measure success. Four of his get were able to enter the 2:30 list, and
among them was the great Lucy, with her record of 2:18¼. Fifteen of his
sons became the sires of sixty-two trotters and three pacers, and four
of his daughters produced five trotters. It is hardly fair to compare
the stud services of a horse of Patchen’s generation with many of the
great sons of Hambletonian, but at the same time we must not forget that
Patchen was foaled the same year as Hambletonian. On the first of May,
1864, when Dan Pfifer was preparing him for the racing season then about
to open, he died of a rupture, just as his sire had died.
GEORGE M. PATCHEN JR. (California Patchen) was a bay horse by the
foregoing; dam Belle by Top Bellfounder, a grandson of imported
Bellfounder, of which little is known. He was bred by Joseph Regan, Mount
Holly, New Jersey, and taken to California 1862 by William Hendrickson;
returned to New York 1866, sold to Messrs. Halstead, Poughkeepsie, 1867,
and by them to W. A. Matthews in 1869, and taken to San Jose, California;
then sold to P. A. Finnegan, of San Francisco, and died the property
of J. B. Haggin, Sacramento, 1887. He was campaigned quite extensively
during the years 1866 and 1867 in the East, and carried away a good share
of the winnings from the best. His best record was 2:27. In the stud he
was more successful than his sire, which may be accounted for by his
more numerous progeny and his longer life. From his own loins he put ten
trotters into the 2:30 list, and, although there was no Lucy among them,
Wells Fargo made a record of 2:18¾; Sam Purdy, 2:20½; Vanderlyn, 2:21,
etc., showing a better average than the get of his sire. Ten of his sons
got twenty-three trotters and two pacers, and eleven of his daughters
produced twenty-five trotters and three pacers.
Several of the other sons of George M. Patchen left valuable and fast
trotting progeny, and among them I will name Godfrey Patchen, with nine
trotters to his credit and his descendants breeding on; Henry B. Patchen,
with seven to his credit; Seneca Patchen, with sixteen trotters and one
pacer to his credit, perhaps more than he is honestly entitled to; Wild
Wagoner, with four to his credit; and Tom Patchen with three and his
family transmitting speed.
In considering the founders of the Clay family, there are two or three
important facts that should be kept in view, bearing upon the growth, or
the decadence of the family. In a breeding sense this appears to be the
longest line of _developed_ speed that we have in any of our trotting
families. While we know that there were developed trotters and pacers
many years before Abdallah and Andrew Jackson were foaled, we are not
able to connect them in lines of descent, generation after generation.
As Andrew Jackson with his developed speed stands at the head of this
line, the question naturally arises, Where did he get his ability to
trot? The only answer we can give is, from the daughter of Messenger that
was the grandam of his sire, and from the fast pacer, Charcoal Sal, that
produced him. Even if we accept the pedigree of Young Bashaw, with his
Messenger grandam, when we get to Andrew Jackson we are a long way from
the Messenger source of trotting speed; hence, we must look to the pacing
speed of his dam—Charcoal Sal from Ohio—as the more probable source.
Andrew Jackson was bred upon the converted pacer Surrey, and produced
Henry Clay, then Henry Clay was bred upon Jersey Kate, of unknown blood,
but a producer of trotting speed, and produced Cassius M. Clay. Then
Cassius M. Clay was bred upon a mare “full of Messenger blood” and
produced Strader’s Cassius M. Clay—the best of the Clay name by the
record. Cassius M. Clay (the original) was also bred on “Dick Carman’s
mare” and produced the famous George M. Patchen. This Carman mare was by
a running-bred son of Trustee. She was both a pacer and a trotter and her
dam was a natural pacer. George M. Patchen was bred on the Regan mare
and produced California Patchen. This mare was, practically, of unknown
breeding. California Patchen was bred on Whiskey Jane and the produce
was his best son, Sam Purdy. This mare Whiskey Jane was quite a trotter
and she was undoubtedly pacing bred, but I will not here enter into the
details of her origin.
We have here before us a condensed view of the trotting inheritance of
the Clay and the Patchen families from Andrew Jackson to Sam Purdy, and
its most remarkable feature is its poverty in recognized trotting blood.
On the maternal side, the pacing habit of action seems to prevail in
almost every succeeding generation. The second thought is that the tribe
has not held its vantage ground of the first and the longest line of
developed trotting speed. The third is that it has failed to transmit
speed with uniformity, but rather sporadically. This may be accounted
for by the general character and uncertainty of the maternal side, and
suggests the question whether animals so bred can be relied upon to
transmit with uniformity an inheritance received sporadically. From its
place in the first rank as to time and popularity, this family has not
been able to hold its own and it has declined to a place among the minor
families of trotters and bids fair to be absorbed by tribes of stronger
trotting inheritance.
CHAPTER XXV.
AMERICAN STAR, PILOT, CHAMPION, AND NORMAN FAMILIES.
Seely’s American Star—His fictitious pedigree—Breeding
really unknown—A trotter of some merit—His stud career—His
daughters noted brood mares— Conklin’s American Star—Old Pacing
Pilot—History and probable origin —Pilot Jr.—Pedigree—Training
and races—Prepotency—Family statistics summarized—Grinnell’s
Champion, son of Almack—His sons and performing
descendants—Alexander’s Norman and his sire, the Morse Horse—
Swigert and Blackwood.
Of all the hundreds of difficult and obscure pedigrees that I have
undertaken to investigate and straighten out, I have given more time,
labor and money to that of Seely’s American Star than to any other
horse. In 1867 I got his pedigree from a gentleman in Morris County,
New Jersey, who claimed to have bred him, and this pedigree and the
history accompanying it embracing several details that were interesting,
I published it, at full length, in the _Spirit of the Times_. This
represented the horse as a light chestnut about fifteen hands high, with
star and snip and two white hind feet. He was represented to have been
foaled 1837 and to be by a horse called American Star, son of Cock of the
Rock, by Duroc; dam Sally Slouch by Henry, the race horse; grandam by
imported Messenger. As there was no horse of that name, so far as I knew,
by Cock of the Rock, but as there was one of that name by Duroc, I wrote
to know whether this was not the breeding of the sire, and the answer
came that it might have been so.
After the appearance of this pedigree in the “Register” I was greatly
surprised that nobody believed it, and the more a horseman knew of the
horse and his history the more positive he was that it was a mistake.
Several years passed away, and while I kept insisting it was true, the
unbelievers became more persistent than ever in their opposition to the
pedigree. The consensus of the opinions of horsemen seemed to be that the
horse was part “Canuck,” and this was the view held by his owner, Edmund
Seely, as long as he lived. At last the following story came to me from
different responsible persons, all of whom were personally cognizant
of the facts they related, as follows: On a certain occasion a street
contractor had a force at work, grading with shovels and carts, near
the foot of Twenty-third Street, I think, New York City. Among the cart
horses there was a Canadian stallion and a frisky, high-strung bay mare
that wouldn’t work kindly. One day during the noon hour, the “boys” for
amusement brought this stallion and mare together and in due time the
mare proved to be with foal, and she was sent over to Jersey the next
spring. The foal she there dropped was Seely’s American Star. When I
asked to whom the mare had been sent to be taken care of, the answer came
back quickly naming the same man whom I had represented as the breeder.
As the contractor had no use for the colt, as a matter of course, the
keeper of the mare would take the colt for the keeping. There is nothing
unnatural nor unreasonable in this story, and it bears a pretty strong
resemblance to the way the dam of the famous George M. Patchen came into
the world.
When the horse was four or five years old he began to show a fine
trotting step and he was sold to John Blauvelt, of New York, for a
driving horse. His feet not being strong, in the course of a year or two
he developed a couple of quarter cracks and he was sent back to the man
who raised him to be cured. In the winter of 1844-5 he was sold to Cyrus
Dubois, of Ulster County, New York, who kept him in the stud the seasons
of 1845, 1846 and 1847. His advertisement for the year 1847 reads as
follows:
“American Star is a chestnut sorrel, eight years old on the
11th day of April, 1847, near 16 hands high, etc.... He was
sired by the noted trotting horse Mingo, of Long Island, who
was got by old Eclipse. American Star’s dam, Lady Clinton, the
well-known trotting mare of New Jersey, was sired by Sir Henry.”
