mr. Van Ranst says he paid two
thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars for two-thirds of him. If we
accept this as a basis, he must have been valued at about four thousand
one hundred and twenty-five dollars. It is true, beyond doubt, that
for several years he brought to his owners a net annual rental of one
thousand dollars. This would indicate a very large patronage at very high
prices for those times. For the twenty years of his stud services in this
country, we find him located as follows:
1788, at Alexander Clay’s, Market Street, Philadelphia, at $15 the season
and $1 to the groom, privilege of returning.
1789, at Thomas Clayton’s, Lombard Street, Philadelphia, at $10 the
season and $1 to the groom.
1790, at Noah Hunt’s, in the Jersies, near Pennington, at $8.
1791, at “Mount Benger,” two miles from Bristol, Bucks Co., Pa., at $16.
1792, at the same place and the same price.
1793, at the same place and the same price.
1794, at Philip Platt’s, fifteen miles from New York and four from
Jamaica, Long Island, at $25 the season.
1795, at the same place and the same price, when, as Mr. Van Ranst
expressed it, “he took with our horsemen.”
1796, at Pine Plains, Dutchess County, N. Y., where he covered 106 mares
at $30 the season.
1797, I have no advertisement for this year, but it is probable he was at
the same place at the same price.
1798, at Pine Plains, as before, and the terms $30 for the season and $40
to insure.
1799, I have no definite trace of him this year, but there are some
indications he was in West Jersey.
1800, for the spring season he is not located, but he made a fall season
at John Stevens’ in Maidenhead, Hunterdon Co., N. J.
1801, at Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y., and I have seen the book account of
expenses, etc., while he was there.
1802, at Cooper’s Ferry, opposite Philadelphia, Pa., but the price of
services is not mentioned.
1803, at Townsend Cock’s, near Oyster Bay, Long Island, at $20 the season.
1804, at the same place and the same price.
1805, at Bishop Underhill’s, in Westchester Co., N. Y., fifteen miles
from Harlem Bridge. Price reduced to $15.
1806, back again at Townsend Cock’s, and the terms fixed at $15 for the
season, and $25 to insure.
1807, again at Bishop Underhill’s on the same terms as before, and this
was the last of his twenty years’ stud services. It will be observed
that the horse is located every year except two, and these locations
are determined, not by tradition or hearsay, but by copies of his
advertisements for each year. In giving the prices charged for his
services I have given the value of the guinea or the pound as five
dollars.
Messenger died January 28, 1808, in the stable of Townsend Cock, on Long
Island, in his twenty-eighth year. This date has been as familiar to all
intelligent horsemen for the last forty years as any prominent event in
the history of the nation. The news of the death of the old patriarch
spread with great rapidity, and soon the whole countryside was gathered
to see the last of the king of horses and to assist at his burial. His
grave was prepared at the foot of a chestnut-tree some distance in front
of the house, and there he was deposited in his holiday clothing. In
response to the consciousness that a hero was there laid away forever
a military organization was extemporized, and volley after volley by
platoons was fired over his grave. Some of the young men and boys who
witnessed and participated in the ceremonies of the occasion were still
living twenty years ago, and as they related the incidents of the
occasion to me, their recollections seemed to be as clear and bright as
though the occurrence had been of yesterday.
CHAPTER XIX.
MESSENGER’S SONS.
Hambletonian (Bishop’s) pedigree not beyond doubt—Cadwallader
R. Colden’s review of it—Ran successfully—Taken to Granville,
N. Y.—Some of his descendants—Mambrino, large and coarse
in appearance—Failure as a runner—Good natural trotter—His
most famous sons were Abdallah, Almack and Mambrino
Paymaster—Winthrop or Maine Messenger and his pedigree and
history—Engineer and the tricks of his owners—Certainly
a son of Messenger—Commander—Bush Messenger, pedigree
and description—Noted as the sire of coach horses and
trotters—Potomac—Tippoo Saib—Sir Solomon—Ogden Messenger, dam
thoroughbred—Mambrino (Grey)—Black Messenger—Whynot, Saratoga,
Nestor, Delight—Mount Holly, Plato, Dover Messenger, Coriander,
Fagdown, Bright Phœbus, Slasher, Shaftsbury, Hotspur,
Hutchinson Messenger and Cooper’s Messenger—Abuse of the name
“Messenger.”
It is not my purpose to write a history of all the descendants of
Messenger, for that would fill several volumes and would be simply
writing over again the trotting and pacing records of the past twenty
years. I will, therefore, limit the chapters on this topic to such of
his descendants as have demonstrated the value and prominence of their
blood, as a factor, in the make-up of the American Trotter. Naturally,
the immediate progeny of Messenger will first demand consideration, and
then will follow the succeeding generations that have written their own
history in the official records of trotting and pacing. Completeness
of description and space occupied will be determined, chiefly, by the
prominence and historic value of the animal under review. In this scope
and without following any chronological order, I will try to embrace all
that is known that would be of value to the student of trotting-horse
history.
HAMBLETONIAN (BISHOP’S), originally called HAMILTONIAN.—This was a
dark-bay horse about fifteen hands two inches high. He was bred by
General Nathaniel Coles, of Dosoris, Long Island, and was foaled 1804.
He was got by Messenger, his dam Pheasant (the Virginia Mare), said
to be thoroughbred, by imp. Shark and grandam by imp. Medley. I first
unearthed the pedigree of this “Virginia Mare” in the advertisement of
Hambletonian for 1814 when he was owned by Townsend Cock and standing
that year at Goshen, New York. The “Old Turfman,” Cadwallader R. Colden,
was thoroughly familiar with all turf subjects in the early years of
this century, and was the best turf writer of his generation. He had no
patience or tolerance with frauds in pedigrees and always exposed them
without mercy. He stoutly maintains that the pedigree of the “Virginia
Mare” was bogus, and, to use his own language, he says:
“When Hambletonian became a public stallion, his owners were
in a dilemma; a _pedigree_ was necessary, so to work they
went, and, as many had done before and as many are doing now,
_made one_; and in his handbills his dam was given as bred in
Virginia, and got by imported Shark, with a train of maternal
ancestors, with as much truth, and affording as much ability to
trace it or discover the breeder of the dam, as though they had
said _hi, cockalorum jig_.”
Mr. Colden goes into the pedigree of this mare and the non-racing
character of her family at great length, and it cannot be denied that
he has the whole argument. As a specimen of sharp and interesting turf
writing of that period and from that pen, I must commend my readers to
turn to this article, which will be found in _Wallace’s Monthly_, Vol.
II., p. 67.
With the probabilities all against the truthfulness of the pedigree of
the dam, as given, it is certainly true that he was a running horse and
attained distinction in his day. I have no full list of his performances
at hand, but the following may be taken as a fair summary of his
principal achievements. He ran at Newmarket in the spring of 1807 (then
three years old), one mile, beating General Coles’ colt Bright Phœbus,
Mr. Terhune’s bay filly, and distancing two others. He also ran, two days
after the above race, four heats of a mile each, beating Bright Phœbus
again and distancing three others. In the fall of 1808 he ran five weeks
successively, and the three last weeks he won three four-mile purses,
running the distance in shorter time than it ever had been run in the
State of New York. I must say here that these races were run on the then
Harlem course, which was not a full mile in length.
While Hambletonian was on the turf, Tippoo Sultan, a grandson of
Messenger, beat Bond’s First Consul in a famous four-mile race, and Mr.
Bond determined that he would find a horse that would be able to lower
Tippoo Sultan’s colors, and it was thought there was nothing in the
North able to do it except Miller’s Damsel, so he made a match for four
thousand dollars a side on condition that Damsel should prove not to be
in foal. But the mare proving to be in foal the match was off. He then
took Hambletonian into his stable and offered to match him for the same
amount against Tippoo Sultan, but he went amiss and the match was off.
This incident is here introduced to show that whatever his real merits,
Hambletonian had some reputation as a running horse. It was said that
the secret of Mr. Colden’s hostility to the “Virginia Mare” and her
descendants was because those descendants were always able to beat the
descendants of his fashionably bred mare Matilda. Whatever the motive in
exposing a pedigree that has never been fully established, there is one
particular and that the most important of all particulars, in which Mr.
Colden has done justice to Hambletonian. He says: “_Hambletonian got some
excellent roadsters, good trotters._”
There seems to be no description of this horse extant that is fully
satisfactory. For some seasons he was in the hands of Mr. Daniel T.
Cock, who in 1869 furnished me the following: “He was a dark bay, a
little heavy about the head and neck, fifteen and a half hands high, and
rather an upright shoulder. Back, loin and hind quarters as good as were
ever put on a horse. Fore legs a little light, but hind legs strong and
good—pretty straight. He was a beautiful saddle horse, notwithstanding
his head and ear were a little coarse.” Other persons who had seen him
have described him as “a great strong horse, with bone and substance
enough to pull the plow or do any other kind of drudgery.” It has been
said that he had a fine open trotting gait and that, in a cutter with old
Isaac Bishop behind him, he was able to show the boys the road.
In 1807 he became the property of Townsend Cock, of Long Island, and he
remained on the turf till 1810, when he was put in the stud. That and the
following season he was at the stable of his owner; 1812 at Cornwall;
1813 at Fishkill; 1814 at Goshen; 1815-16 at Fishkill; 1817 at White
Plains. In the winter of 1819 Mr. Cock sold him to Stephen and Smith
Germond of Dutchess County, New York, and Isaac Bishop of Granville, New
York. The latter was probably the real owner, and the horse then became
known as “Bishop’s Hambletonian.” He made several seasons in the region
of Granville and was back in Dutchess County 1823 and 1824. The next year
he was at Granville—1825. He made one season, at least, at Burlington,
Vermont, and some seasons or parts of seasons at Poultney, Vermont. It is
said he lived till 1834.
At Wallingford, Vermont, he was bred upon the “Munson Mare,” said to be
a daughter of imported Messenger, and doubtless either by him or one
of his earlier sons, and the produce was Harris’ Hambletonian, also
known as “The Remington Horse” and Bristol Grey, and this son became
the progenitor of a great tribe of trotters, known as the “Vermont
Hambletonians,” some of which were very fast pacers, among them the
famous Hero, the fastest of his generation. Another son of Mr. Bishop’s
horse was the Judson Hambletonian, that was the sire of the Andrus horse,
that got the famous Princess, that was pitted against Flora Temple. He
was also bred on his half-sister, Silvertail, by Messenger, and produced
One Eye, a very fast mare, the grandam of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, and
I have always thought that this combination was the very cream of the
pedigree of that great horse. He was also bred on a daughter of Mr.
Coffin’s son of Messenger and produced Whalebone, that was the phenomenal
long-distance trotter of his generation. His son, Sir Peter, out of an
unknown mare, was also a famous old-time trotter. One of his daughters
was bred to Coriander, son of Messenger, and the produce was Topgallant,
the fastest horse of his time. These individual enumerations might be
extended indefinitely, but I have given enough to show that he was not
merely a progenitor of trotting speed in remote generations, but that
speed came directly from his own loins. Another most significant fact is
here brought to light, namely, that when bred back upon the blood of his
own sire he achieved his greatest successes.
MAMBRINO.—This great son of Messenger was a bright bay with a star and
one white ankle. He was fully sixteen hands high, with great length of
body and generally of coarse appearance. He was foaled 1806, and was
bred by Mr. Lewis Morris, of Westchester County, New York. His dam was
by imported Sour Grout, out of a mare by imported Whirligig, and she out
of the famous Miss Slammerkin, that is a well-known landmark reaching
beyond the Revolution. The late William T. Porter, of the _Spirit of the
Times_, stoutly maintained that Mambrino was not a thoroughbred horse,
and his reasons seemed to rest wholly upon his coarse and cart-horse
appearance. Technically, Mr. Porter was right, but the trouble did not
rest with the dam, as he seems to have supposed, for I have seen the
original certificate of breeding in the handwriting of Mr. Morris, his
breeder, and there is no slip on that side of the pedigree. Mr. Morris
was a prominent breeder and racing man for many years and his character
was without taint. The pedigree is a very long one and I would be very
far from vouching for the truth of the remote extensions, but back to the
mare by Cub, imported by Mr. De Lancey, who bred Miss Slammerkin, there
can be no mistake.
In the spring of 1810, then four years old, he was purchased of his
breeder by Major William Jones, of Queens County, Long Island, and in the
autumn of that year he was trained and ran for the two-mile purse at the
old Newmarket Course, Long Island, and it is said gave some evidence that
he could run, but after that he was never trained nor started in a race,
from which we may conclude he was not a race horse, or his owner, who
bred and ran his horses, would have given him another trial.