Here we have the third pedigree of this horse, and now the question
arises, Where did this pedigree come from? Cyrus Dubois is dead, but
a living brother of his says this is the pedigree that Cyrus brought
with the horse from New Jersey. As this same quasi-breeder was the man
who delivered the horse to Dubois, the statement of the living brother
comes very near proving that the first and the third of the pedigrees
here given were the work of the same man. Again, in 1844, this same
quasi-breeder kept this horse at Warwick and New Milford, in Orange
County, New York, and nobody in that region seems to have ever heard of
either of these pedigrees. And again, this quasi-breeder wrote me that
after Edmund Seely had brought the horse to Goshen he went to see him,
and after fully identifying him as the same horse he had bred he gave the
pedigree to Mr. Seely as he had given it to me. If this be true it is a
very strange thing that Mr. Seely never seemed to know anything about
it, but persisted in giving the pedigree as by a Canadian horse and out
of a mare by Henry. Upon the whole, I long ago concluded that my first
and earliest correspondent on the question of American Star’s origin was
unfortunate in having a mental organization that placed him “long” on the
ideal, and “short” on the real.
His stud services may be summarized as follows: In 1844 he was kept at
Warwick and New Milford, Orange County, New York. In 1845, 1846 and 1847
he was in Ulster County, and on the borders of Orange. In 1848 and 1849
he was at Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York. In 1850, 1851, 1852 and
1853 he was at Goshen and other points in Orange County. In 1854 he was
at Elmira, New York. In 1855, it is said on good authority, he was kept
ten miles below Hudson. Others say he was at Piermont, Rockland County,
that year. In 1856 he was at Mendota, Illinois. In 1857, 1859 and 1860 he
was again in Goshen. In February, 1861, he died at Goshen, the property
of Theodore Dusenbury. In Orange County his service fee ranged from ten
to twenty dollars, and at last twenty-five dollars, and he was liberally
patronized. An unusually large percentage of his foals were fillies, and
he was essentially a brood-mare sire from the start. Opinions differ very
widely among horsemen as to his capacity for speed, some maintaining that
he could trot in 2:35 while others insisted on placing him ten seconds
slower. In trying to harmonize these conflicting views it is probably
safe to conclude that, when fit, which seldom occurred in his whole life,
his speed was about 2:40. He was always a cripple from defective feet
and limbs, and his whole progeny were more or less subject to the same
troubles.
He left four trotters that barely managed to get inside the 2:30 list
and eight sons that put sixteen inside of the list. But his strong point
was in the producing character of his daughters. Thirty-six of these
daughters left forty-five of their produce inside of 2:30. The disparity
in the producing power of the sexes in this family is very remarkable
and, in a breeding sense, very instructive. In the light of what has
been developed in this family in the past fifty years, we are certainly
ready to form a safe estimate of its value as a factor in the combination
that goes to make up a breed of trotters. Star mares gave us a Dexter
and a Nettie, and all the world thought that was the blood that was to
live on and on in the new breed. But, while Hambletonian was able to get
great trotters from Star mares, he was not able to get, through their
attenuated trotting inheritance, sons that would be as great as himself.
To his cover Star mares produced no such great sires as George Wilkes,
Electioneer, Egbert, Happy Medium, and Strathmore. In the instances of
Dictator and Aberdeen there was a reasonable measure of success, but all
the others—and there were many of them—proved comparative failures. There
is a lesson taught here that any one can interpret.
AMERICAN STAR (CONKLIN’S) was a chestnut horse, foaled 1851, and got
by Seely’s American Star, and his dam has been variously represented,
with nothing established as to her blood. He was bred by a Mr. Randall,
of Orange County, and was among the first from his sire to attract
attention. He came into the hands of E. K. Conklin when young, and was
taken by him to Philadelphia, and was owned by him during his lifetime.
He gave early promise of making a trotter, and from 1865 to 1868 he was
on the turf, more or less, and left a record of 2:33. His stud services
were confined to the region of Philadelphia till the year 1872, when he
was taken back to Orange County and died there. Three of his get entered
the 2:30 list; two of his sons got one trotter each and four or five of
his daughters produced one each.
At one time the name “American Star” was very popular, and quite a number
of stallions were so named that were bogus; but his son Magnolia put
two in the 2:30 list; one son got three trotters, and three daughters
produced five performers. His son Star of Catskill got two performers,
and his son King Pharaoh got four pacers and all of them fast. The family
has not grown strong either in numbers or in merit. It has been carried,
so far, by the influences of stronger blood, and it seems destined to
complete absorption and extinction in more potent strains.
PILOT, the head of the Pilot family, was a black pacing horse, and of
later years he has been generally designated as “Old Pacing Pilot.” He
was foaled about 1826, and nothing is known of his origin or his blood.
From his make-up and appearance he was generally considered a Canadian,
as was the custom at that time, and I think I have used this term
myself in referring to the horse, but there is really no foundation for
crediting him to that source. The earliest information we have of him
is from an unpublished source, to the effect that he was well known to
certain sporting men about Covington, Kentucky. He next appears in New
Orleans, hitched to a peddler’s cart, but really looking for a match as
a green pacer. To promote this object, Major Dubois, a sporting man, was
taken into the confidence of his owner, and it is said the horse showed
him a mile in 2:26 with one hundred and sixty-five pounds on his back,
and the major bought him for one thousand dollars. In 1832 Dubois sold
him to Glasgow & Heinsohn, a livery stable firm of Louisville, Kentucky,
and he remained the property of that firm till he died, about 1855. It
has been asserted with some semblance of authority that he could trot as
well as pace, but this seems to be wholly apocryphal, and on this point I
am prepared to speak without hesitation or doubt. A large breeder in the
vicinity of Louisville, whom I have learned to trust implicitly, through
the intercourse of many years, has assured me repeatedly that he knew
the horse and his master well, and that he had seen him very often, for
years, that he would not trot, and that his master could not make him
trot a step. On the occasion of a very deep fall of snow he was taken out
to see whether that would not compel him to trot, and he went rolling and
tumbling about with no more gait than a hobbled hog.
He left a numerous progeny, most of them pacers, with some trotters. We
know but little of their merits, as at that period pacing and trotting
races were carried on, generally, on guerrilla principles, and no records
kept, except at a few of the more prominent occasions. His fastest pacer,
probably, was Bear Grass, and there is a little history here that will
be interesting further on. My late friend, Edmund Pearce, had always,
from childhood, been a great admirer of the grand old saddle mare, Nancy
Taylor. She had been bred to Old Pilot and produced a colt foal, which
Mr. Pearce bought when young and named him Bear Grass. This was the
first piece of horseflesh he ever owned, and he didn’t think he had ever
owned a better one. He was amazingly fast, and could go away from all
competitors, but unfortunately an accident befell him that ended his
career before he reached maturity. Bear Grass had a half-sister called
Nancy Pope, being the daughter of Nancy Taylor, that was afterward bred
to Old Pilot, and she produced the famous Pilot Jr., that was the fastest
trotter from the loins of the old pacer. Pilot Jr. took the diagonal form
of the trot from his dam and never paced. It is worthy of noting that
Nancy Taylor and Nancy Pope—mother and daughter—produced old Pilot’s
fastest pacer and fastest trotter.
PILOT JR. (ALEXANDER’S) was a grey horse, foaled 1844, “got by old Pacing
Pilot; dam Nancy Pope, grandam Nancy Taylor.” This is the literal version
of his pedigree as given by his first owners and as given by W. J.
Bradley and others who had him in charge year after year in the region of
Lexington, according to the different advertisements, and no change ever
appeared till the horse was bought and taken to Woodburn Farm. Then, for
the first time we learned that Nancy Pope was got by Havoc, thoroughbred
son of Sir Charles, and that Nancy Taylor was got by Alfred, an imported
horse. This was not the work of Mr. R. A. Alexander, an honorable man,
but the work of the professional pedigree manufacturer, who exploited
his inventive skill very widely through the early catalogues of that
great establishment. As a matter of historic fact, Pilot Jr.’s dam was
Nancy Pope, but nothing is known of her sire, and Nancy Pope was out of
Nancy Taylor, about whose pedigree nothing whatever is known. But as the
subject of Pilot Jr.’s pedigree is exhaustively treated in Chapter XXIX.,
the details need not be further dealt with here.
The training of Pilot Jr. commenced when he was five years old, and after
the close of his stud seasons he was kept at it, in a moderate way,
for several years, and it is said he never manifested any inclination
to strike a pace. He was engaged in some races, and his advertisement
claims he won several, giving the names of horses he had beaten, but the
time made seems to be carefully avoided. He could probably trot in about
2:50 or a little better. He and all his family, so far as I can learn,
were willful and hard to manage in their training, and were, therefore,
in danger of becoming unreliable, but they were fast for their day, and
dead game campaigners. There is one particular in which this horse seemed
to surpass nearly all others and that was in his power to eliminate the
running instinct and to plant the trotting instinct in his progeny from
running-bred mares. It is doubtless true that many of those mares, so
classed, were only running bred on paper; but the fact still remains,
and it is supported by a sufficient number of authentic instances, to
justify the conclusion that his potency in this direction was remarkable.
During the troublous times of the war many of his early progeny were
lost or destroyed, but from his own loins he put eight performers in the
2:30 list and others not far away. Six of his sons became the sires of
forty-one performers, and eighteen of his daughters produced forty-one
performers. Although the official records do not show that Pilot Jr.
got any pacers, it is nevertheless true that he did get some very fast
ones. But when we get past the period when the pacer was considered a
bastard and kept out of sight, we meet with some astonishing facts. As an
example, take Miss Russell, the greatest of all the Pilots. First, she
produced a pacer that was changed to the diagonal instead of the lateral
step, and then stood for years as the champion trotter of the world.
Second, her son Nutwood has placed twenty pacers in the 2:30 list; her
son Mambrino Russell has placed five there, and her son Lord Russell has
placed five there. This brief and hasty exhibit of what the descendants
of Miss Russell are doing seems to upset all the laws of heredity,
provided always that her dam was a thoroughbred mare. The evidence that
the breeding of this reputed “thoroughbred” mare is wholly unknown is
considered in another part of this volume.
In a few odd instances, in the male lines of descent from Pilot Jr., the
trotting and pacing instinct seem to be transmitted in stronger measure
than in any of the other minor families, but the day of its submersion is
not far distant. The survival of the fittest is the law of Nature.
CHAMPION, the head of the Champion family, was a beautiful golden
chestnut, sixteen hands high and without marks. He was bred by George
Raynor, of Huntington, Long Island, and was foaled 1842. He was got by
Almack, son of Mambrino, by Messenger; dam Spirit, by Engineer Second,
son of Engineer, by Messenger, and sire of the famous Lady Suffolk. This
is enough Messenger blood to please the most fastidious, but I think
there was still more beyond the Engineer mare. When eighteen months old
this colt showed phenomenal speed when led behind a sulky, and when
three years old he was driven a full mile to harness in 3:05, a rate of
speed which, at that time had never been equaled by a colt of that age.
This made him “champion” as a three-year-old and William T. Porter named
him Champion. After this performance Mr. John Sniffin, a merchant of
Brooklyn, bought him, and in June, 1846, Mr. William R. Grinnell paid
two thousand six hundred dollars for him and took him to Cayuga County,
New York. After keeping Champion in that county till the close of the
season of 1849, Mr. Grinnell concluded to sell the horse, as in all that
time he had not covered one hundred mares. Mr. Grinnell complained that
the farmers did not appreciate the horse, and many of them failed to pay
for his services. But the fault was not all on the part of the farmers,
for the price, to them, was very high, and he was a very uncertain foal
getter.
In April, 1850, he was sent to New York and kept in the stable of Mr.
Van Cott, on the Harlem road. He had been very badly handled, and Mr.
Van Cott says he had been abused and ill-treated, and when he came to
his place he was as vicious and savage as a wild beast. The horse was
kept there for sale, and in his daily exercise Mr. Van Cott says he could
“show considerably better than 2:40 at any time.” In 1851 he was sent
over to Jersey and kept for public use at a fee of fifty dollars, by
Samuel Taylor, at Newmarket, Metuchen, Boundbrook and Millstone. After
making three or four seasons in the region of Boundbrook, in the year
1854, Mr. Grinnell, who still owned him, sold him to Mr. James Harkness,
of St. Louis, Missouri, for about seven hundred and fifty dollars. On
reaching St. Louis he proved to be as dangerous as ever, and no man dared
to go into his stall, except Mr. Harkness and one assistant. In 1858 Mr.
Harkness sold him to Thomas T. Smith, of Independence, Missouri, for
one thousand dollars. He was there stolen by “jayhawkers” and taken to
Leavenworth, Kansas, where he made two seasons and died 1864. Although he
lived to be old, he left comparatively few colts, but a large proportion
of that few were of excellent quality and many of them trotters.
CHAMPION (SCOBEY’S also known as King’s Champion) was the best son of
Grinnell’s Champion, the son of Almack, and he came out of a mare called
Bird, by Redbird, son of Billy Duroc. He was foaled 1849, and was bred
by Jesse M. Davis, then of Cayuga County, New York, and sold to David
King, of Northville, New York, and by him in 1861 to Mr. Kellogg, of
Battle Creek, Michigan. He was repurchased by Messrs. Backus, Scobey and
Burlew in August, 1865, and soon became the property of Mr. C. Scobey
and died his in May, 1874. It has been claimed this horse had speed and
a record of 2:42 in 1857, but I have no data to determine how fast he
was. From his own loins he put eight performers in the 2:30 list, two
of which were phenomenally fast, although their records do not show it.
Here I allude to Nettie Burlew and Sorrel Dapper, more generally known as
“The Auburn Horse.” The latter was a long, leggy, light chestnut, with a
tremendous stride, and Hiram Woodruff did not hesitate to say he was a
faster horse than Dexter. This Champion was a sire of excellent quality,
although but a few of his progeny were developed. He left six sons that
were the sires of forty-four trotters, and seven daughters that produced
nine performers.
CHAMPION (GOODING’S) was a bright bay horse with black points, standing
fifteen and three-quarter hands high. He was got by Scobey’s Champion,
dam the trotting mare Cynthia, by Bartlett’s Turk, son of Weddle’s
imported Turk; grandam Fanny, by Scobey’s Black Prince; great-grandam
Bett, by Rockplanter, son of Duroc; great-great-grandam Kate, represented
to be a Messenger mare. He was foaled 1853, and was bred by Almeron Ott,
Cayuga County, New York, and traded to Mr. Stearns, from whom he passed
to his late owners, T. W. and W. Gooding, Ontario County, New York. He
died June, 1883. This horse was peddled about in Seneca County at a fee
of five dollars, and had a very light patronage among the farmers. At
last he was sold, with difficulty, at Canandaigua, for three hundred
dollars to the Messrs. Gooding, and he brought them a handsome income as
long as he lived. As his reputation as a sire of speed spread abroad,
the quality of the mares brought to him improved, and among them were
some with good trotting inheritance. Of his progeny, seventeen entered
the 2:30 list, the fastest in 2:21, and they were good campaigners. It
is a remarkable fact that only one of his sons proved himself a trotting
sire, and he left but a single representative. On the female side of the
house he was more successful, for six of his daughters produced seven
performers.
CHARLEY B. was a bay horse, sixteen hands high, and was bred by Charles
Burlew, of Union Springs, New York. He was foaled 1869, and was got by
Scobey’s Champion, son of Champion, by Almack, and proved himself the
best son of his sire. He was out of a mare well known as “Old Jane” that
was the dam of Myrtle with a record of 2:25½. Several pedigrees have
been provided for this mare that did not prove reliable, and they were
all careful to endow her with plenty of Messenger blood. After searching
for the facts through some years, the only version of it that seemed
to be worthy of credence showed that her sire was a horse called Magnum
Bonum and there it ended. In his racing career this horse was started
sometimes under the name of “Lark.” He has six heats to his credit
in 2:30 and better, and a record of 2:25. From his own loins he has
twenty-two trotters in the 2:30 list. Considering the respectable number
this horse shows in the 2:30 list, his great nervous energy, his vigorous
constitution, and the number of years he was liberally patronized in
the stud, it is a most notable fact that he has but two sons that are
producers. Six of his daughters have produced. As a propagator of speed
in the coming generations, this horse seems to be even a greater failure
than his half-brother, Gooding’s Champion.
NIGHT HAWK was a chestnut son of Grinnell’s Champion. He was bred by
John S. Van Kirk, of Newark, New Jersey, and his dam was by Sherman’s
Young Eclipse, son of American Eclipse. He was foaled 1855-6. In 1862
Mr. Van Kirk took him to Kalamazoo, Michigan, thence to Paw Paw in 1872,
and in 1879 he was returned to Kalamazoo, owned by A. T. Tuthill. He
was something of a trotter, and had a record of 2:36, under the name of
Champion, when he was controlled by Mr. D. B. Hibbard, I think. He was
shown at a State fair, held at Lansing, on a poor half-mile track, it is
said, and trotted a mile in 2:31¼, and for this performance he received
a piece of plate from the society testifying to this fact. He has but
two representatives in the 2:30 list, and three of his sons have five
trotters to their credit, while six of his daughters have produced seven
performers. He lived to an old age.
The merits and demerits of this family are very marked. The head of it
seems to have possessed great nerve force and an unmistakable instinct
to trot, but he was irritable and vicious in his temper. Both these
qualities—the desirable and the undesirable alike—he seems to have
transmitted to his offspring. I have seen Gooding’s Champion, and he had
the temper and disposition of his grandsire. It appears that the original
Champion was a shy breeder, and I am disposed to think he inherited this
infirmity from his sire, Almack, and whether the inability of his sons
and grandsons to get sires of trotters may be accounted for from this
cause would be a very difficult question to answer. There are several
others of this family, East and West, that have single representatives in
the 2:30 list, that I have not enumerated, but from the statistics, as
they now stand, it seems probable that whatever is good in this family
will be swallowed up in other tribes that are more prepotent and positive
in the trotting instinct.