In 1811 he was put in the stud and made the season at Huntington, Long
Island, in charge of Ebenezer Gould. It is not known where he made the
season of 1812, but probably in Orange or Dutchess County. The years
1813-14-15 he was in charge of my late highly esteemed and venerable
correspondent, David W. Jones, on the borders of Queens and Suffolk
counties, Long Island, where he covered about two hundred and fifty
mares. In 1816 he was in one of the river counties, in 1817 at Fishkill,
and 1818 at Townsend Cock’s, Long Island. In later years he changed hands
many times, at from two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars, and
there is no published trace of him till we find that he made the seasons
of 1825 and 1829 at Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, and he died the
property of Benjamin Germond, on the farm of Azariah Arnold in Dutchess
County, about 1831.
He took his beautiful color from his dam and transmitted it with great
uniformity. His general structure was after the Messenger model,
especially in the large bones and joints of his limbs. His head was
long and bony and his ears were large and somewhat heavy. He was too
high on his legs and his general appearance was coarse, all of which he
transmitted. In speaking of his offspring Mr. Jones remarks: “When young
they were somewhat leggy and lathy, but spirited, stylish and slashing
in action. When matured, he must indeed be fastidious who would crave
another.” With regard to his gait Mr. Jones uses the following very
emphatic language: “I have been the breeder of some, and the owner of
many good horses, and with the best opportunities of judging, having
ridden him (he was never driven) many, many miles, I say, with entire
confidence, he was the best natural trotter I ever threw a leg over. His
walk was free, flinging and elastic; his trot clear, square and distinct,
with a beautiful roll of the knee and great reach of the hind leg.” In
the absence of actual training and timing, it is hardly possible to get
better evidence that Mambrino was a natural trotter that might have been
developed to a considerable rate of speed. It would be interesting to
know just why the horse “never was driven.” Did he show an unconquerable
aversion to harness, and did Abdallah inherit this aversion? This
description of Mambrino’s gait was written in 1866, and the writer had
spent a long lifetime in an intimate personal knowledge of many, or
indeed most, of the best early trotters that this country had produced.
The only one of his immediate progeny that attained distinction as a
trotter was the famous Betsey Baker. This mare was very prominent among
the best of her day, and was able, on one occasion at least, to beat
the great Topgallant, and in tandem with Grey Harry when she was old
she trotted in 2:41¾-2:43¾. Others of his progeny were trotters of some
merit, but none of them especially distinguished on the turf. His three
sons, Abdallah, Almack and Mambrino Paymaster, are the bright links in
the chain extending from Messenger to the two-minute trotter that will
keep his memory green as long as there is a trotting horse on the earth.
Abdallah at the head of the Hambletonians, Almack at the head of the
Champions, and Mambrino Paymaster at the head of the Mambrino Chiefs
embrace the major portion of the great trotters of this generation.
WINTHROP, OR MAINE MESSENGER.—Perhaps no son of Messenger, not excepting
Hambletonian and Mambrino, produced a more marked effect upon the stock
of any part of the country than this horse did in the State of Maine.
The impress he there made was not only remarkable at the time, but it is
still felt and acknowledged in his descendants to this day. There have
been many conflicting statements made to the public about him and his
history, but I think I am now able to give, in authentic and reliable
form, all that is really known of his origin and history. He was foaled
about 1807 and was among the last colts by the imported horse, but
unfortunately we know nothing of the blood of his dam. Mr. Alvan Hayward,
for many years a citizen of Kennebec County, Maine, but more recently of
York, Livingston County, New York, says his dam possessed some imported
blood; but as all his records and memoranda were burned up in 1845 he is
not able to give the pedigree of the mare that produced him.
Mr. Hayward bought the horse about 1817 or 1818, in the village of Paris,
Oneida County, New York, of a man by the name of Rice or Wright, but
did not remember which. He took him to Winthrop, Maine, where he was
first known as “Messenger,” then as “Kennebec Messenger,” or “Winthrop
Messenger,” and when he became old, as “Old Messenger.” The earliest
contemporaneous account I have of this horse is his advertisement for the
season of 1819, which I copy from the Hallowell _Gazette_ of May 12, of
that year, and is as follows:
“THE VALUABLE HORSE MESSENGER.
“The subscriber hereby recommends to the public and all who
feel interested to improve in the breed of good and serviceable
horses, the good horse Messenger, that stock so well known and
approved of on Long Island, New York, and Pennsylvania. Said
horse was raised on Long Island, and owned by Mr. Rylander, a
gentleman who has taken the greatest pains to import the best
breed of horses that came to his knowledge. Said horse is a
silver grey, well proportioned, of a large size, and a good
traveler. Gentlemen who are desirous of raising good horses
will do well to call and see for themselves.
“The Messenger will stand for the most part of the time in the
village at Withrop Mills.
ALVAN HAYWARD.
“Winthrop, May 1st, 1819.”
From the foregoing it will be seen that the new element, brought out in
the history of this horse is the statement that he was owned at one time
by Mr. Rylander, of Long Island. There were two brothers of this name,
and they imported a great many horses, but never before had I heard their
names connected with Winthrop Messenger. This carries us back to a period
in the history of the horse before he was taken to Oneida County.
Colonel Stanley, a prominent banker of Augusta, and at one time a leading
horseman and stage proprietor, bought Messenger of his kinsman, Hayward,
and owned him some seven years. He says the horse was brought to Maine as
early as 1816, and that his Uncle Hayward had certificates that he was
got by imported Messenger, out of a mare well-bred and part of imported
blood.
In a communication from Mr. Sanford Howard, who had been prominently
connected with the breeding interests of the country for many years, the
following description is given:
“I saw him several times, first in 1828. In the latter years of
his life he stood mostly at Anson, on the Kennebec River, and I
think died there about 1831 [he died at Dixfield]. He appeared
like an old horse when I first saw him, older, perhaps, from
being much afflicted with grease, which had become chronic,
and at length had almost destroyed his hoofs; so that the last
time I saw him he was nearly incapable of locomotion. His
feet and legs looked like those of an elephant. This trouble
was transmitted to his offspring through several generations
(though not invariably so), and constituted, perhaps, in
connection with, in many cases, a flat foot and low heels,
their greatest defect.
“Mr. Hayward states, in concluding his letter, that he has no
doubt the horse he took to Maine was got by imp. Messenger.
The remark is probably elicited by intimations that he might
have been gotten by a son of Messenger. I presume Mr. Hayward’s
belief was well founded. As imported Messenger did not die
until the 28th of January, 1808, there is no discrepancy
between that event and the age of Mr. H.’s horse. At the same
time I must admit that Maine Messenger hardly looked like a
half-blood horse. He was pretty large, rather short-legged,
thick-set, with heavy mane and tail, very hairy legs, long
hair on his jaws, and was heavy coated (in winter) all over
his body. These characteristics were sometimes accounted for
by saying he was probably out of a Dutch mare, meaning such
mares as the Dutch farmers of New York kept. I never heard of
any claim being set up for his speed in trotting, and I presume
he was never tried at running. He was strong and plucky, and
the story was told at Winthrop that on an occasion when all
the stallions of the neighborhood were brought out to be
shown, they were put to a trot in sleighs for half a mile or
so, and Messenger was beaten. Whereupon his owner proposed
that the horses should each draw a sled with six men on it up
to Winthrop hill, and be timed. It was done, and Messenger
beat them all. I think the first of his offspring that became
noted for fast trotting was a gelding called Lion, taken to
Boston by a well-known horse dealer by the name of Hodges,
of Hallowell, Maine. He was sold, I think, for four hundred
dollars, which made quite a sensation among the Kennebec
farmers who had any stock of the same sort. I do not recollect
the rate of speed this horse showed, but a mile in three
minutes was then considered wonderful, and probably this was
about his rate. Other horses of the stock were soon brought
out as fast travelers. I remember a friend of mine showing me
some young horses he was training, and I rode with him after
several of them. They were _natural trotters_, and would do
_nothing but trot_, even under severe applications of the whip.
But I think the second generation from Mr. Hayward’s horse
were generally faster trotters than the first. They were also
generally handsomer horses, not so rough looking. Nearly all
the horses of this stock which have acquired a reputation in
Massachusetts, New York, etc., as fast trotters, had not more
than a quarter of the blood of the horse that Mr. Hayward took
to Maine, and consequently had not more than an eighth of the
blood of imported Messenger.
“The mares that produced these horses were of no particular
blood. Various stallions had been kept in that section. Morgans
from New Hampshire and Vermont, with an occasional change to
the French Canadians, and now and then a quarter or half bred
horse from New York or New Jersey.”
This excellent communication from Mr. Howard is especially valuable,
as the conclusions drawn by an accurate and competent observer from a
personal acquaintance with the original horse and his progeny. There are
some inferences, however, that may be drawn from Mr. Howard’s letter
that would be unjust to this distinguished animal. His general coarse
appearance, in connection with which Mr. H. says, “he hardly looked like
a half bred horse,” was a prominent feature in the family. Mambrino,
a very high-bred son of old Messenger, was very coarse, and the same
remark was often made about him. The quantity and length of his coat in
the winter of his old age are not conclusive against his pretensions to
a large share of good and pure blood. They are the results oftentimes
of neglect and ill health. It is somewhere stated that the famous Sir
Archy before he died looked exceedingly shaggy, his hair being fully
three inches long. Mr. Howard expresses the opinion that “the second
generation from Mr. Hayward’s horse were generally faster trotters than
the first.” In many instances this, no doubt, is true, for it would be
altogether contrary to the uniform laws which govern these things if
development and use did not strengthen and intensify the instinct to trot
in successive generations. If Mr. Howard is right, and we do not doubt he
is, the increased capacity did not grow out of the dilution of the blood,
but out of the strengthening of the instinct by culture and use. At the
time Mr. Howard made this remark he evidently did not know that the
famous old-time trotters, Daniel D. Tompkins and Fanny Pullen, were both
immediately from the loins of Winthrop Messenger. In their day these two
were classed among the best and fastest trotters that the world had then
produced. The facts that both these animals were the immediate progeny of
Winthrop Messenger were never brought to light for many years, and all I
will say about them now is that they do not rest on shadowy traditions or
suppositions, but are fully and circumstantially established.
In a letter written by Mr. Hayward, May 12, 1852, in speaking of the
useful and everyday qualities of this horse’s progeny, he used the
following language:
“The stock produced by that horse I consider superior, as
combining more properties useful in a horse than any other
stock I have ever been acquainted with, being good for draft,
for carriage, for travel, for parade, or any place where
horses are required. They had great bottom and strength, and
were of hardy constitution. There are some horses in this town
twenty-two years old, that were by a son of Winthrop Messenger,
which I brought with me when I left Maine. They have always
been accustomed to draw the plow and to perform other hard
labor, and yet they have the appearance of young horses, and
will now do more service than many horses of seven or eight
years old.”
Among the several sons of imported Messenger whose names are conspicuous
as the progenitors of great tribes of the most distinguished trotters I
know of no one entitled to a higher place on the roll of fame, all things
considered, than this one that went to Maine, and there laid a foundation
that has made the State famous throughout the length and breadth of the
land for the speed and stoutness of its trotting horses.
With such noted performers from his own loins as Fanny Pullen and Daniel.
D. Tompkins, and in the next generation the famous Zachary Taylor, this
horse made about the best showing of all the sons of Messenger, but as
his line failed to produce a Rysdyk’s Hambletonian or a Mambrino Chief,
it dropped to a place somewhat removed from the front of the procession.
ENGINEER was a grey horse, about sixteen hands high and very elegant in
his form, style and proportions. The earliest account we have of him is
in the spring of 1816, when he was advertised in _The Long Island Star_
to stand at the stable of Daniel Seely, near Suffolk Court House, and
at Jericho, in Queens County. He was in charge of Thomas Jackson, Jr.,
generally designated as “Long Tom.” He was then well advanced in years,
but no attempt was made to give his age. Mr. Daniel T. Cock, in charge
of Duroc and one or two other stallions, was then in sharp competition
with Engineer, and he assures me he was a horse of large size, great
share of bone and sinew, most elegant form, and a fine mover. His elegant
appearance was so captivating that he was a very troublesome competitor.
The advertisement referred to 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
much better than the empty sound of a long pedigree.” This was a most
unexpected discovery, for I had always understood that Engineer was a
son of Messenger and never had heard of this mystery before. It is here
intimated that the horse was imported, and the story that Jackson 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.
What appears to be the real history of the horse, and the version
accepted afterward by everybody on the island, will be found in the
following extract from a letter written by David W. Jones, February 28,
1870. He says:
“I can well account for Mr. Cock’s recollections of the history
of the first Engineer. Thomas Jackson and George Tappan,
noted owners and keepers of stallions on Long Island and in
the counties of Orange and Dutchess, in the course of their
peregrinations met with a person in possession of this horse,
who offered him for sale. Impressed with his fine appearance
and pedigree, they at once entered into negotiations for
his purchase, and finally obtained him at so low a price as
to cause strong suspicions that he was not honestly in his
vendor’s possession. They, however, determined to take the
chances, and at once brought him to Long Island, their place
of residence, and determined on what they deemed a harmless
representation in regard to his history; for this they had
several motives. First, Messenger stallions were then very
numerous on Long Island; their blood coursed in the veins of
nearly every brood mare. Secondly, imported stallions were much
desired, and by a little added fiction they could give him
considerable _éclat_, and thirdly, in case of his having been
unjustly obtained this would afford the best means of disguise.
Accordingly they represented him as having been imported from
England to 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. On these representations they
claimed to have purchased him. No pedigree, as I recollect,
was attempted to be given, and though many doubted the truth
of this statement, there was no evidence to controvert it.
For a length of time this story was adhered to; but after
several years, when all fears of difficulty had subsided,
they acknowledged the deception. Mr. Tappan, who resided but
a few miles from me, was a man of more than ordinary candor
and fairness, for one of his position and employment. I knew
him well, and occasionally rendered him a favor by preparing
his horse bills. On one of these occasions, at my house, he
gave a full and particular statement of the whole affair. Some
of the details have escaped me, but the essential facts are
distinctly recollected. The owner, with Engineer in possession,
was met at some public place and the purchase completed, and
this statement then made, ‘that he had become involved in debt,
and that his creditor had begun a prosecution, with a view
to levy on the horse, the only property he possessed, and he
was determined not to lose all.’ This was certainly enough to
arouse their suspicions with 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 recollected. He was at this time (1814) a horse
considerably advanced in years and perfectly white. Mr. Tappan
also told me that he had afterward traced the horse, and was
entirely satisfied of the former owner’s veracity. I will not
apologize for the length of this statement, being desirous of
giving you all the information here possessed and probably all
that can now be obtained.”
I am not aware that in the past sixty years any question has ever been
raised as to the truth of the universally accepted statement that
Engineer was a true son of Messenger, and I would not have disturbed
it now, nor thought of doing so, had it not been for that remarkable
advertisement discovered in the obscure Long Island paper. That was
contemporaneous history, however, and it must either be explained or
accepted. The question has been examined down to the bottom by one of the
most conscientious and capable men of his generation, in this department
of knowledge. His verdict has been accepted as the truth by all parties
of that day, and I cannot reject it.
It is not known that any of his immediate progeny attained distinction
on the trotting turf. Several of his sons bore his name in the stud and
while their blood seemed to be helpful in the right direction, only one
of them made any mark as a sire of speed, and that was the horse known as
Lewis’ Engineer, the sire of the world beater, Lady Suffolk. Burdick’s
Engineer, another son, was taken to Washington County, New York, and got
the dam of the famous Princess, which produced the great Happy Medium.
In all these instances there was commingling with other strains from
Messenger.
COMMANDER.—This was a grey horse, fully sixteen hands high and of massive
proportions. He was a son of imported Messenger and out of a mare by
imported Rockingham. This Rockingham was not a thoroughbred horse.
Commander was bred in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and found his way to
Long Island about 1812, where he was liberally patronized. His name
frequently occurs among the remote crosses of good pedigrees, but his
fame rests wholly on the progeny of his son, Young Commander, who was
the sire of Screwdriver, Screws, Bull Calf and other good ones. This
horse Young Commander was sometimes called “Bull” and sometimes “American
Commander.”
MESSENGER, (BUSH’S), generally known as BUSH MESSENGER. This son of
Messenger was bred by James Dearin, of Dutchess County, New York, and
was foaled 1807. His dam was a Virginia mare, named Queen Ann, by Celer,
son of imported Janus, and out of a mare by Skipwith’s Figure, son of
imported Figure, and she out of a mare imported by Colonel Miland, of
Virginia. This pedigree was not accepted without some misgivings, but
as it was possible and as it had been indorsed sixty years ago by
Cadwallader R. Colden and published before that by Mr. Dearin, I am
disposed to accept it as reliable.
He was sixteen hands high, a light grey, becoming white with age. He
was excellent in form and probably the most handsome and attractive
of all the sons of Messenger. The first public notice we have of him,
he was advertised at the stable of his breeder, six miles south of
Poughkeepsie, in 1813. Soon after this he became the property of Philo
C. Bush, and this was the first horse, he says, that he ever owned. This
Mr. Bush was a noted “character” in his day. From early manhood, through
good and evil report, and until he died a very old man in poverty and
want, he was a habitue of the race track. He knew all about race horses
and their breeding, and he could prattle pedigrees from morning till
night. Added to this knowledge which his life pursuits had placed in
his possession, he was endowed with a most vivid imagination which was
brought into the most active play whenever he found it necessary. To
maintain his “reputation” it seemed to be a necessity that he should be
able to extend all pedigrees laid before him and give the remote crosses,
whether he knew anything about them or not. He was the author of the
running pedigree given to the dam of Major Winfield—Edward Everett, son
of Hambletonian—and on it money was won in a bet. An investigation of
just two minutes disclosed the facts that by established and known dates
the whole thing was utterly impossible. He was literally a very “racy”
_raconteur_, but his reminiscences soon became tedious, notwithstanding
their brilliancy, and it was always important to have a call to some
business that cut off further entertainment from his _répertoire_.
Mr. Bush says he paid one thousand seven hundred and forty dollars and
a silver watch for this horse, and with him he got an elegant suit of
clothing that had belonged to imported Express. It is said that he never
ran but one race and that was at Pine Plains, in which he distanced
all his competitors in the first heat. In 1816 Mr. Bush kept him at
Kinderhook; 1817 at Kinderhook and Schodack; 1818 at Kinderhook and
Albany; 1819-20 at Utica. In the autumn of 1820 he was sold to Dr.
Millington, of Crooked Lake, Herkimer County, and he was kept there
1821-22. He was then sold to Edward Reynolds, of East Bloomfield, where
he was kept three or four years, after which he made one or more seasons
at Le Roy, and he died at East Bloomfield in July, 1829. This horse had
probably more trotting speed than any of the other sons of Messenger. Mr.
Bush assured me that he could trot very fast for a horse of that day, and
when led by the side of another horse he could beat three minutes very
easily, but as we have to take Mr. Bush’s assertions _cum grano salis_,
we fortunately have very reliable testimony of contemporaneous date and
from a source wholly disinterested. I have before me a letter written
by Judge J. Porter, of East Bloomfield, dated June 4, 1828, in reply to
inquiries from some correspondent about the horse, his terms, etc. He
writes as follows:
“I should think he was a very swift _trotter from what I have
seen_, and very sprightly and nearly white. He has got a
great number of fine colts in this town which are three years
old; and the probability of their drawing on the old horse’s
business is the reason of his being removed to Le Roy and
Batavia.”
Whether Judge Porter was a horseman or not he certainly reflected, in
this remark which I have emphasized, the leading quality for which Bush
Messenger was distinguished in that region _and in that day_.
Although he was certainly a very fast natural trotter, it is not known
that he was ever trained an hour in his life, neither is it known that
any fast or trained trotters ever came from his loins. This was the
period of fast mail coaches running from Albany to Buffalo, and as the
old proprietors of those great lines were pushed westward from State to
State until they finally were driven across the Mississippi, I have many
times heard them talk of the great slashing grey Messenger teams that
would carry their coaches along at ten miles an hour, and lament that
there were no such horses nowadays. There were other sons of Messenger
and many grandsons, all known as “Messengers,” but as a progenitor of
horses suited to the stage coach this particular one that broke his neck
in trying to get out of his inclosure was the premier. He probably came
nearer filling the place in this country that his grandsire filled in
England—English Mambrino—than any other one of the tribe, for we can
truly say of him, as Pick said of his grandsire, “from his blood the
breed of horses for the coach was brought nearly to perfection.”
POTOMAC was a bright bay, fifteen and a half hands high, and was bred by
Daniel Youngs, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. He was foaled 1796 and got by
imported Messenger; dam by imported Figure; grandam by Bashaw. He was
put on the turf in the spring of 1799 and was a respectable race horse
at short distances. He ran against and beat some of the best of his day.
He was on the turf about three years. In the midst of his racing career
he was purchased by Mr. Van Ranst for five hundred pounds. In 1802 he
was owned by Major William Jones, of Cold Spring Harbor, and made some
seasons there. In 1806 he was at New Windsor, Orange County, New York. In
1808 he was in charge of Thomas Jackson, at Rahway, New Jersey, and 1811
at Crosswicks, near Trenton, New Jersey. It is probable he died about
this time, as we find no further trace of him. Most of his stock were
bays, of good size, and very salable animals. Nothing can now be recalled
that connects him with any of the trotting strains coming from his sire.
He was not strictly running-bred on the side of his dam.
TIPPOO SAIB was a bay horse with one white foot and was fully sixteen
hands high, with plenty of bone. He was foaled 1795, got by imported
Messenger; dam Mr. Thompson’s imported mare by Northumberland; grandam
by Snap, etc. His fine size and elegant pedigree made Tippoo Saib a
very desirable horse to breed to, but for some cause he did not appear
much on the turf. He ran a few races and went into the stud early, in
the neighborhood of Trenton, New Jersey, and in the following year was
at Goshen, Fishkill, and Pine Plains, New York. My impression is he was
then returned to West Jersey and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he was
probably owned in his latter days. His sons Tippoo Sultan, Financier and
others, acquired great fame on the turf. His connection with the trotting
lines of descent is very distinct, but not very prominent.
SIR SOLOMON was got by imported Messenger; dam Camilla by Cephalus;
grandam Camilla by imported Fearnought and out of imported Calista, etc.
He was foaled about 1800, bred by General Gunn, of Georgia, who seems
to have kept Camilla and perhaps others in the North for the purpose
of breeding. The pedigree on the side of this dam is an excellent one
and would seem to justify the owner in seeking to get the best crosses
possible into his stud. When five years old he was sold to Mr. Bond, of
Philadelphia, for two thousand dollars. His races were numerous and often
successful, beating some of the best horses of his day, and among them
the famous Miller’s Damsel, also by Messenger, over the Harlem Course in
heats of four miles. Not much is known of his stud services, and he seems
to have been kept several years in Union County, New Jersey. He seems to
have labored under the disadvantage of having a greater horse of the same
name—Badger’s Sir Solomon by Tickle Toby—in competition with him, and
thus the son of Tickle Toby would steal many a chaplet from the brow of
his namesake, the son of Messenger.
OGDEN MESSENGER was a grey horse, foaled 1806, got by imported Messenger;
dam Katy Fisher, by imported Highflyer; grandam a mare imported
by H. N. Cruger in 1786, by Cottager; great-grandam by Trentham;
great-great-grandam by Henricus; great-great-great-grandam by Regulus.
The pedigree of this dam is correct, and she was doubtless entitled to
rank as thoroughbred. This horse was bred by Mr. Cruger, and at three
years old was sold to David Ogden, and that summer he was pastured on the
farm of Major William Jones, of Long Island, from whose books we have
the foregoing facts. Mr. David W. Jones remarks: “I retain a perfect
recollection of him. He was at that time a large overgrown colt, not
particularly ugly nor exceedingly coarse, but having no special beauty
nor finish. I cannot better describe him than to say he was a coarse
pattern of a fine horse, with marked traits of his lineage.” Mr. Jones
evidently saw him at his worst age and before he fully reached his
maturity.
Judge Odgen, his owner, was a large landholder in St. Lawrence County,
New York, and in the spring of 1810 he removed from New Jersey to an
island of eight hundred acres in the St. Lawrence river, opposite the
village of Haddington, and took the horse, then four years old, with him.
It is not known that he ever ran a race for money, and it is not probable
he ever did, for it was his owner’s aim and object to improve the stock
of the country as well as his own, in which he was successful. After five
or six years he was taken to Lowville in Lewis County, and made several
seasons there in charge of Charles Bush, and from this fact he came to
be known there, locally, as Bush Messenger. Thus it happened that there
were two sons of imported Messenger in the State of New York at the same
time, and both known as Bush Messenger, and to these we might add a
grandson and a great-grandson in the State of Maine, and at later date
both named “Bush Messenger.” It was at one time supposed that Mr. Ogden’s
horse while at Lowville became the sire of the famous Tippoo of Canada
that became the head of a very valuable tribe of trotters and pacers,
but later developments showed that this was a mistake. (He appears to
have alternated in his services between Lewis and Jefferson counties,
but whether weekly or yearly I cannot state. He was taken to Lowville as
early as 1815 and was there five or six years.)
The facts about this horse have been developed from much correspondence
with different parties, but more especially from Mr. V. Sheldon, of
Canton, New York, and from Mr. P. F. Daniels, of Prescott, Ontario. Both
men knew the horse personally, and Mr. Daniels was seventy-five years
old when he wrote. He still had a very clear recollection of the horse
in his appearance and style of action. In describing him he says: “He
was peculiarly marked about his hocks and knees, having a series of dark
rings about his limbs, continuing at intervals down to his hoofs, and
many of his sons and daughters were marked the same way.” Having ridden
him many times he says: “He; had a long flinging step and was a fast
trotter. His action was high and not easy to the rider, and he could not
widen behind as some of our modern trotters.”