NORMAN, OR THE MORSE HORSE.—This horse was originally named “Norman,” but
in later years he was more generally and widely known as The Morse Horse.
His family is not large, but some of his descendants have shown great
speed and great racing qualities. His origin and breeding as given below
have resulted from a wide and laborious correspondence, and, I think, can
be accepted as trustworthy. He was bred by James McNitt, of Hartford,
Washington County, New York, who was a large farmer and distiller. He
was foaled 1834, got by European; dam Beck, by Harris’ Hambletonian;
grandam Mozza, by Peacock, son of imported Messenger. He was fifteen and
three-quarter hands high, a dark iron grey when young, and became white
with age. He had plenty of bone, was handsome and a natural trotter.
Something of the history of the animals entering into this pedigree is
important and I will try to give it in as brief form as possible.
The breeder, Mr. McNitt, was in the habit of visiting Montreal at least
once a year with the products of his farm and his distillery. On one
occasion he brought back three horses with him, two “Canucks” and a very
elegant grey horse that he called European, that was evidently somewhat
advanced in years and was a little knee-sprung from the effects of
hard driving. The two “Canucks” were fast trotters, but European could
beat either of them. Mr. McNitt represented that this horse had been
imported into Canada from Normandy in France and doubtless he believed
it, but there were none of the French characteristics about him. He was
purchased in Montreal about 1829 and died in Washington County about
1836. The dam and grandam of the Morse Horse were bred by Mr. Joseph T.
Mills, of the town of Argyle, in Washington County. Beck, the dam, was
a bright bay mare about sixteen hands high. At weaning time Mr. Mills
sold her to Robert Stewart, of Greenwich, and at three years old he sold
her to Mr. McNitt. She was got by Harris’ Hambletonian, when he was
kept by John Williams, Jr. This is established quite satisfactorily and
circumstantially. Mozza, the dam of Beck, was a chestnut mare, without
marks, and was got by Peacock, a son of imported Messenger that was
owned by Mr. Emerson in Saratoga County and was afterward burned up in
his stable. This son of Messenger, called Peacock, was entirely new to
me when I was investigating this pedigree in 1876 and I was disposed
to reject it, but Mr. Mills certainly had a horse of that name and he
represented him to be a son of Messenger, and he probably was, but I do
not _know_ that he was so bred.
Mr. McNitt sold the colt at three years old to Martin Stover, who lived
on his place, for eighty dollars; the next year Stover sold him to James
Mills. In 1840 Mills sold him to Mr. Tefft and Zack Adams, and they sold
him not long after to Philip Allen and Calvin Morse, of White Creek. Mr.
Morse had him a number of years and when old sold him to Mr. Grant, and
he died at Spiegletown in Renssalaer County, New York. He was a very
perfect, natural trotter, and his speed was developed to some extent. In
August, 1847 or 1848, Mr. Morse put him into the hands of John Case, of
Saratoga Springs, the driver of Lady Moscow, to prepare him for the State
Fair, at which he expected to meet the famous Black Hawk. Mr. J. L. D.
Eyclesheimer, a very intelligent gentleman, formerly of the region of
Saratoga, wrote that while the horse was in Case’s hands, he, with Mr.
Morse, timed him a full mile in 2:40½. At the State Fair he was all out
of fix and Black Hawk beat him in the second and third heats. He won the
first heat in 2:52½. In the rivalries between stallions at agricultural
fairs, however, is a very poor place to look for fair work and fair
judgment, either from the stand or from the spectators.
GENERAL TAYLOR was a grey horse, foaled 1847, got by the Morse Horse,
dam the trotting mare Flora, a New York road mare of unknown breeding.
He was bred by the brothers Eyclesheimer, then of Pittstown, New York.
He was taken to Janesville, Wisconsin, 1850, and thence to California,
1854, where he trotted thirty miles against time in one hour forty-seven
minutes and fifty-nine seconds. He also beat New York a ten-mile race in
29:41½. This horse has no representative in the 2:30 list, but his blood
has always been very highly esteemed in California for its speed, but
more especially for its game qualities. Honest Ance was another son of
the Morse Horse that did a great deal of racing in California, although
he has no record in the 2:30 list. He was a chestnut gelding, and was
managed by the notorious Jim Eoff, who was always ready to win or to lose
as the money seemed to suggest.
NORMAN (ALEXANDER’S) was a brown horse, foaled about 1846, got by the
Morse Horse, son of European; dam one of a pair of brown mares purchased
by John N. Slocum of Samuel Slocum, a Quaker of Leroy, Jefferson County,
New York, and represented to be by Magnum Bonum. These mares passed to
Mr. Russell, and from him to Titcomb & Waldron, who bred the better of
the two to the Morse Horse, and the produce was Alexander’s Norman.
This colt passed through several hands till he reached Henry L. Barker,
of Clinton, New York, and about 1860, he sold him to the late R. A.
Alexander, of Woodburn Farm, Kentucky. He died 1878. The original version
of this pedigree, as put upon Mr. Alexander and advertised by him, as
were many others, was wholly fictitious on the side of the dam. He
was not retained long at Woodburn Farm. He does not seem to have been
a uniform transmitter of speed, but when it did appear it was apt to
be of a high order. He left but two representatives in the 2:30 list,
Lula, 2:15, with fifty-six heats, and May Queen, 2:20, with twenty-five
heats. He left four sons that became the sires of fifty-eight performers
and thirteen daughters that produced nineteen performers. Such sons as
Swigert and Blackwood speak well for his transmitting powers.
SWIGERT was a brown horse, foaled 1866, got by Alexander’s Norman, son of
the Morse Horse; dam Blandina, by Mambrino Chief; grandam the Burch Mare,
by Brown Pilot, son of Copper Bottom, pacer. He was bred at Woodburn
Farm, Kentucky, and when young became the property of Richard Richards,
of Racine, Wisconsin, where he remained many years and passed to F. J.
Ayres, of Burlington, Wisconsin. As a prepotent sire this horse stands
high in the list of great horses. This may be accounted for in great
part by the speed-producing qualities which he inherited from his dam.
I am not informed as to the amount of training he may have had, nor of
the rate of speed he may have been able to show. He placed forty-four
trotters and two pacers in the 2:30 list. Thirty-three of his sons became
the sires of sixty-one trotters and fourteen pacers. Twenty-three of his
daughters produced twenty-one trotters and six pacers. From the number
of his sons that have already shown their ability to get trotters, it is
fair to presume that his name will be perpetuated. He died in 1892.
BLACKWOOD was a black horse, foaled 1866, got by Alexander’s Norman, son
of the Morse Horse; dam by Mambrino Chief; grandam a fast trotting dun
mare, brought from Ohio, pedigree unknown. He was bred by D. Swigert,
Spring Station, Kentucky, and foaled the property of Andrew Steele, of
Scott County, Kentucky. At five years old he was sold to John W. Conley,
and by him to Harrison Durkee, of New York, and was afterward owned at
Ticonderoga, New York. He made a record of 2:31 when three years old,
which, at that day, was considered phenomenal for a colt of that age. His
opportunities in the stud were not of the best, but nine of his progeny
entered the 2:30 list; eleven of his sons got twenty performers, and
twenty-five of his daughters produced thirty-seven performers.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE BLUE BULL AND OTHER MINOR FAMILIES.
Blue Bull, the once leading sire—His lineage and history—His
family rank— The Cadmus family—Pocahontas—Smuggler—Tom
Rolfe—Young Rolfe and Nelson—The Tom Hal family—The various
Tom Hals—Brown Hal—The Kentucky Hunters—Flora Temple—Edwin
Forrest—The Drew Horse and his descendants—The Hiatogas.
BLUE BULL, the real head of this family, was one of the most remarkable
horses that this or any other country has produced. He was a light
chestnut, just a little over fifteen hands high, with one hind pastern
white and a star in his forehead. He was strongly built and his limbs
were excellent, except perhaps a little light just below the knee. He
was foaled 1858 and died July 11, 1880. He was bred by Elijah Stone, of
Stone’s Crossing, Johnson County, Indiana. For a time he was owned by
Lewis Loder and Daniel Dorrel, before he passed into the hands of James
Wilson, of Rushville, Indiana, who kept him many years and whose property
he died. At one time he stood at the head of the list of all trotting
sires in the world, and yet he could not trot a step himself, but he
could pace amazingly fast, and it was claimed he could pace a quarter in
thirty seconds. He was the first and only horse that was ever able to
snatch the scepter from the great Hambletonian family, but after a brief
reign of a couple of years he had to surrender it again to that family,
where, from present appearances, it is destined to remain.