When Mr. Daniels was a young man he was engaged in carrying the mail,
and in March, 1821, he believes it was, Judge Ogden gave him an order to
bring the horse home from Lewis County. He led him all the way behind his
mail conveyance and delivered him safely to young Mr. Ogden, who gave
him to an Irish groom named Daley, and Daley remarked he would soon make
him look like another horse. That night he gave him an overfeed of corn
and he died of colic. He was never advertised while at home and he was
not very liberally patronized. The Freemans and the Archibalds, however,
Mr. Daniels says, bred to him largely. His stock were good and many of
them excellent, especially those descended through his sons Blossom and
Freeman’s Messenger.
MAMBRINO (GREY).—This son of Messenger was foaled about 1800, his dam
was by Pulaski, grandam by Wilkes; great-grandam by True Briton. He was
bred by Benjamin C. Ridgeway, near Mount Holly, New Jersey. In 1807 he
stood at Flemington under the name of Fox Hunter. He was purchased by
Richard Isaac Cooper, who resold him to William Atkinson for about one
thousand two hundred dollars. He was a flea-bitten grey, mane and tail
white, handsome and stylish, about sixteen hands high, head medium size,
and a good, well-formed horse at every point, except his feet, which were
big and flat. He was probably never harnessed and was a very popular
stallion in Salem and adjoining counties for many years. Mr. Atkinson was
a very prominent and influential member of the Society of Friends, and
“Billy” Atkinson was always a welcome guest as he traveled through Salem,
Gloucester, and Burlington counties with his horse, and his genial good
humor made him as popular as his horse. He always claimed great speed
for his horse; but owing to his position in the society he never could
gratify his friends by showing it. When his offspring came into service
they were not only performers of great merit on the road and the course,
but they had bone and substance that fitted them for every kind of labor
required of them. All the Quakers had Mambrinos and nothing else, after
“Billy” Atkinson and his horse had been among them a few years. Some of
his descendants attained to great local fame as trotters and some did
well as runners. He was a very valuable horse and left a wonderfully
numerous and valuable offspring.
BLACK MESSENGER.—Among all the progeny of Messenger, this is the only one
that I can now recall that was black. He was bred by William Haselton,
of Burlington County, New Jersey, and out of a mare highly prized in the
Haselton family, but her blood cannot now be traced. He was foaled in
1801 and on the death of Mr. Haselton in 1804 he was sold to Charles or
Richard Wilkins of Evesham, ten miles from Camden, New Jersey, who owned
him till he died at an advanced age. As the birth of this horse is fixed
by documentary evidence at 1801 it suggests that Messenger was kept in
Burlington County, New Jersey, the unplaced season of 1800. Still as he
was at Lawrenceville in the fall season of 1800 it is possible the mare
was sent to him there. He was full sixteen hands high and possessed great
muscular development and strength of bone. He was not handsome, but his
figure and style were very commanding. In his day he was regarded as one
of the best natural trotters ever in Burlington or Gloucester counties.
This was not the claim of his owner merely, but the unprejudiced opinion
of all the horsemen who knew him. His stock were very highly prized as
horses suited to all purposes and especially for fast road work. Some of
them were greatly distinguished locally as fast trotters, and among them
was Nettle, the dam of the famous Dutchman, that was the greatest trotter
of his day.
WHYNOT MESSENGER, Pizzant’s Messenger, Austin’s Messenger, and Cousin’s
Messenger were all sons of Messenger and got by him while he was in West
Jersey, but as nothing has been developed concerning their maternal
breeding nor the character of their progeny, I will pass them over with
this bare record that such horses existed.
SARATOGA.—This son of Messenger was a flea-bitten grey and was foaled
about 1805. It is believed he was bred on Long Island, but nothing
is known of the blood of his dam. He was driven in harness and did
service in several counties in Pennsylvania, and was sold at auction in
Philadelphia to James Dubois of Salem, New Jersey. He was a great, strong
horse, and was kept at work on the farm of his owner, covering mares only
as opportunity offered. He was a slashing trotter, but it was only when
his owner was away from home and got an extra drink or two that anybody
ever had an opportunity to see how fast he could go. A number of his
progeny were fast trotters; among them a mare called Charlotte Gray that
was the fastest of her day in all that region. Among his sons, one called
Dove was greatly distinguished in the stud.
NESTOR AND DELIGHT.—These were sons of Messenger, the former bred in
Orange County, New York, in 1802, and was at Warwick in that county, 1807
in charge of Nehemiah Finn. The latter was bred in Westchester County
in 1806, and made the season of 1827 at Warwick, New York, in charge of
John G. Blauvelt, and is probably the horse that was more widely known as
Blauvelt’s Messenger. The breeding of the dams of both these horses is
very uncertain.
MOUNT HOLLY was a grey horse, fifteen and a half hands high. He was
foaled about 1807 and was bred by Colonel Udell, of Long Island. His dam
was by Bajazet, and his grandam was by Bashaw. Not much is known of him
till he was well advanced in years and was taken to Dutchess County.
Daniel T. Cock knew him well on the island, and he assured me he was a
trotter in the true sense of the word. The late Mr. Daniel B. Haight, a
horseman of excellent judgment and knowledge, knew him very well, and he
describes him as of the true Messenger grey, and a smooth, well-finished
horse all over. His offspring were smooth, handsome, and remarkably
tough, and from their kindly tempers they were easily managed and made
horses fit for any service. The most noted of his get were the famous
trotters Paul Pry and Mr. Tredwell’s grey mare that went to England.
His cross appears in the pedigrees of many trotters and is very highly
prized to this day. In the latter part of his life he was owned by Jacob
Husted, of Washington Hollow, New York, and made several seasons there.
His sight failed entirely as he grew old, and he died about 1835. With
two such performers from his own loins as Paul Pry and the Tredwell mare,
it cannot be doubted that he inherited and transmitted the true Messenger
“trotting instinct,” and that without any assistance from the blood of
his dam.
PLATO was a large brown horse, fully sixteen hands high, and was a full
brother to Bishop’s Hambletonian, being by Messenger, out of Pheasant.
He was bred by General Coles, of Long Island, and was foaled 1802. As
he matured the general judgment was that his limbs were too light for
his body, and this is the only instance that I can recall where the get
of Messenger failed at this vital point. He was trained and ran a few
races, and from a trial with Miller’s Damsel General Coles said he was
the best horse that ever ran against that famous mare. In a race against
his half-brother, Sir Solomon, he won the first heat of four miles and
broke down in the second, which finished him as a race horse. He was a
larger and a handsomer horse than his full brother Hambletonian, but at
no other point was he so good. When they stood in the same stable he was
advertised at a lower price. He was a number of years in the stud on Long
Island, New Jersey, and the river counties of New York, and after 1816 at
Pine Plains there is no further trace of him. In his physical structure
and doubtless, in his mental structure also, he took after his dam, and
the only link now recalled coupling him with the trotter is the fact that
he was the sire of the dam of Lewis’ Engineer, that was the sire of the
great Lady Suffolk.
DOVER MESSENGER was a grey horse, and was got by imported Messenger, but
the blood of his dam and the year he was foaled are unknown. He was kept
several seasons at South Dover, Dutchess County, New York, and left a
very valuable progeny strongly endowed with the instinct to trot. He was
taken to the town of Russia, in Herkimer County, where he died. There
was a younger horse bearing practically the same name, a son of Mambrino
Paymaster, with which this horse has often been confounded.
CORIANDER.—This son of Messenger was a bay horse, about fifteen and a
half hands high; was foaled in Queens County, New York, about 1796, and
his dam was by Allen’s Brown Figure; grandam by Rainbow; great-grandam by
Dauphin. He seems to have been kept on Long Island as long as he lived.
His progeny was much like their sire, and Mr. D. W. Jones describes them
as “clean, wiry, and brilliant. In their make-up there seemed nothing
wasted and nothing wanted.” He ran some races, as did many of his get.
He was bred upon one of the early daughters of Hambletonian, and she
produced the great trotter “Old Topgallant,” the sensation of his period
and one of the most famous of the very early trotters. One of the most
remarkable facts in the history of this remarkable old gelding is that he
ran some races before he was trained to trot.
FAGDOWN.—This son of Messenger was bred on the Jersey side of the
Delaware, not far from Philadelphia, and was foaled, I think, in 1803.
His dam was represented to be by Diomed, and if this be correct it must
have been Tate’s imported Diomed that was imported into New Jersey
and kept there a number of years. This was a bay horse and must not
be confounded with the chestnut horse of the same name imported into
Virginia. Fagdown became vicious and dangerous, and from this trait in
his character he was generally called the “Man Eater.” He was kept in the
region of Philadelphia and south of there for many years, and left a very
numerous and very valuable progeny. They were noted for their superior
qualities as road horses, and some of them were very fast, for their
day. For a number of years no family of horses were so popular about
Philadelphia as the Fagdowns. He had a son called Cropped Fagdown that
was fast, and another son called Jersey Fagdown that trotted some races
against the great Andrew Jackson. Another son, named after his sire, was
bred in Northeastern Maryland, and was taken to Eastern Ohio in 1829,
and he was kept in Columbiana, Mahoning, and Jefferson counties for at
least ten years. He was never in a race nor never trained, but his Quaker
patrons all insisted that when led by the side of another horse he could
trot as fast as a pretty good horse could run. This grandson of Messenger
was the sire of the grandam of Wapsie, the well-known trotter and sire of
Iowa.
BRIGHT PHŒBUS was foaled 1804, the same year as Hambletonian. He was out
of the imported Pot-8-os mare, and his breeder, General Coles, of Long
Island, sold him to Bond and Hughes, of Philadelphia. His most noted
achievement was at Washington, D. C., in 1808, when in a sweepstakes he
more than distanced the great Sir Archy, by catching him when he had the
distemper. His racing career was respectable, but not brilliant, and when
that ended it is not known what became of him.
SLASHER, SHAFTSBURY, HOTSPUR.—There was quite a famous brood mare
owned somewhere in Jersey called Jenny Duter, or Jenny Oiter, as some
authorities have it. She was got by True Briton; dam Quaker Lass by
imported Juniper; grandam Molly Pacolet, by imported Pacolet, etc.,
tracing on six or eight more crosses that are all fudge. This mare was
bred to Messenger about 1801, and produced Shaftsbury; her daughter by
Liberty was bred to him about the same time and produced Slasher, and
about the same time her granddaughter by Slender was also bred to him and
produced Hotspur. These three sons of Messenger do not seem to have ever
been trained, and very little of their history can be traced, except that
they were kept as stallions in different parts of New Jersey. It is not
known that their blood has had any influence upon the American trotting
horse.
MESSENGER (HUTCHINSON’S).—This was a large grey horse, foaled in 1792,
and bred by Mathias Hutchinson, of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. His
dam was by Hunt’s Grey Figure, son of imported Figure. He was kept in
Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1797, and it is probable that he was often
represented as imported Messenger himself. I have no knowledge of this
horse or his progeny beyond the mere facts here given.
MESSENGER (COOPER’S).—This son of imported Messenger was generally
known as “Cooper’s Grey” and sometimes as Ringgold. He was sixteen
hands high and was foaled about 1803. He was bred in Montgomery County,
Pennsylvania, and was kept about Philadelphia, on both sides of the
Delaware, till 1821, when he was sold by the administrators of Jacob
Kirk, and it has been said he was taken to the Wabash by Amos Cooper. He
ran some races when he was young, and was a horse of a good deal of local
fame. He was liberally patronized in the stud and left valuable progeny.
It has been suggested that probably he was the sire of Amazonia, the dam
of Abdallah; but as there is nothing to support this suggestion except
the mere matter of location, and as all that has ever been claimed for
her paternity is that she was by “a son of Messenger,” we must not forget
that there were plenty of other sons of Messenger in the same locality
that might have been her sire.
The name “Messenger” was more sadly abused in its duplication in the
closing of the last and the early decades of the present century than
that of any other horse, or perhaps of all other horses of that period
put together. Multitudes of his sons were called “Messenger,” and, in
the next generation, multitudes of his grandsons gloried in the same
cognomen, and thus generation after generation perpetuated it, in
widening circles, till “confusion became worse confounded,” leaving the
historian in helpless and hopeless ignorance as to what was true and
what was false. When grey horses in the second, third, or fourth remove
from the imported horse became old, it required but little “diplomacy”
to satisfy the public that they were true sons of the original, and this
became the custom.
[Illustration: ALIX.
By Patronage, record 2:03¾, the fastest to this date.]
CHAPTER XX.
MESSENGER’S DESCENDANTS.
History of Abdallah—Characteristics of his dam,
Amazonia—Speculations as to her blood—Description of
Abdallah—Almack, progenitor of the Champion line—Mambrino
Paymaster, sire of Mambrino Chief—History and pedigree—Mambrino
Messenger—Harris’ Hambletonian—Judson’s Hambletonian—Andrus’
Hambletonian, sire of the famous Princess, Happy Medium’s dam.
ABDALLAH.—This grandson of Messenger has been popularly and justly
designated as the “king of trotting sires of his generation.” He was bred
by John Tredwell, of Queens County, Long Island, and was foaled 1823.
His sire was Mambrino, son of Messenger, and his dam was Amazonia, one
of the most distinguished trotters of her day. Concerning the breeding
and origin of Amazonia there has been great diversity of opinion among
horsemen and a great amount of controversy among writers. It is not my
purpose to enter into a discussion of the questions raised on this point,
but I would hardly be doing justice to history to pass it over unnoticed.
I will, therefore, try to give a brief synopsis of the history and the
arguments urged, and refer the reader to the first and second volumes of
_Wallace’s Monthly_ for a more extended consideration of the questions
raised.
The first representation of her pedigree was that she was a daughter of
imported Messenger, and the next was that she was by a son of Messenger.
On the first claim, that she was by Messenger, no argument was possible,
one way or the other, on account of dates; but against the second claim,
that she was by a son of Messenger, the arguments were numerous and
vehement. All these arguments were based wholly upon her coarse external
conformation and the absence of all resemblance to the Messenger family.
Among the supporters of this view were many of the most intelligent and
trustworthy horsemen of the whole country. Indeed, the preponderance of
intelligence as well as numbers seemed to be on that side. That she had
“coarse, ragged hips,” that she had a “rat tail,” that she “had hair
enough on her legs to stuff a mattress,” that she was “a muddy sorrel,”
etc., were all urged to prove that she was not by a son of Messenger. It
is true that many entered into this controversy who never saw the mare
and who knew nothing about her appearance, but there were others who knew
her perfectly, among them my venerable friend David W. Jones, to whom
we are all indebted for so many treasures from his storehouse of very
valuable memories.
On the other side there were some little scraps of history, that at
the vital point may have been history or may have been fiction. In the
certificate of sale of Abdallah, April 27, 1830, to Mr. Isaac Snediker,
his breeder, Mr. John Tredwell, says: “And believe him to be the very
_best bred_ trotting stallion in this country, and be it enough to know
that his sire was Mambrino and his dam Amazonia.” It has been argued
that it would be very inconsistent for a man of Mr. Tredwell’s standing
to certify that Abdallah “was the very best bred trotting stallion in
this country,” if he knew nothing of the blood of his dam, drawing the
inference that he must have known and believed the representations
of his nephew, B. T. Kissam, from whom he got Amazonia. The story of
the original purchase of Amazonia by B. T. Kissam and given to me by
his brother, Timothy T. Kissam, in 1870, is as follows: Amazonia was
purchased by B. T. Kissam, a dry goods merchant of New York, when on an
excursion of pleasure in the vicinity of Philadelphia about 1814. She was
brought out of a team and was then four years old past, his attention
having been called to her as an animal of much promise. He used her for
his own driving a short time and sold her to his uncle, John Tredwell.
“Amazonia was represented to my brother to have been a get of imported
Messenger.”
Now, in considering whether this scrap of history is probably true, the
geographical question has been urged with telling effect. Messenger had
been kept a number of years on both sides of the Delaware, right on the
way to Philadelphia, his fee had been above that of any other stallion,
and a large percentage of his colts had been kept entire. In no part of
the country, perhaps, were there so many sons of Messenger seeking public
patronage. The geography and the chronology of the question, therefore,
both sustain the probability of its truthfulness. Whether Mr. Kissam
crossed the river at Trenton, or Burlington, or Camden he was right in
the hotbed of the sons of Messenger. “If Amazonia” it has been asked,
“was as coarse and forbidding as represented in her appearance, what
induced Mr. Kissam to buy her?” He wanted a carriage horse and he wanted
one that could not only show good action, but one that had a right of
inheritance to good action. He knew the Messengers and knew that beauty
and style were not family traits in that tribe. Many of them were coarse,
and possibly as coarse as Amazonia. Her very coarseness and lack of style
is, under the circumstances, a strong argument that in choosing her Mr.
Kissam had regard for her Messenger blood.
Another argument, resting on “the internal evidences,” has been urged
with considerable force and it is very hard to answer it. Amazonia was a
mare of tested and known speed. She was in a number of races to saddle
and had won several of them in less than three minutes along about
1816-18, and when Major William Jones, in 1820, accepted the challenge to
produce a horse that could trot a mile in three minutes for one thousand
dollars, he knew very well what he was doing, for he had seen Amazonia
do it a number of times. Her best time was about 2:54, which in that day
was considered phenomenally fast. If we were to meet a running horse out
on the plains that could run away from all others, we would naturally
and justly conclude that he had some of the blood of the race horse in
his veins. If we have a pacer and we learn he came from a section of the
country where a certain tribe of pacers abounded, we would naturally
conclude that he belonged to that tribe, especially if we knew there
were no other pacers in that section. If we have a trotter that can go
away from all other trotters, and we know that this trotter came from
a section abounding in a family of trotters, and in nothing else that
can trot, we naturally and justly conclude that this trotter came from
some member of that family of trotters. This argument from the “internal
evidences” seems almost axiomatic, and when taken in connection with the
historical argument, unsatisfactory though it be, they together lay the
foundation for a very strong probability that Amazonia was by a son of
Messenger.
Abdallah was in color a beautiful bay, about fifteen and a half hands
high, and there was a measure of coarseness about him that he could not
well escape, as both his sire and dam were endowed with that undesirable
quality. The one exception to this was in the character of his coat,
which was very fine and glossy when in healthy condition. His reputation
as a great trotting sire was very widely extended during his lifetime,
but his lack of symmetry and his “rat tail,” which he inherited from his
dam, so impaired his acceptability with the public that he never was very
largely patronized. Besides this he had an unconquerable will of his own,
which he transmitted to his offspring very generally. This willfulness
was not a desirable quality in a horse for drudgery, and hence most of
his patrons were such as were seeking for gameness and speed. When he
was four years old he was not in the stud, and it is understood that Mr.
Tredwell undertook to break him thoroughly and train him that year. It is
also understood that when put in harness he kicked everything to pieces
within his reach and that all thoughts of training were soon abandoned.
He never was in harness again until, in extreme old age, he was sold for
five dollars to a fish peddler, and the peddler’s wagon was soon reduced
to kindling wood.
He was kept at different points on Long Island, and one season in New
Jersey, till the fall of 1839, when he, with Commodore, another son of
Mambrino, was sold to Mr. John W. Hunt, of Lexington, Kentucky, where
they made the season of 1840. Commodore was much the more attractive
horse of the two, and did a large business, while Abdallah was almost
wholly neglected, leaving only about half a dozen colts. Meantime
his progeny on the island began to show their speed and their racing
qualities; a company was formed and he was brought back from Kentucky and
made the seasons of 1841 and 1842 at the Union Course, Long Island. He
was at Goshen, New York, 1843, at Freehold, New Jersey, 1844 and 1845, at
Chester, New York, 1846-47-48, at Bull’s Head, New York, 1849, and did
nothing, then at the Union Course and Patchogue, Long Island, and was not
off the island again. After the period of his usefulness was past his
inhuman owners turned him out on a bleak, sandy beach on the Long Island
shore, and there he starved to death in the piercing November winds,
without a shelter or a friend.
Abdallah was the sire of Hambletonian, 10, the greatest of all trotting
progenitors and greater than all others combined. This fact alone has
made his name imperishable in the annals of the trotting horse. A number
of his other sons were kept for stallions and some of them lived to old
age, but they were all failures in the stud. His daughters, generally,
proved to be most valuable brood mares, producing speed to almost any
and every cross. A pedigree tracing to an “Abdallah mare” has always
enhanced the value of a family.
ALMACK.—Mr. John Tredwell bred his famous team of driving mares, Amazonia
and Sophonisba, to Mambrino in the spring of 1822, and the next year
they each produced a bay horse colt that he named Abdallah and Almack.
Sophonisba, the dam of Almack, was a superior mare, but she was not fast
enough for her mate. Almack, however, was a good horse and left some
trotters. I have no particular description of him at hand and nothing
can now be given of his history further than that some of his daughters
produced well and that he seems to have been kept all his life on Long
Island. His dam Sophonisba was got by a grandson of imported Baronet,
as represented, but this is so indefinite as to be unsatisfactory and
suspicious. As none of the Baronets could ever trot, even “a little bit,”
it is evident that whatever trotting inheritance Almack possessed came
to him from his sire. Aside from a number of his descendants that were
recognized trotters of merit there was one in particular that established
Almack as a progenitor of a great family of trotters. A son of his bred
by George Raynor, of Huntington, Long Island, in 1842, and known as the
“Raynor Colt,” out of Spirit by Engineer II., sire of Lady Suffolk, was
led behind a sulky at a fair at Huntington, when he was eighteen months
old, and he went so fast and showed such a magnificent way of doing it,
that he was named “Champion” by William T. Porter, editor of the _Spirit
of the Times_. At three years old he was driven a full mile in 3:05 and
this was a “world’s record” for colts of that age at that time. In 1846
he was purchased by William R. Grinnell for two thousand six hundred
dollars and taken to Cayuga County, where he founded a great tribe of
trotters that is now known everywhere as the “Champion Family.” A fuller
account of this horse will be found at another place in this volume.
MAMBRINO PAYMASTER (widely known in later years as Blind Paymaster).—This
was a large, strong-boned, dark-bay horse, sixteen hands and an inch
high. When young he was somewhat light and leggy, but with age he spread
out and became a horse of substance. He was bred by Azariah Arnold, of
the town of Washington, in Dutchess County, New York. There is some
uncertainty about the year this horse was foaled, but it was somewhere
between 1822 and 1826. He was got by Mambrino, son of Messenger, and his
dam was represented to be by imported Paymaster. The late Mr. Edwin
Thorne made a statement a few years ago that in an interview with Azariah
Arnold he said that he did not know or remember the horse that was the
sire of the dam. At that time Mr. Arnold was very old, and doubtless his
mental faculties very much impaired, so it would not be remarkable that
he should have forgotten all about it. On the other hand, Nelson Haight,
Daniel B. Haight, Seth P. Hopson, and others of like high character,
maintain that Mr. Arnold, in his younger days, always represented the
mare to be by Paymaster, and the name of the horse itself is very strong
evidence that he did so represent it, and is a standing proclamation to
that effect. There can be no possible doubt that in earlier life Mr.
Arnold constantly represented this mare to be by Paymaster; neither can
there be any reasonable doubt that when his faculties were impaired
with age he told Mr. Thorne that he did not remember her pedigree. Mr.
Arnold’s neighbors all agree that he was a man of unblemished character
and incapable of a willful misrepresentation, when in possession of
his faculties. Again, that this Paymaster cross was not only possible,
but probable, is shown by the fact that imported Paymaster was kept by
Ebenezer Haight, in the year 1807, in the same township with Azariah
Arnold, and the years 1808 and 1809 in the same part of the county.
Therefore, Mr. Thorne to the contrary notwithstanding, I have but little
doubt that the Paymaster cross is correct.
He had a small star in his forehead and a little white on one hind foot.
His back, loin and hips were altogether superior, and those who knew him
best say they never saw his equal at these points. His head was large and
bony, with an ear after the Mambrino model. His neck was of medium length
and his shoulder good. His hind legs were quite crooked and too much
cut in below the hock in front, giving the legs at that point a narrow
and weak appearance; his hocks were large and at the curb place showed
a fullness. His cannon bones, all round, were short for a horse of his
size, and his feet were excellent. He was slow in maturing, but when he
filled out he lost all that narrow, weedy appearance which characterized
his colthood. He was not beautiful, but powerful.
About 1828 he was sold and taken to Binghamton, New York. Meantime his
colts came forward and proved to be so valuable that Nelson and Daniel
B. Haight and Gilbert Jones purchased and brought him back to Dutchess
County about the year 1840. He was not a sure foal-getter, but his
stock proved to be of great value. When brought back from Broome County
he was blind. He made one season on Long Island in charge of George
Tappan; the other seasons till 1847 he was kept in Dutchess County in the
neighborhood of his owners. In 1847 he was sold to Mr. Gilbert Holmes and
taken to Vermont, where he died after getting one colt. Many of his sons
were kept as stallions, but the most famous of his get were the mares
Iola and Lady Moore, and last but not least, his famous son Mambrino
Chief, the founder of a great family of trotters in Kentucky. His stock
were probably more noted and more highly prized than that of any of the
sons of Mambrino that stood in Dutchess County. As Abdallah was the
link by which the greatest of all trotting families are connected with
Messenger, so Mambrino Paymaster is the link through which the family
easily entitled to second place reaches the same illustrious original.
MAMBRINO JR. (BONE SWINGER) was a beautiful bay horse, foaled 182-, got
by Mambrino, son of Messenger; dam not traced. He was bred on Long Island
and was owned by George Tappan, near Jericho, Long Island. About 1833-4
he made some seasons at Washington Hollow, Dutchess County. He was about
fifteen hands three inches high and was considered more blood-like and
handsome than most of his family. He was a strong breeder, giving most of
his colts his own elegant color.