The breeding of this horse is very obscure, and after we have told all
that is known about it we will not have given very much information.
He was got by a large dun pacing horse that was known as Pruden’s Blue
Bull, and he by a blue roan horse known as Merring’s Blue Bull, or Ohio
Farmer. The latter was taken to Butler County, Ohio, from Chester County,
Pennsylvania, and it has been said, without confirmation, that he was of
Chester Ball stock. He was a large, strong farm horse, a natural pacer,
as were many of his progeny, and dun and roan colors were very prevalent
among them. He died the property of Mr. Merring about 1843. His son,
Pruden’s Blue Bull, was of a dun color and a natural pacer, but his dam
has never been traced. He was large, strong, rather coarse, and had some
reputation as a fast pacer, for a horse of his size, and his color was
quite prevalent among his progeny. He was bred in Butler County, Ohio,
and about 1853 was taken to Boone County, Kentucky. In 1861 he became the
property of G. B. Loder, of the same county, and in 1863 he traded him to
James Pruden, of Elizabethtown, Ohio.
The pedigree of Wilson’s Blue Bull, the head of the family on the side
of the dam, is equally unsatisfactory so far as the blood elements are
concerned. We know that this dam was called Queen, that she was bred by
Elijah Stone, and that she was got by a horse called Young Selim, but we
know nothing about Young Selim. We also know that the dam of Queen was
called Bet, and that Mr. Stone bought her of Mr. Sedan, and there all
knowledge ends. Since the days of the great racing progenitor, Godolphin
Arabian, of whose origin and blood nobody, living or dead, had a single
shadow of knowledge, down to the day of Wilson’s Blue Bull, no horse
equally obscure in his inheritance has ever been able to prove himself
really great as a progenitor of speed.
In the days of Blue Bull’s rising fame, and indeed till his death, there
was developed such a condition of muddled morals as one seldom meets with
in a lifetime. Whenever a horse of unknown breeding, in any one of three
or four States, began to show some speed, his owner at once called him
a Blue Bull, and if he went fast enough to enter the 2:30 list, he was
at once credited to Blue Bull by his friends, and they were all ready
to fight for it. If the books of Blue Bull’s services did not show that
the dam of the “unknown” had ever been within a hundred miles of that
horse, it was all the worse for the books. With a large number of men
interested financially in Blue Bull stock, ready to claim everything
in sight and anxiously looking for something more to appear, it became
a most laborious task to keep this class of frauds out of the records.
Another cause of dissent and dissatisfaction among the “boomers” of Blue
Bull blood was the final discovery of the breeder in Elijah Stone and
that there was no “thoroughbred” blood in his veins. At that time a very
large majority of the horsemen of the country honestly believed that all
speed, whether at the pace or the trot, must come from the gallop. It
was not the _truth_, therefore, that these people were looking for, but
something to support that ignorant and stupid theory.
A careful study of the statistics of this horse will teach a valuable
lesson. He put fifty-six trotters into the 2:30 list, varying in speed
from 2:30 to 2:17¼, and five of this number in 2:20 or better. He also
got four pacers with records from 2:24½ to 2:16¼. It thus appears that
this horse, without any known trotting blood, got fifty-four trotters
to four pacers, which clearly shows that an inheritance of speed at the
pace may be transmitted at the trot, as well as the pace. When we come to
his progeny, we find that forty-seven of his sons have to their credit
one hundred and four performers, making an average of a little more
than two each. These sons are all past maturity and some of them dead
of old age, and not one of them has ever reached mediocrity in merit as
a sire. He left seventy-seven daughters that have produced one hundred
and seven performers, and if we had time to trace out these performers
we would find that they were generally by strains of blood stronger and
better than the blood of Blue Bull. While, therefore, we can acknowledge
Blue Bull’s greatness as a getter of speed from his own loins, we must
acknowledge that his sons and daughters as the producers of speed are
failures. It is possible that some representative of the tribe may
spring up and restore the prestige of the family, but as the source is
sporadic and as the country is filled up with trotting elements that are
more prepotent, it is more likely to be swallowed up and lose its family
identity.
CADMUS (known as Irons’ Cadmus) was the head of a very small family that
occasionally developed phenomenal speed either at the pace or the trot.
He was a chestnut horse nearly sixteen hands high, strong and active,
with four white feet. He was foaled 1840 and was got by Cadmus, the
thoroughbred son of American Eclipse, and was bred by Goldsmith Coffein,
Red Lion, Warren County, Ohio. His dam was a chestnut pacing mare that
Mr. Coffein got in a trade, from a traveler, and nothing was ever known
of her breeding. A pedigree was shaped up for her that seemed to make
her thoroughbred and her son took a prize on it once, as a thoroughbred,
but it was wholly untrue. Mr. John Irons of the same county became joint
owner in this horse, and he became widely known as “Irons’ Cadmus.” To
close this partnership he was sold, 1850, and taken to Richmond, Indiana;
then to George Shepher, of Butler County, Ohio, and next to a company in
Wheeling, West Virginia, where he made two seasons, and was sold to St.
Louis, Missouri, and died without further service, in 1858. From birth
he was double-gaited, inclining more to the pace than to the trot. From
unskillful handling his gaits became mixed up so that it was never known
whether he might have been able to show any speed or not.
Pocahontas, the pacer, was the most distinguished of his get, and if
there were no others of merit from her sire this one alone would be
sufficient to command a place in the volume. She was a large, strong
chestnut mare with four white legs, a white face, and a splotch of white
on her belly. She was bred by John C. Dine, of Butler County, Ohio, and
was foaled 1847. Her dam was a very strong mare got by Probasco’s Big
Shakespeare, a horse over sixteen hands and very heavily proportioned,
a very valuable farm horse with good action, many of whose tribe were
disposed to pace. The grandam was also a descendant of Valerius, that
was brought to Ohio from New Jersey. Pocahontas passed through several
hands at very low prices and was used for all kinds of heavy farming and
hauling until she reached the hands of L. D. Woodmansee, when her speed
began to be developed. She was soon matched against Ben Higdon, the fast
pacing son of Abdallah, and beat him in 2:32. In December, 1853, she was
taken to New Orleans, and beat several celebrities there early the next
spring. Before her last race it was discovered she was in foal, and some
two months afterward she dropped Tom Rolfe. In the autumn of 1854 she was
brought to the Union Course, Long Island, and it was not till June, 1855,
that her owners and managers could get a match with her. At last Hero,
the famous son of Harris’ Hambletonian, met her for two thousand dollars,
he to harness and she to wagon. In the first heat she distanced the
gelding in 2:17½, and it was maintained by her driver that she could have
gone at least five seconds faster, if it had been necessary. For racing
purposes she was no longer of any value, for nothing would start against
her. She was then sold and became a brood mare at Boston, Massachusetts,
and produced the sires Tom Rolfe and Strideway, Pocahontas, 2:26¾, and
the dams of May Morning, 2:30, and Nancy, 2:23½, thus ranking as a great
brood mare.
Shanghai Mary, that has become so famous as the dam of Green Mountain
Maid, one of the very greatest of all brood mares, was probably a
daughter of this same horse, Cadmus. This mare, Shanghai Mary, was a
trotter of speed, not far from a 2:30 gait, and she won some races, but
she was hot-headed and unreliable. Notwithstanding continuous searches,
for years, her origin remained a profound mystery, until of recent date
certain facts point to Mr. Coffein as her breeder and Cadmus as her sire.
This has not been established historically, but when the circumstances
are understood and taken in connection with the internal evidences, which
are amazingly strong, and had been pointed out and applied to this sire
long before the recent developments, there remains hardly a moral doubt
that she was by Cadmus. The fact that this mare is the maternal grandam
of Electioneer, the greatest of all trotting sires to date, makes her
pedigree a matter of special interest, and for details of the various
investigations the reader is referred to _Wallace’s Monthly_, and to
Chapter XXIX. of this volume.
Pocahontas seems to have produced but five foals that reached maturity:
1855, Tom Rolfe, of which hereafter; 1859, Young Pocahontas, by Ethan
Allen, a very fast trotter; 1860, May Queen, by Ethan Allen; 1861, May
Day, by Miles Standish; 1863 bay colt Strideway, by Black Hawk Telegraph.
This was a very fast and promising young horse, and doubtless would have
stood among the fastest stallions of his day, but he died on the very eve
of his public appearance on the trotting turf.