MAMBRINO MESSENGER (commonly known as the Burton Horse) was foaled
about 1821. He was got by Mambrino, son of Messenger; dam by Coffin’s
Messenger, son of Messenger; grandam by Black and All Black;
great-grandam by Feather. He was bred by Abram Burton, of Washington
Hollow, New York. He was a beautiful bay, about fifteen hands three
inches high, and was the same age as Mambrino Paymaster, and they were
rivals for a number of years, each having his friends and adherents. He
was finer in the bone, having more finish and beauty than his rival, and
what was still more effective with the public, he could out-trot him.
Many of his offspring proved to be most excellent roadsters and some of
them were fast. He was probably taken to Western New York, but I have
not found any trace of his location or history. This name, Mambrino
Messenger, was borne by several other horses of different degrees of
affinity to the originals.
HAMBLETONIAN (HARRIS’) (also known as Bristol Grey and Remington
Horse).—This was a grey horse, about sixteen hands high, and possessed
great strength and substance. When young he was an iron grey and probably
pretty dark, but as he advanced in age he became lighter in color. His
head was large and bony, with great width between the eyes. He was short
in the back, with long hips, and the rise of the withers commenced far
back, showing a fine, oblique shoulder. He was a horse of unusually large
bone formation; his limbs were large, but flat and clean, with a heavy
growth of hair at the fetlocks. He was of docile and kindly disposition
and worked well either alone or with another. His gait was open and
decided and at a walk his long slinging steps carried him over the ground
unusually fast. His speed as a trotter was never developed, but his
action at that gait was so free, open and square that those who knew him
well have insisted that his manner of going indicated the possibility of
great improvement, if he had been handled with that view. His offspring
were slow in maturing, and for many years, indeed till toward the end
of his life, he was not appreciated as a stallion. He was in constant
competition with the little, plump, trim and trappy Morgans, and at three
and four years old his long, lathy, plain colts cut but a sorry figure
against the well formed and fully developed Morgans of their own age.
With such a rivalry, sustained by the question of profit to the breeder
by early sales, it is not remarkable that he should have been neglected,
till it was clearly demonstrated that he transmitted the true Messenger
trotting instinct in greater strength than any of his competitors.
He was bred by Isaac Munson, of Wallingford, Vermont; foaled 1823, got
by Bishop’s Hambletonian, son of Messenger; dam the Munson mare that was
brought from Boston, 1813. There never has been any question about the
sire of this horse, but up to 1869 the representation made by Mr. Harris
that his dam was an imported English mare was generally accepted as the
truth. I was led to doubt this, and in December of that year I made a
thorough search of the records of the custom-house in Boston, and found
the claim was without any foundation whatever. Through the kindness of
Mr. Henry D. Noble I was enabled to get beyond Mr. Harris, who really
knew nothing about the mare, back to the Munson family, and to Mr. Joseph
Tucker, the earliest and best authority living in 1870. In order that
this evidence may be preserved I will here insert Mr. Tucker’s letter
entire.
“MILFORD, N. H., May 4th, 1870.
“MR. J. H. WALLACE, Muscatine, Iowa.
“DEAR SIR: Yours of 22d of April is duly received and contents
noted. I was 24 years old when first acquainted with the dam
of the ‘Harris Horse,’ so called, in the fall of 1813. Was
then carrying on a farm, now owned by Wm. Randall, Esq., in
this town, for Mr. Israel Munson, a commission merchant then
doing business on India Street, and afterward on Central
Wharf, Boston. I was in Boston in the fall of 1813, as above,
and found the dam (of Hambletonian) and mate in Mr. Munson’s
possession. He said they had been ‘leaders’ in a stage team,
and they acted as if green about holding back, etc. He never
said she was imported from England, neither did I hear such
a story till two or three years ago. The dam was called ‘a
Messenger.’ All the description I can give of her is that she
was a strong, well-built, light dapple grey, and would weigh
ten hundred, certain. The span was well matched. The nigh one
(the dam) was more serviceable than the other. Led them all the
way from Boston behind an ox team; kept them till the middle of
April and then returned the pair to Boston. Mr. Munson drove
them up, only stopping to dinner, when on his way to Vermont
in August, 1814, and I didn’t see them again until December. I
then drove them from Boston to Vermont, and used them a year on
the Munson farm, on Otter Creek, in Wallingford. In June, 1815,
I took them to Phœnix Horse (bay, black mane and tail, good
looking and smart) in Clarendon Flats. Both stood and had foals
the spring after I left Mr. Munson’s employ. The off mare was
occasionally a little lame, I think in the off fore foot, when
hard drove, but the nigh one was perfectly free from lameness
or limping. I left Mr. Munson in the spring of 1816, and know
nothing of mares afterward.
“Yours truly,
JOSEPH TUCKER,
“(By Geo. W. Fox).”
I have given this letter entire, with the exception of a few closing
sentences, that the public may be able to judge of its authenticity.
That these mares were leaders in a stage team when Mr. Munson bought
them is confirmed by members of the Munson family, and that the nigh
mare was represented to be a Messenger at the time of the purchase I
have not the least doubt. But whether she was really a Messenger is
quite another question. All I can say is, it was possible in the nature
of things; and the employment and qualities of the mare, together with
the representations of Mr. Munson, appear to make it probable. During
the mare’s lifetime I find she was spoken of in the Munson family and
about Wallingford as “the imported Messenger mare” and in this phrase, no
doubt, was the origin of the story that she was herself imported. When
this phrase, through her son, reached the next outer circle, “imported
Messenger mare” no longer meant a mare by imported Messenger, but an
imported mare by Messenger.
At the point where Mr. Tucker’s knowledge of this mare ceases,
fortunately Mr. Isaac B. Munson, of Wallingford, takes up the history and
carries it forward, with great particularity, to the time of her death
about 1826. She produced several foals by different horses, and while
they were all valuable animals, the only one that is known to history is
the subject of this sketch. When Hambletonian of Vermont was two years
old Mr. Munson sold him to Samuel Edgerton and others, of Wallingford,
and they kept him in the stud till about 1828, when they sold him to Mr.
Eddy, of Bristol, Vermont, and in the hands of the Eddy family he was
kept at Bristol, New Haven, and other points in and about Addison County
till about 1835, when he was kept one or two years again in Wallingford
and adjacent towns. About 1837 he was sold to Joshua Remington, of
Huntington, Vermont, and was taken there. He stood in various parts
of Chittenden County, and became well known as the “Remington Horse.”
Unfortunately there is no guide to dates in these transfers and it is
not known just how long Mr. Remington owned him. He next passed into the
hands of Mr. Russell Harris, New Haven, Connecticut, and remained his
till he died late in the year 1847.
The location of this horse was unfavorable either to a large or to a
numerous progeny of trotters. He was surrounded with Morgan blood, trappy
and stylish and fast growing in popularity on the supposition that they
were trotters—a most valuable tribe as family horses, but none of them
were able to trot fast without the introduction of trotting blood from
the outside. He lived in a period antedating the real development of the
trotter and the keeping of records of performances, and hence we must
not judge of his merits as a trotting sire by comparing the list of his
performers with lists of later generations. Green Mountain Maid was one
of the best of her day and made a record of 2:28½ in 1853, and the same
year the famous pacing gelding Hero made a record of 2:20½. Probably
the best trotter from his loins was Sontag, with a wagon record in 1855
of 2:31. This mare was originally a pacer, and whether his dam was by
imported Messenger or not we must conclude that the tendency to the
lateral action was strong in his progeny. Lady Shannon, Trouble, Vermont,
Modesty, and True John were all famous performers in their day. The last
named was kept in the stud a few years and was known as the Hanchett
Horse. He fell into the hands of Sim D. Hoagland, of this vicinity,
became ugly and was made a gelding. As a weight puller he had no equal
in his day. His daughters became the dams of many noted producers and
performers, and through the doubling of his blood and its predominating
influence we have the famous General Knox and his tribe. But few of his
sons were kept as stallions; among them the best known is Hambletonian,
814, known as the Parris Horse and the sire of the stout campaigner,
Joker, 2:22½. Vermont Hambletonian (known as the Noble or Harrington
Horse) was one of his best and best-bred sons. He died in 1865, leaving a
valuable progeny.
HAMBLETONIAN (JUDSON’S) was a brown horse and resembled his sire
very much in both size and form. He was foaled 1821, got by Bishop’s
Hambletonian, son of Messenger; dam by Wells’ Magnum Bonum. This Magnum
Bonum family abounded in that region, and it was a very good one,
whatever the blood may have been. This horse was bred by Judge Underhill,
of Dorset, Vermont, and sold, 1829, to Dr. Nathan Judson, of Pawlet,
Vermont. He was kept in that region till he died about 1841. His progeny
were very numerous and valuable.
HAMBLETONIAN (ANDRUS’) was a brown horse nearly sixteen hands high.
He was a well formed and evenly balanced horse, all over, with an
objectionable lack of bone just below the fore-knee. His head and ear
were strongly after the Messenger model. I have never been able to
determine just who bred him, and consequently his blood on the side
of the dam is not fully established. He was foaled about 1840, got by
Judson’s Hambletonian, and out of a mare which Mr. B. B. Sherman says
was by old Magnum Bonum. He seems to have known this mare well and
speaks of her as a very superior animal. This would indicate inbreeding
to the Magnum Bonums, and as they were a light-limbed family we may
account for this horse’s defects in that respect. He was owned a number
of years by Mr. Andrus, of Pawlet, and passed into the hands of G. A.
Austin, of Orwell, Vermont. In 1853-4 Mr. Austin sent him to Illinois,
along with Drury’s Ethan Allen, Black Hawk Prophet, Morgan Tiger and
some other stallions, in charge of Mr. Wetherbee, for sale. In 1854
they were removed to Muscatine, Iowa, and several of them sold there,
among them the Andrus Horse. He was then stiff in his limbs, showing the
effects of previous neglect and abuse. He died at Muscatine in 1857.
His progeny there were defective in bone. I am told several of his
daughters in Vermont have left good stock there and thus perpetuated
his name in the second and third generations. But his chief title to
fame has been secured to him by his renowned daughter Princess, the dam
of the great Happy Medium. In 1851 Mr. L. B. Adams, who then owned her,
bred the Isaiah Wilcox mare, by Burdick’s Engineer, son of Engineer by
Messenger, to Andrus’ Hambletonian, and, in a nutshell, the union of this
great-grandson of Messenger with this great-granddaughter of Messenger
produced Princess. This pedigree of Princess is incontrovertibly
established and will be given in fuller detail in the history of her son,
Happy Medium.
[Illustration: HAMBLETONIAN (RYSDYK’S).
The greatest of all trotting progenitors and the most intensely inbred to
Messenger.]
CHAPTER XXI.
HAMBLETONIAN AND HIS FAMILY.
The greatest progenitor in Horse History—Mr. Kellogg’s
description, and comments thereon—An analysis of Hambletonian,
structurally considered—His carriage and action—As a
three-year-old trotter—Details of his stud service—Statistics
of the Hambletonian family—History and ancestry of his dam, the
Charles Kent Mare—Her grandson, Green’s Bashaw and his dam.
HAMBLETONIAN, 10.—It has been a matter of constant regret that in
the compilation of the first volume of the Register I attached the
name “Rysdyk’s” to this horse, and this misstep has served as a kind
of apparent justification for very many men to seize upon the name
“Hambletonian,” with their own name as a prefix. This has led to great
confusion and annoyance to all that body of men who have anything to do
with records and correct pedigrees. Fortunately, however, the evil has
become so apparent that many writers are beginning to use the numbers,
and we now very frequently hear men speak of “Hambletonian, 10,” as the
true designation of this horse.
As no horse of any blood or period in this or any other country has
excited an interest so universal, or represented such a vast sum of money
in his offspring and descendants, I must try to give an account of him
and his family—ancestors and descendants—as full and accurate as the
materials at hand will enable me. He was a beautiful bay color, bred by
Jonas Seely, of Sugar Loaf, Orange County, New York, foaled 1849, got by
Abdallah; dam the Kent Mare, by imported Bellfounder; grandam One Eye,
by Hambletonian, son of Messenger; great-grandam Silvertail, by imported
Messenger; great-great-grandam Black Jin, breeding unknown. He was sold
with his dam, when a suckling, to Mr. William M. Rysdyk, of Chester, in
the same county, and he remained his till he died in March, 1876. He has
been described by a great many writers, but the most minute and accurate
description I have ever seen is from the pen of “Hark Comstock” (Peter C.