TOM ROLFE had a checkered existence from his conception. His dam,
Pocahontas, was bred to Pugh’s Aratus, by Abraham Pierce, her then owner,
May 10, 1853, and ten days afterward she was sold without her new owner’s
knowing she had been bred. He was thus carried in his mother’s womb,
during her training and through her racing campaign in New Orleans, until
a little over two months of the time he was dropped. During most of this
period those handling the mare did not know she had been bred, and hence
the story that Tom was a “catch” colt. He was a bay, about fifteen hands
two inches high, and came to his speed with very little handling. In
private trials, it is said, he had frequently shown a mile in 2:23. While
on exhibition in a small ring at Dayton, Ohio, he met with an accident,
from which he was ever afterward a cripple. In this condition however,
he afterward made a record in 2:33½. His sire, Pugh’s Aratus, was a
large, handsome farm horse, sixteen hands two inches high, and weighing
one thousand three hundred pounds. He was got by Phares’ Aratus, out
of a fast pacing mare. There is no evidence whatever going to show that
Phares’ Aratus was a son of Aratus by Director. The type of the family
did not indicate the possession of any running blood. Tom Rolfe put four
trotters and three pacers, all with fast records, into the 2:30 list, and
three of his sons left twenty-nine performers. In the latter years of his
life he was sold by Mr. Woodmansee to Mr. Wesley P. Balch, of Boston, and
died 1877.
YOUNG ROLFE was the best son of Tom Rolfe. He was a bay, foaled 1876, and
came out of Judith, by Draco, son of Young Morrill, and she out of Lady
Balch, by Rising Sun. He was bred by Wesley P. Balch, passed to C. H.
Nelson, of Maine, then back to John Sheppard of Boston, and died 1884,
when only eight years old. He was one of the best horses of his day, as
a race horse, and his early death was universally considered a great
loss to the breeding interests of the country. He has to his credit nine
representative trotters in the 2:30 list.
NELSON, the great son of Young Rolfe, was bred and owned by G. H.
Nelson, Waterville, Maine. He is a bay horse, foaled 1882, and out of
Gretchen, the daughter of Gideon, by Hambletonian, 10, and she out of
the fast trotting mare Kate, by Vermont Black Hawk. This horse Gideon,
the son of Hambletonian, was, like his sire, very strongly inbred to old
Messenger, tracing through mares by Young Engineer and Young Commander,
both grandsons of Messenger, to the William Hunter mare, that was by
Messenger himself. When the pedigree of Nelson is compared with the
pedigree of Hambletonian, according to the rules of arithmetic, it may be
found to contain nearly or quite as much Messenger blood as Hambletonian
possessed, but, unfortunately, we know nothing of the trotting capacity
of the intervening mares. If we had a “One Eye” and a “Charles Kent
Mare” coming next to the William Hunter mare, we would have much greater
expectations. But, as it is, when we consider the superlative capacity of
Nelson himself, with his record of 2:09, and his nineteen trotters and
seven pacers already to his credit, it is probable he will found a large
and valuable family.
Through his son Blanco, sire of Smuggler, we have another notable line to
Irons’ Cadmus. Smuggler was in his day the champion trotting stallion,
taking a record of 2:15¼ when owned by Colonel Russell, of Boston,
and driven by Charles Marvin, who after long and painstaking efforts
converted him from his natural gait, the pace, to the trot. Wearing
twenty-four ounces on each fore-foot to keep him at the trot, Smuggler
defeated all the best horses of his day, including Goldsmith Maid. He
was by Blanco, out of a pacing mare of unknown blood. As might have been
expected, he failed to found a great family, though fourteen of his get
are standard performers, and twelve of his sons and seventeen of his
daughters have produced thirty-eight performers.
TOM HAL.—The original Tom Hal was taken to Kentucky, as early, probably,
as 1824, and as was the custom in those days, he was called a Canadian,
like all other pacing horses. The tradition is that Dr. Boswell got
him in Philadelphia and rode him home to Lexington, Kentucky. Another
statement is that he was taken to Kentucky by John T. Mason, and this
statement appears in the advertisement of the horse for the year 1828.
As the horse was in the hands of William L. Breckenridge that year, and
as his advertisement was practically a contemporaneous record, we must
give the preference to the Mason representation. He was a roan horse, as
I understand, a little over fifteen hands high, stout and stylish. He
was very smooth and pleasant in his gait and a very fast pacer. He was
for some time in the hands of Captain West, of Georgetown, Kentucky, and
then passed to Benjamin N. Shropshire, of Harrison County, and after some
years he died his property.
BALD STOCKINGS, also known as Lail’s Tom Hal, was a chestnut horse with a
bald face and four white legs. He was foaled early in the “forties,” and
was got by the original Tom Hal, and his dam was by Chinn’s Copperbottom.
He was bred by Higgins Chinn, Harrison County, kept for a time by John
Lucas, and owned by Mr. Lail, of the same county. He was one of the
prominent links between the old and the new, and was a fast pacer.
SORREL TOM was a son of Bald Stockings (Lail’s Tom Hal) and bore the same
color and markings. He was bred and owned by John Shawhan, of Harrison
County, Kentucky. His dam was a grey mare from Ohio, of unknown breeding.
He was kept at Falmouth, Indiana, the seasons of 1857 and 1858, and was
very widely known in that region as “Shawhan’s Tom Hal.” He was quite a
large horse, and to take the description as given him, “he could pace
like the wind.” He was then taken back to Kentucky, leaving a multitude
of good colts behind him, among them the famous pacing gelding, Hoosier
Tom, 2:19½. One of his Indiana sons passed into the hands of William
Gray, of Rush County, Indiana, and became known as Gray’s Tom Hal.
Nothing is known of the dam of this horse. He was the sire of Little
Gipsey, trotter, 2:22, and Limber Jack, pacer, 2:18½, besides six
daughters that produced nine performers.
About 1863-4 Mr. Shropshire, Jr., a son of the owner of the original Tom
Hal, brought a little roan Tom Hal horse to Rushville, Indiana, where
he stood a number of years and was known as Shropshire’s Tom Hal. This
horse was probably by Lail’s Tom Hal, as he was too young to be by the
original of the name. He was a fast pacer, but nothing is known of his
progeny or history. The locating of this Indiana branch of the family is
of particular interest, for it shows a concentration of pacing blood that
was doubtless a strong reinforcement to Blue Bull.
TOM HAL (KITTRELL’S) was a large bay horse and a pacer, bought by Major
M. B. Kittrell in 1850 of Simeon Kirtly, near Centerville, Bourbon
County, Kentucky, and taken to Middle Tennessee. His sire was represented
to have been a large pacing bay horse that was brought from Canada,
thereby implying that he was the original of the name, brought to
Kentucky. While it is possible that the original Mason horse may have
been the sire of Major Kittrell’s horse, the size and color of that horse
do not correspond with what has been accepted as facts. It is altogether
more probable that the sire of the Tennessee horse was a son of the
original Tom Hal, as the roan color seems to be strongly fixed in all
branches of the family.
TOM HAL JR. (GIBSON’S) was a roan horse, foaled 1860. Got by Kittrell’s
Tom Hal; dam (bred by John Leonard), by Adam’s Stump, pacer; grandam
said to be by Cummings’ Whip, pacer. Bred by H. C. Saunders, Nashville,
Tennessee; kept a number of years by T. D. Moore, Petersburg, Tennessee,
afterward owned by Polk Bros. and Major Campbell Brown, of Springhill,
Tennessee. Adams’ Stump was a roan horse and a fast pacer and he
was not only the sire of Julia Johnson, the dam of this horse, but
also of the dam of Bonesetter. He died of old age, July, 1890. The
strong concentration of pacing blood in his veins gave him unusual
power in transmitting his inherited habit of action. He put fourteen
representatives in the 2:30 list, and what is unprecedented, they are all
pacers.
BROWN HAL is a brown horse, as his name indicates, foaled 1879, got by
Gibson’s Tom Hal; dam the pacing mare Lizzie, the dam of the pacer Little
Brown Jug, by John Netherland, son of Henry Hal; grandam Blackie, by John
Hal, son of John Eaton; great-grandam Old March, by Young Conqueror.
Bred by R. H. Moore, Culleoka, Tennessee, passed to M. C. Campbell and
Campbell Brown, Springhill, Tennessee. Here we have a still stronger
intensification of the pacing instinct, for this horse not only has a
pacing record himself of 2:12½, but he put twenty of his progeny into the
standard list, and all of them pacers. It is not shown by the Year Book
that either this horse or his sire has any trotters to his credit, but it
can hardly be doubted that some of their progeny took naturally to the
diagonal trot, and not showing encouraging speed, were never developed.
If the question were asked, “What is to result from this intensely pacing
family?” it would be very difficult to frame a satisfactory answer. At
present this family shows all the vigor of youth in its new development,
but, judging by others that have come and gone, it too, in its turn, will
be submerged in more prepotent strains, that will more nearly meet the
wants of their masters. The pacer has been lifted from obscurity and made
the equal of the trotter as a race horse; his blood has contributed to an
unknown extent in giving speed to the trotter, but he must be as good a
horse for all uses as the trotter, or nobody will want him.
KENTUCKY HUNTER, the head of the family bearing this name that, at one
time, was very prominent in Central New York, was foaled 1822, and was
bred by Louis Sherrill of New Hartford, New York, and was got by Watkins’
Highlander. His dam was a mare bought from a couple of dealers who were
passing through New Hartford with some six or seven horses for sale, and
they represented this mare to have been brought from Kentucky. On this
representation she was called “a Kentucky mare.” She was a fine saddle
mare and for this reason she was used chiefly for that service. From
her superiority as a saddler, I think it is safe to conclude she was
a pacer and could go the saddle gaits. Kentucky Hunter was a chestnut
horse, a little above medium size. Mr. Sherrill sold him when young to
Messrs. Bagg and Goodrich who kept him two years and sold him to William
Ferguson, of Oriskany Falls, New York, and Mr. Ferguson continued to own
him till he died in 1838.
During the lifetime of this horse the pacing gait was considered an
evidence of bad breeding, and this prejudice has continued for many
years. The saddle was going out of use and wheels were coming in. After
Flora Temple electrified the trotting world, writers had a great deal
to say of her origin and family, but no one ever intimated that her
grandsire was a pacer. From sources that I have no reason to doubt,
I have been informed he was not only a pacer, but a fast pacer. This
habit of action was not popular with breeders, and Mr. Ferguson kept it
concealed as much as possible. When the pacer, Oneida Chief, from his own
loins, was beating Lady Suffolk, three miles in 7:44, to saddle, and many
of the other cracks of that day, his sire was dead and nothing was then
to be made by proclaiming from the housetops that Oneida Chief was by old
Kentucky Hunter.
Very little is known of Watkins’ Highlander, the sire of this horse.
He was brought to Whitestown, New York, 1821, by Julius Watkins, from
Connecticut. Some of the older men who knew the horse insist that Mr.
Watkins represented him to be by a son of imported Messenger, and out
of Nancy Dawson by imported Brown Highlander. This is possible, indeed
probable, but it is not established.
BOGUS HUNTER was one of the younger sons of Kentucky Hunter. He was a
chestnut horse of good size and came out of a mare by Bogus. But little
is known of this horse, and that little is rendered still more uncertain
by the unreliable character of his owners, the Loomis brothers, of
Sangerfield, New York. It is certain, however, that a horse owned by the
Loomises and called by this name was the sire of the famous world beater,
Flora Temple. This fact rests upon the testimony of Mr. Samuel Welch,
a reputable and trustworthy man who owned the dam of Flora and had her
coupled with this horse, under his own eye.
EDWIN FORREST, the most prominent representative of this family, was a
large and rather loosely made bay horse, foaled 1851, got by Young Bay
Kentucky Hunter, son of Bay Kentucky Hunter, that was by the original
Kentucky Hunter. His dam, Doll, bred by Mrs. Crane, of Whitestown, Oneida
County, New York, was by Watkins’ Highlander; grandam a chestnut mare
owned in the Crane family, by Black River Messenger, son of Ogden’s
Messenger. The identification of this grandson of imported Messenger was
secured after the appearance of the fifth volume of the “Register.” This
same mare, Doll, the next year produced Wamock’s Highland Messenger,
that was taken to Kentucky, and was a valuable element in the road-horse
blood of that State. Edwin Forrest was bred by Barnes Davis, Oneida,
Madison County; owned two years by H. L. Barker, of Clinton, New York,
sold to Marcus Downing, of Kentucky, by him to Woodburn Farm, and after
a time he passed to a company at Keokuk, Iowa, and then to George W.
Ferguson, of Marshalltown, Iowa, where he was burned up in 1874.
It has been said this horse was a pacer and converted to a trotter,
but this does not seem to be sustained by the facts. He was shown as
a three-year-old at the Oneida County Fair, and he was then a square
natural trotter and was considered very fast, for he was fully able to
distance all the other colts of his age. The story of his being a pacer
probably grew out of the fact that there was a strong pacing strain in
the family, as the original Kentucky Hunter was undoubtedly a pacer. Many
of the Kentucky Hunters were speedy travelers and a few of them were
fast. Black River Messenger was a horse of very wide local reputation
for the superiority of his progeny as rapid travelers. The union of the
Messenger blood with pacing blood produced excellent results in this, as
well as in thousands of other cases. As was the common usage before the
establishment of the “Trotting Register,” this horse was advertised with
two fictitious crosses added to his pedigree—his grandam was given as
by Duroc, and his great-grandam as by imported Messenger. Only two from
his loins were able to enter the 2:30 list; six of his sons got seven
performers and twelve of his daughters produced fifteen trotters.
SKENANDOAH (afterward called Kentucky Hunter) was a bay horse, foaled
1854, got by Brokenlegged Hunter, son of the original Kentucky Hunter;
dam not clearly established. He was bred by Mr. Sykes, near Canastota,
and passed through several hands to Henry Dewey, of Morrisville, New
York, who trotted him in a number of races in Central New York and then
took him to California, where he was kept in the stud a number of years
under the name of Kentucky Hunter, and died there 1871. He got one
trotter; one son that left two performers and seven daughters that left
nine performers.
DREW HORSE, commonly called “Old Drew,” was a brown bay horse, foaled
1842, and was about fifteen and one-quarter hands high and well-formed.
He was bred, or rather raised, by Hiram Drew, then of Exeter, Maine,
who kept him all his life. The story of his supposed sire was one of
those weakly devised fictions, so common in that day, and especially
where the Canadian border could be made effective in rounding it out.
To show that the mysterious colt that became the sire of Drew Horse was
“thoroughbred,” the stereotyped “British Army officer” is made available,
for the hundredth time, as having brought a mare from England in foal to
a thoroughbred horse, the foal was dropped and at three years old he was
traded by the aforesaid “officer” to the party that brought the colt to
Maine. Unfortunately for the story, the party who made the trade and the
story had a bad memory, and sometimes he located the trade at St. Johns
and sometimes at Fredericton, New Brunswick. But the fiction served its
generation and was not exposed till long after the Drew Horse was dead.
The facts in the matter seem to be simply these: a stallion colt was
running in a pasture adjoining Mr. Drew’s pasture, and that colt got over
the fence, was found with Mr. Drew’s mare, and in due time she dropped
the colt known as the “Drew Horse.” The fence-breaker was soon after made
a gelding and sold, and nothing is known of him, either before or after
this escapade. The dam of the Drew Horse was a bay mare about fifteen
and one-half hands high, foaled about 1836, and bred by Mark Pease, of
Jackson, Maine. Her sire was called Sir Henry and was represented to be
by a son of American Eclipse, that was taken to Maine from Connecticut
by Dr. Brewster and sold to General F. W. Lander. She was known as Grace
Darling and afterward as Boston Girl. She was on the turf and was quite
a trotter, and it is claimed she made a record of 2:37, and her dam was
Lady Jane by Winthrop Messenger. While I don’t know what the inheritance
of this horse was on the side of his sire, I do know that he had a
trotting inheritance on the side of his dam. He lived till 1866 and then
had to be destroyed on account of a broken leg.
This horse was never trained, and it is not known what he might have been
able to do as a trotter. He put two of his sons in the 2:30 list, Dirigo
and General McClellan. Of his sons, two put five trotters and three
pacers in the list, and of his daughters left six representatives there.
Besides these he left a number of others with records a little short of
the limit of speed, and many without records that were fast and very game
roadsters.
DIRIGO, at first called George B. McClellan, under which name he made
his record, was the best son of Drew Horse. He was a brown horse, and in
appearance much like his sire. He was foaled 1856 and came out of a mare
that has not been traced, but was doubtless a pacing mare. He was bred by
Horace McKinney, Monroe, Maine, and passed to David Quimby, of Corinna,
Maine, and died 1884. He made his record of 2:29 in a single heat and
never was on the track again. Four trotters and two pacers by him entered
the 2:30 list. Two of his sons became the sires of three trotters, and
five of his daughters each produced a performer. He left others with and
without records that were fast and stylish drivers.
HIRAM DREW, at first called Bay Morgan, was a son of Old Drew, and
his dam was a small bay mare, owned near Bangor and said to be of
Morgan blood. This horse was on the turf some years and was engaged in
some locally important contests, but never was able to make himself
standard either by his own or the performances of his progeny. His best
performance, I believe, was 2:31½.