Kellogg), which I will here present, and after it note any point upon
which my own judgment differs from his. It should be remembered that this
description was made when the horse was breaking down with the weight of
years:
Hambletonian, now twenty-six years old, is a rich deep mahogany
bay, with black legs, the black extending very high up on the
arms and stifles. His mane was originally black, and in his
younger days very ornamental; rather light, like that of the
blood-horse, and of medium length, never reaching below the
lower line of the neck, but uniform throughout. His foretop
was always light. At the present time not a vestige of either
remains, they having gradually disappeared until crest and
crown are bald. His tail is long and full. When we first knew
him it was very full, but is also thinning with his advancing
years. The hair of both was black as a raven’s wing, and
entirely devoid of wave or curl. His marks are a very small
star and two white ankles behind, but the coronets being dotted
with black spots, the hoofs are mainly dark. Muzzle dark. Head
large and bony, with profile inclining to the Roman order; jowl
deep; jaws not as wide apart as in some of his descendants, yet
not deficient. Eye very large and prominent, and countenance
generally animated and expressive of good temper. We found
him to measure 10½ inches across the face. Ear large, well
set, and lively. Neck rather short and a little heavy at the
throatlatch, but thin and clean at the crest. His shoulders are
very oblique, deep and strong; withers low and broad; sway very
short, and coupling smooth. The great fillets of muscle running
back along the spine give extraordinary width and strength to
the loin, which threatens to lose the closely-set hip in the
wealth of its embrace. But it is back of here that we find
lodged the immense and powerful machinery that, imparted to
his sons and daughters, has ever placed them in the foremost
ranks of trotters. His hip is long and croup high, with great
length from hip-point to hock. Thighs and stifles swelling with
the sinewy muscle, which extends well down into his large,
clean, bony hocks, hung near the ground. Below these the leg is
broad, flat, and clean, with the tendons well detached from the
bone, and drops at a considerable angle with the upper part of
the limb, giving the well-bent rather than the straight hock.
Pasterns long, but strong and elastic, and let into hoofs that
are perfection. In front his limbs in strength and muscular
development comport with the rear formation. His chest is broad
and prominent; his forelegs stand wide apart (perhaps in part
the result of much covering), and he is deep through the heart;
yet notwithstanding this, and the fact of his roundness of
barrel, there is no appearance of heaviness or hampered action.
Taken at a glance, the impressive features of the horse are
his immense substance, without a particle of coarseness or
grossness. No horse we can recall has so great a volume of
bone, with the same apparent firmness of texture and true
blood-like quality. Though short-backed, he is very long
underneath. Indeed, he is a horse of greater than apparent
length. We found his measurement from breast to breeching, in
a straight line, greater by four inches than his height at the
withers—a very unusual excess. We also found him two inches
higher over the rump than at the withers, and the whole rear,
or propelling portion of the machinery, would upon measurement
seem to have been molded for an animal two sizes larger
than the one to which it is attached; yet so beautifully
is its connection effected with the whole that there is no
disproportion apparent, either in the symmetry or the action
of the horse. As an evidence of the immense reach which this
admirable rear construction enables him to obtain, it is often
noticed by visitors that in his favorite attitude, as he stands
in his box, his off hind foot is thrown forward so far under
him as to nearly touch the one in front of it—an attitude which
few horses of his proportionate length could take without an
apparent strain, yet which he assumes at perfect repose. When
led out upon the ground his walk strikes one as being different
from that of any other horse. It cannot be described further
than to say that it shows a true and admirable adjustment of
parts, and a perfect pliability and elasticity of mechanism
that shows out through every movement. Many have noticed and
endeavored to account in different ways for the peculiarity,
some crediting it to the pliable pastern, others to surplus of
knee and hock action, etc., but the fact is, there seems to be
a suppleness of the whole conformation that delights to express
itself in every movement and action of the horse. “In his box,”
said a Kentucky horseman, who recently looked him over, “I
thought him too massive to be active, but the moment he stepped
out I saw that he was all action.”
There is so much in the foregoing description that is intelligent and
just that I hardly feel like reviewing a single phrase. In judging of
the conformation of a horse and determining whether it is good or bad,
at different points, we must have in our mind some ideal standard, by
which we mentally compare one thing with another. The popular conception
of the perfect horse is the picture of the “Arabian,” painted by artists
who never saw an Arabian horse. The next approach to perfection is the
English race horse, but others may insist that the Clydesdale comes
nearer perfection and that he should be the ideal with which the standard
of comparison should be made. It is unfortunate that Mr. Kellogg should
have described Hambletonian as possessing “immense substance, without a
particle of coarseness, or grossness.” He had a remarkably coarse head
in its size and outline, but this is greatly softened by saying “with a
profile inclining to the Roman order.” The ideal muzzle of the English
race horse is so fine that, figuratively speaking, he can drink out of
a tin cup, but Hambletonian could not get his muzzle into a vessel of
much smaller dimensions than a half-bushel measure. “Ear large, well set
and lively.” This is true as to the size of the ears, but not correct,
in my judgment, as to the setting on. As they habitually lopped backward
when in repose, giving a sour and ill-tempered expression, I could not
concede that they were “well set.” The hocks were good and clean, but
the abrupt angle at that point was certainly a coarse feature. The
round meaty withers and the round meaty buttocks were both “coarse and
gross” when looked at from the point of good breeding. His two great,
meaty ends, connected with a long and perfect barrel, two or three sizes
too small for the ends, showed such a marked disproportion that I often
wondered at it. Not one of these criticisms is made in the sense of a
criticism of Mr. Kellogg’s description, but merely as the expression of
a different view on some points, and on those points not mentioned I
most heartily agree with him. He has omitted to give the height of the
horse for the reason that he had shrunken from his normal height just one
inch. When at his best he measured fifteen hands one inch and a quarter.
This shrinkage, in addition to the ordinary results of great age, is
thus explained by Mr. Guy Miller, who knew him better than any other
man except his owner. “His splendid fore hoofs had been ruined by an
operation whereby the arch was lost and the horse during the remainder of
his days stood on his frogs.” He was two inches higher on the hips than
on the withers.
When the horse was led out his movements were so frictionless and
faultless that he impressed me as the most wonderful horse that I had
ever seen. He seemed as supple as a cat with the power of an elephant.
As he walked he kept pushing those crooked hind legs away under him in
a manner that gave him a motion peculiarly his own, and suggested the
immense possibilities of his stride when opened out on a trot. Plain and
indeed homely as he was he was a most interesting and instructive study
whether in his box or taking his daily walks. The question has been asked
a thousand times whether the speed of Hambletonian had been developed
and how fast he could go. This question I considered very important, in
a philosophical and breeding sense, and in starting in to investigate
it I found two statements, one that the time made at the Union Course
was honest and true, and the other that it was a “put up job” to make
Mr. Rysdyk feel good, and that the time in fact was much slower than
that announced. Each side had its advocates, and it did not take long
to discover that the enemies of Mr. Rysdyk were all on one side and the
more bitter their enmity the more blatant they were in denying the truth
of the time given out for the performance. This party was headed by
one “J. M.,” long distinguished, and will be long remembered in Orange
County, for the virulence of his dislike to Mr. Rysdyk, and as the most
unreliable of all unreliable horsemen.
In the autumn of 1852 Mr. Rysdyk and Mr. Seely C. Roe, the owner of Roe’s
Abdallah Chief, then four years old, concluded to exhibit their sons of
Abdallah at the fair of the American Institute, in New York, and after
the fair to take their colts, three and four years old respectively, for
a light training for a few weeks. The programme was carried out, and
after reaching the course they started the two colts together, and much
to Mr. Roe’s surprise Hambletonian beat his colt in 3:03. In a short
time Mr. Roe gave his colt another trial in 2:55½. A few days later Mr.
Rysdyk drove his colt in 2:48. Believing then he had the making of the
best trotter in the world and being thoroughly homesick, he packed up
his traps and started for Orange County, and this was the first and the
last training that Hambletonian ever had. When we consider the age of the
colt and how few of that age had then ever reached that mark, the little
then known by amateurs of the arts of training and driving, and the very
limited preparation, we must conclude that this was a remarkably good
performance.
Was it honestly made? Mr. Roe has been dead a good many years, but the
next day after he returned from Long Island with Mr. Rysdyk he called at
the house of his brother-in-law, David R. Feagles, a very responsible
man, and in the course of the conversation he asked Mr. Feagles if he
had heard the news? “No,” said Mr. Feagles, “what is it?” “Rysdyk’s colt
trotted the Union Course in 2:48. I held my watch and I know it is true.”
Mr. Roe was always steadfast and immovable in this declaration while he
lived. Mr. W. H. Wood, the breeder of Abdallah Chief, says he told him
the time was 2:48, and he had several times heard it disputed in Mr.
Roe’s presence and he had always settled the dispute by giving the same
fact. Mr. David R. Seely said he could not remember the time made, but he
had heard the matter disputed, and Mr. Roe settled it by saying it was
true, that he saw it and held the watch on him when he did it. These men
were as reliable as any in Orange County and their statement of Mr. Roe’s
assertions cannot be doubted. Considering the circumstances, it will
occur to any mind that Mr. Roe was the very best witness to the truth of
this performance that could be produced. He was not only disinterested,
but in building up the reputation of a rival stallion he was testifying
to his own hurt.
There are other evidences of Hambletonian’s development and speed, but
nothing so definite as the foregoing. He was driven in double team
sometimes with the great trotter Sir Walter. Mr. Kinner, at one time
owner of Sir Walter and other good ones, a horseman of experience and
knowledge of trotting affairs, assured me that Sir Walter had shown a
trial at Centerville track to wagon in 2:32, and this was before he was
driven double, occasionally, with Hambletonian; and that Hambletonian
could out-foot Sir Walter for the first half-mile, but as the young horse
was green and unseasoned, he could not keep up the clip to the finish. He
did not hesitate to express the belief that the team could have trotted
the mile in considerably less than 2:40. There is one fact in connection
with the trial at Union Course that I have omitted in its proper place.
Mr. Rysdyk was a remarkably careful man and always aimed to be inside of
the truth rather than beyond it. He advertised his horse as having made
the trial in 2:48½, as it is probable some of the watches gave that as
the time, instead of 2:48 flat.
Like all the Abdallah family, Hambletonian matured early, and at three
years was as well advanced as many colts a year older. His stud services
commenced early. When two years old he was allowed to cover four mares
without fee and he got three colts, one of which was afterward known as
the famous Alexander’s Abdallah. When three years old he was offered
for public patronage at twenty-five dollars to insure, and he covered
seventeen mares and got thirteen colts. The next season, at the same
price, he covered one hundred and one mares and got seventy-eight
colts. The next season (1854), being then five years old, the price was
advanced to thirty-five dollars, and he covered eighty-eight mares,
getting sixty-three foals. The price remained at thirty-five dollars
till 1863, when it was advanced to seventy-five dollars. At which price
he covered one hundred and fifty mares. The next season the price was
advanced to one hundred dollars, and he covered two hundred and seventeen
mares, getting one hundred and forty-eight foals. In 1865 the price
was advanced to three hundred dollars and one hundred and ninety-three
mares were covered. In 1866 the price was put at five hundred dollars
and one hundred and five mares were covered. At this price his services
remained ever afterward—one hundred dollars down and the remainder when
the mare proved in foal. In 1867 he covered seventy-seven mares and got
only forty-one foals. This large percentage of failure indicated beyond
question that his procreative powers had been overtaxed and that there
was a general letting down of his vital energies. In 1868 he was not
allowed to cover any mares. In 1869 he again manifested his usual vigor
and he covered twenty-one mares, getting fourteen foals. In 1870 he
covered twenty-two mares and got thirteen foals. From this time forward
his procreative powers dwindled, and in 1875, I think, he got but two
foals, and died the following March.
It has been estimated that he got about one thousand three hundred
foals, and for several years it was one of the amusing features of horse
literature to see how many writers were able to demonstrate that as a
progenitor of speed he was a failure. This item of one thousand three
hundred foals was taken as the basis of computation, and then with the
small number of forty trotters out of the one thousand three hundred,
the percentage of trotters was very small. The next step was to find
some unknown horse, generally a pacer, that had only two or three foals
to his credit and one of them had made a record of 2:30, thus showing
a much larger percentage than Hambletonian, and by that much he was a
greater sire than Hambletonian. All this foolishness has now subsided in
the face of the fact that the great mass of the trotters of today have
more or less of his blood in their veins, and in a very short time that
blood will abound in greater or less strength in every American trotter.
The tables which here follows will make this fact evident to all who will
study them.
[Prefatory to these tables and to the other statistics
concerning the present rank of the trotting families given
in the pages following, an explanatory paragraph is in order
so that they may not be misunderstood. (1) They are based
on the tables given in the Year Book for 1896, and I regret
to say that these tables are so emasculated, incomplete,
unsatisfactory and in many cases contradictory one of the other
that it is literally impossible to compile from them statistics
that may be accepted as absolutely correct and letter perfect.
However, as this work is not intended as one for statistical
reference, the tables being approximately correct serve
my purpose, which is merely to show _relatively_ and with
substantial accuracy the standing of the sires and families
embraced to the close of 1896. (2) By the term “standard
performers” is meant horses that have acquired trotting records
of 2:30 or better, or pacing records of 2:25 or better. The
Year Book no longer gives a 2:30 pacing list, and it should
be noted that pacers with records between 2:30 and 2:25 are
not credited in these tables. (3) The tables are designed to
show (_a_) the number of standard performers got by each sire
named. (_b_) The number of his sons that are sires of standard
performers. (_c_) The number of his daughters that are dams of
standard performers. (_d_) The number of standard performers
produced by these sons and daughters, and finally, in the last
column, the total number of standard performers produced in the
two generations—_i. e._, by the sire himself, and by his sons
and daughters. The dates of foaling and death are important in
considering the opportunities of the families embraced.]
The first table following gives some idea of the supremacy of the
Hambletonian family over all others. When we seek a rival to Hambletonian
as a trotting progenitor we must do so among his sons; and by turning to
the second table it will be noted that many of these outrank the founders
of any and all the other great trotting families.
FOUNDERS OF THE GREAT TROTTING FAMILIES.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total No. Standard performers in two generations.
------------------------------------------------------------------+
Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-----------------------------------------------------------+ |
Producing daughters. | |
-----------------------------------------------------+ | |
Producing sons. | | |
-----------------------------------------------+ | | |
Standard performers. | | | |
-----------------------------------------+ | | | |
Year died. | | | | |
----------------------------------+ | | | | |
Year foaled. | | | | | |
---------------------------+ | | | | | |
Name. | | | | | | |
---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
Hambletonian | 1849 | 1876 | 40 | 148 | 80 | 1665 | 1705
Blue Bull | 1858 | 1880 | 60 | 47 | 77 | 211 | 271
Mambrino Chief | 1844 | 1862 | 6 | 23 | 17 | 119 | 125
Ethan Allen | 1849 | 1876 | 6 | 22 | 18 | 118 | 124
Pilot Jr. | 1858 | 1865 | 8 | 6 | 18 | 72 | 80
George M. Patchen | 1849 | 1864 | 4 | 15 | 4 | 70 | 74
Champion (807) | 1853 | 1874 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 53 | 61
---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
In this table Ethan Allen is given as the representative of his family
in preference to his sire, Black Hawk, the real founder, for the reasons
that he was a far greater horse, and makes a better showing than his
sire, and further because he was a contemporary of Hambletonian. For
exactly the same reasons George M. Patchen is given as the representative
progenitor of the Clay line.
The next table demonstrates what the Hambletonian family has done in the
second and third generations, and the relative standing of the leading
sub-families of the greatest trotting line. It embraces separately
every sire that has to his own credit and to the credit of his sons and
daughters an aggregate of fifty or more standard performers, twenty-three
in all, while the totals to the credit of all the other sons of
Hambletonian are grouped in the last line:
FAMILIES OF HAMBLETONIAN’S SONS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total No. Standard performers in two generations.
------------------------------------------------------------------+
Standard performers produced by sons and daughters. |
-----------------------------------------------------------+ |
Producing daughters. | |
-----------------------------------------------------+ | |
Producing sons. | | |
-----------------------------------------------+ | | |
Standard performers. | | | |
-----------------------------------------+ | | | |
Year died. | | | | |
----------------------------------+ | | | | |
Year foaled. | | | | | |
---------------------------+ | | | | | |
Name. | | | | | | |
---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
George Wilkes | 1856 | 1882 | 83 | 94 | 81 | 1801 | 1884
Electioneer | 1868 | 1890 | 154 | 65 | 43 | 493 | 647
Happy Medium | 1863 | 1888 | 92 | 51 | 47 | 272 | 364
Harold | 1864 | 1893 | 44 | 43 | 45 | 248 | 292
Dictator | 1863 | 1893 | 52 | 44 | 42 | 234 | 286
Volunteer | 1854 | 1888 | 34 | 40 | 48 | 221 | 255
Strathmore | 1866 | 1895 | 71 | 26 | 54 | 158 | 229
Abdallah (15) | 1852 | 1865 | 5 | 14 | 29 | 199 | 204
Aberdeen | 1866 | 1892 | 45 | 25 | 19 | 110 | 155
Egbert | 1875 | —— | 75 | 25 | 18 | 74 | 149
Messenger Duroc. | 1865 | 189- | 23 | 24 | 41 | 125 | 148
Edward Everett | 1855 | 1878 | 13 | 12 | 16 | 112 | 125
Administrator | 1863 | 1892 | 14 | 20 | 44 | 93 | 107
Jay Gould | 1864 | 1894 | 29 | 14 | 28 | 76 | 105
Victor Bismarck | 1867 | 189- | 31 | 13 | 13 | 64 | 95
Cuyler | 1868 | 1894 | 15 | 15 | 36 | 74 | 89
Masterlode | 1868 | 189- | 28 | 17 | 16 | 57 | 85
Sweepstakes | 1867 | 189- | 35 | 4 | 20 | 39 | 74
Sentinel | 1863 | 1873 | 8 | 9 | 14 | 57 | 65
Middletown | 1860 | 1891 | 14 | 9 | 11 | 49 | 63
Squire Talmage | 1866 | 1891 | 23 | 9 | 14 | 35 | 58
Dauntless | 1867 | 189- | 31 | 6 | 9 | 20 | 51
Echo | 1866 | 189- | 16 | 9 | 15 | 34 | 50
Other sons (125) | —— | —— | 618 | 229 | 412 | 980 | 1600
---------------------------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+------+-----
This table shows what each horse himself produced, and how his blood is
breeding on through his sons and daughters; and above all it demonstrates
the stupendous fact that in three generations the Hambletonian family has
produced upward of seven thousand standard performers, and all facts and
all experience now beyond cavil justify what I ventured to declare in
_Wallace’s Monthly_ many years ago: “The Hambletonian line stands above
all other lines and must survive because it is the fittest.”
THE CHARLES KENT MARE, dam of Hambletonian, was a bay, fifteen and
three-quarter hands high, with a star, left forward ankle roan, and
left hind foot white. Her son was long and round, just the opposite of
her sire. Hips rather coarse, and might be considered a little ragged.
Stifles very powerful and well-developed. Her hocks and legs were exactly
represented in her son Hambletonian. Her neck was fine and bloodlike, but
not long. Her head was good, and her eyes remarkably full and bright,
showing considerable white. Her mane was long, but thin, and her tail
was light. Her shoulders were well-sloped, her withers ran up high, and
were thin. Jonas Seely, Sr., having given the old mare One Eye to his son
Charles, she was sold to Josiah S. Jackson, of Oxford, Orange County.
Mr. Jackson bred her to Bellfounder and the produce was the Kent mare.
Although the Seely family owned the stock, originally and afterward, Mr.
Jackson was really the breeder of this mare. Mr. Jonas Seely says she was
got the year Bellfounder stood at Poughkeepsie (1831), but Mr. Rysdyk
says she was got in 1832, when Bellfounder stood at Washingtonville. Mr.
Jackson sold her at three years old to Peter Seely for three hundred
dollars; Mr. Seely sold her soon after to Mr. Pray, of New York, for four
hundred dollars; Mr. Pray sold her to William Chivis for five hundred
dollars; and Mr. Chivis sold her to a gentleman, who was a banker in New
York—name not remembered—to match another as a fast road team. This team
ran away after a time, and she was injured, and became lame. Charles
Kent, a butcher in New York, then bought her and bred her to Webber’s Tom
Thumb, before he came to Orange County. At this juncture, on the earnest
recommendation of Mr. Pray, who had tested the quality of three or four
of the family, Mr. Jonas Seely—Jonas, second—bought the mare of Kent for
one hundred and thirty-five dollars, and took her back to the old place,
where she was bred and produced as follows:
1843. Brown filly Belle, by Webber’s Tom Thumb.
1845. Black gelding, by Webber’s Tom Thumb.
1846. Chestnut filly (died at 4 years old), by Abdallah.
1848. Brown filly (died at 4 years old), by Abdallah.
1849. Bay colt Hambletonian, by Abdallah (mare and colt sold to
William M. Rysdyk, for $125).
1850. Brown filly (went to Maryland), by Young Patriot.
1851. Lost foal, by L. I. Black Hawk.
1852. Brown colt Tippoo Saib, by Brook’s Black Hawk.
1853. Chestnut colt (died young), by Fiddler.
1856. Brown gelding, by Plato.
1859. Bay colt, by Almack, son of Hambletonian.
In the preceding list there are but two fillies that lived to produce
anything, and one of them is lost from sight. The produce of the first
will be given below. The Patriot filly that went to Maryland was a brown,
and of good size, but nothing further is known of her.
The Tom Thumb gelding of 1845 was in 1869 a good road horse, and was
owned by George S. Conklin. He was showy and stylish without very much
speed. Her fifth foal, Hambletonian, is known wherever the trotting horse
is known.
This mare was a trotter of no ordinary merit. She was never in any races,
so far as known, except they might have been of a private nature, but
after she passed into the hands of Peter Seely her speed was pretty well
developed. This is not only shown by the advance in her price from owner
to owner, but it appears to be a well-established fact that when four
years old Peter Seely had her at the Union Course, and he there gave
her two trials to saddle, the first in 2:43 and the second in 2:41. For
a time I was skeptical about these trials, but they seem to be beyond
question. This is considerably faster than any other of the get of
imported Bellfounder ever trotted in this country, and from this we may
conclude that her inheritance from her dam was the great factor in her
speed.
ONE EYE, the dam of the Kent mare, was a brown, about fifteen hands and
an inch high, with two white feet and perhaps a little white in her
face. With the taste Mr. Seely had of the Messenger blood in Silvertail
he wanted more of it; and when Townsend Cock sent the famous Bishop’s
Hambletonian to Goshen in 1814, Mr. Seely bred his daughter of Messenger
to this son of Messenger and the produce was One Eye. I do not learn
that this mare was handsome, but she was an animal of most remarkable
courage and endurance. The load was never too heavy nor the road too
long. Withal, she had a will of her own and was a little hard to manage
unless she was worked constantly. One day when on her mettle she got an
eye knocked out by accident, and, hence, her name; but the great quality
of this mare was her remarkable trotting action. Those familiar with her
gait, and entirely competent to judge, are enthusiastic in the opinion
that no trotter of the present day ever surpassed, her in a grand open
trotting step. If the patience and skill brought into use in developing
the modern trotter had been expended on her, she doubtless would have
surpassed all of her day, not even excepting her near relation, old
Topgallant. This mare illustrates a point of very great importance. She
was got by a son of Messenger that was a running horse of merit and
able to beat some of the best of his day, and her dam was a daughter of
Messenger. The trotting action of neither sire nor dam had ever been
developed, but when these two Messengers came together, the clean, open,
unmistakable trotting gait was the result. Right at this point and in
this mare, One Eye, we have the incipient cause of all Hambletonian’s
greatness. This mare was bred by Jonas Seely, Sr.; given to his son
Charles, who sold her to his brother-in-law, Josiah Jackson, of Oxford in
Orange County. According the recollection of Mr. Rysdyk, who was entirely
familiar with the Seely family and their affairs, she produced as follows:
1829. Bay gelding Crabstick, by Seagull.
1830. Bay gelding Pray Colt, by Seagull.
1831. Bay filly Young One Eye, by Edmund Seely’s horse Orphan Boy.
1833. Bay filly Kent Mare, by imp. Bellfounder. Sold to Mr. Pray.
1834. Bay filly; sold also to Mr. Pray, by imp. Bellfounder.
Perhaps there was another foal that died.
The first of her foals, Crabstick, appears to have been well-named.
His temper was anything but smooth and pleasant. He was sold early
to Mr. Ebenezer Pray, of New York, and he soon evinced two traits of
character that did not elevate him in the estimation of his owner. He
would throw every one off that dared to mount him, and when they did get
him under motion he was determined to pace and not trot. On a certain
occasion Mr. Rysdyk visited Mr. Pray, and he was urged to try his skill
in riding Crabstick and see if he could make him trot. The attempt was
long-continued, and embraced up hill, down hill, and level work, but
all to no purpose, as pace he would. At last Mr. Pray proposed to put
him over rails and stakes, placed on the road at intervals of a good
trotting stride, and see if that would make him quit moving one side
at a time. Mr. Rysdyk went up the road and got under good headway, but
just before he reached the rails the horse threw him. He was not much
hurt, mounted again, and then commenced in earnest the fight for the
mastery between the horse and his rider. The value of a neck was nothing
when compared with the great question of who should conquer. The next
attempt was successful, and he went over the rails flying. The intervals
between them were then extended, and he was kept at that most dangerous
exercise till he would trot without rails, and until both horse and rider
were completely exhausted. The horse was conquered, and although always
willful and hard to manage, ever after, when called on to trot, he would
do it. Mr. Pray sold him to Mr. Vanderbilt, and, although kept as a
private driving horse, he was fast for his day, and could go in less than
three minutes at any time.
Her next foal was sold also to Mr. Pray when five years old, and was
known as the Pray Colt. He was marked just as his brother Crabstick, and,
like him, was somewhat vicious and hard to manage.
The third foal, Young One Eye, was by Edmund Seely’s horse Orphan Boy,
whose pedigree is not now known. One of her eyes was knocked out by Peter
Seely, accidentally, when breaking her, just as her dam had lost an
eye. She passed out of the hands of the Seely family and her subsequent
history is unknown. If this mare ever produced anything, her history and
that of her descendants would be of great interest and value.