WINTHROP was a bay horse, foaled 1864, got by Drew Horse; dam by the Eton
Horse and grandam by Stone or Simpson’s Messenger. He was bred by E. J.
Greene, Newport, Maine; taken to California 1870, and there owned by
Judge W. E. Greens and L. E. Yates, of Stockton. It does not appear that
he ever was trained, and consequently has no record. His opportunities,
probably, were not very great, but whether or not, he was not successful
in the stud. He left one trotter and one pacer and the dams of one
trotter and one pacer.
This family never was large, and its popularity was up and down just as
a few individuals might be successful or unsuccessful on the turf. To
start with, it had a very weak inheritance of trotting instinct, and
that weakness did not strengthen in succeeding generations. Of late
years it has failed to maintain itself as a trotting family, and is now
practically out of the reckoning of trotters.
HIATOGA, generally known as Rice’s Hiatoga, was a bay pacing horse and
was bred in Rockingham County, Virginia, and taken to Fairfield County,
Ohio, by Edward Rice, some time about 1836. He had the reputation of
being a fast pacer, and was sold to William Shiruo, of the same county,
and by him to William Munger, in whose possession he died. He was got by
a horse known in Virginia as Hiatoga, and also American Hiatoga, but
nothing is known of the blood of his dam. Nothing is known of his speed
or his progeny except through the two sons here given.
Hiatoga, generally designated as “Old Togue,” was got by Rice’s Hiatoga;
dam by Thunderbolt, grandam by Black or Bold Rover. He was foaled 1843
and was bred by David W. Brown, of Perry County, Ohio; sold 1849 to John
Joseph, Kirkersville, Ohio, where he made some seasons and was sold 1855
to Alvah Perry, Lancaster, where he remained till 1863, and was sold to
Harvey Wilson, and two years later to William McDonald, Columbus, Ohio,
where he died 1871. This horse left excellent stock and many of them fast
pacers, but they never cut much figure on the turf.
HIATOGA (HANLEY’S) was a bay pacing horse of good size and quality and
was very popular as a sire. He was foaled 1849, got by Rice’s Hiatoga;
dam an elegant bay mare sixteen hands high and represented to be of “Sir
Peter and Eclipse blood.” This mare was formerly given as by Firetail,
but the present rendering, whatever it may mean, comes from sources with
opportunities to know. He was bred by John Bright, of Fairfield County,
sold to Joseph Watt, and taken to Harrison County and then to Jefferson
County, and sold to James Davis Tweed. He next passed through the hands
of David Rittenhouse and Moses Hanley, of Hopedale, Ohio, and after three
or four years in the stud Mr. Hanley sold him to David Rittenhouse,
John Wiley and Samuel Hanley for two thousand five hundred dollars, and
he died the property of Mr. Rittenhouse near Hopedale, Ohio, 1858. Two
of his progeny entered the 2:30 list; three of his sons left thirteen
performers, and three daughters produced five.
HIATOGA (SCOTT’S) was a bay pacer foaled 1858, got by Hanley’s Hiatoga;
dam by Blind Tuckahoe (pacer); grandam by Consul. This horse was quite
fast and paced under the name of Tuscarawas Chief. He was the best of
the family and was bred and owned by Samuel Scott, East Springfield,
Jefferson County, Ohio. He put five trotters and four pacers in the 2:30
list; seven of his sons and seventeen of his daughters were producers.
The Hiatoga family seems to have no trotting inheritance except from the
pacer. It is a useful family and still has vitality.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE BLACK HAWK OR MORGAN FAMILY.
Characteristics of the Morgans—History of the original
Morgan—The fabled pedigree—The true Briton theory—Justin
Morgan’s breeding hopelessly unknown—Sherman Morgan—Black
Hawk—His disputed paternity—His dam called a Narragansett—Ethan
Allen—His great beauty, speed and popularity—The Flying Morgan
claim baseless—His dam of unknown blood—His great race with
Dexter—Daniel Lambert, the only successful sire of the Black
Hawk line.
Fifty years ago there was no family of horses so popular as the
“Morgans.” They were carried into all parts of the country at high prices
and they gave their purchasers general satisfaction. They were small,
perhaps not averaging over fourteen and a half hands high, but compact,
trappy movers and had most excellent dispositions. Many of them were
ideal roadsters, where speed was not in great demand, for they were
kindly, tractable and always on their courage. Many of them carried
themselves in excellent style, and notwithstanding their diminutive size,
it is not probable we will ever again see a better tribe of every-day,
family horses. In all their outline and in every lineament they were the
very opposite of the blood horse, and when bred on any strain outside
of their own family, they almost universally failed to impress their
own characteristics on their progeny. This failure I observed with deep
regret more than forty years ago. The step could be extended and the
speed increased by crossing with the long striders, but in securing this
we lost the Morgan. In advance of their general distribution they had
the misfortune to be heralded as great trotters, and in this respect,
at least, they failed of meeting expectations. They went, largely, into
the hands of inexperienced men, who knew nothing about how to cultivate
speed, and the little, short, quick steps of their new trotters gave
them all the sensations of going fast, without the danger incident
to rapid traveling. In regard to the matter of speed, through the
overzealous and not too conscientious editors and others to say nothing
of the advertisements of those who had them for sale, they suffered
greatly by too much praise. The result is that the original type has
been extinguished, and it is doubtful whether a fair specimen could be
found, even among the mountains of New England. Next to the injury which
the family sustained from the exaggerated claims of speed put forward
by its too sanguine friends, there was another and even greater injury
from the absurd and foolish claims made for his blood. It is impossible
to make a thinking and sensible man believe that a little hairy-legged
“nubbin” of a pony, weighing eight hundred and fifty pounds, hired for
fifteen dollars a year to drag logs together in a clearing, at which
employment he was a great success, had the blood of the race horse in his
veins. This was always a stumbling block to my immature enthusiasm for
the Morgan horse. From an experience of a great many years and from the
developments of horse history during that time, I find the “stumbling
block” no longer worries me, for it has rotted away and disappeared.
Although the family has ceased to exist as a factor in current horse
history, it had a history in the past; and, as a historian, I must
consider its origin as well as the deeds it has accomplished or failed to
accomplish.
Mr. Justin Morgan, the central figure in this investigation, was born
in West Springfield, 1747, where he married and lived till 1788, when
he removed to Randolph, Vermont, where he died, March, 1798. He was a
reputable citizen, fairly well educated for his time, and taught school
for a living. He owned a house and lot in his native town, where he kept
a wayside house of entertainment, and during the early summer he usually
had a stallion to keep on the shares. In the spring of 1785 he had charge
of the horse True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, and I will here add that
three years later, John Morgan, Jr., had charge of the same horse at
Springfield, for the seasons of 1788 and 1789. This John Morgan, Jr.,
removed to Lima, New York, late in 1790 or early in 1791. Justin had sold
his place in West Springfield to Abner Morgan, on long payments, and in
the summer of 1795 he came back to West Springfield to collect some money
that was due him, presumably on the price of his former home, but he
failed to get money and took two colts instead. One was a three-year-old
gelding and the other was a two-year-old bay colt, entire. He led the
three-year-old with a halter and the two-year-old followed. The date
of this visit to the old home is the key to the main question to be
settled, and it is fixed by Justin Morgan, Jr., then a lad of the right
age to remember such things, and by Soloman Steele and Judge Griswold,
who fix the date in the late summer of 1795. The horse was sold and
resold and sold again, as a foal of 1793, and that date never left him
till he died in 1821. I look upon this date as perfectly immovable, and
every attempt that has been made to overthrow it has not been based on
any reasonable evidence, nor prompted by a desire to get at the truth,
but only to make a fictitious sire a possibility. This was the original
Morgan Horse, and this date was thoroughly fixed by Linsley, without
knowing that it upset the pedigree he had labored so hard to establish.
After a lapse of fifty years an attempt was made to fix up a pedigree for
the “Original Morgan Horse,” claiming that he was got by True Briton or
Beautiful Bay—represented to be a great race horse, stolen from the great
race horse man, Colonel De Lancey, in the Revolutionary War. I must,
therefore, consider, briefly, this part of the fiction.
First—As a starting point in the pedigree, it is assumed that the
race-horse in question was stolen, during the War of the Revolution, from
James De Lancey, perhaps the largest and most widely known of all the
colonial horsemen of that day. He was the first man to import race horses
into this colony, and his name and the fame of his horses were discussed
everywhere. He was very rich, in politics a Tory, and on the eve of
hostilities he sold out every horse he owned, of whatever description,
went back to England and never returned. This disposes of the false
assumption that the sire of the original Morgan horse was stolen from him.
Second—There was another James De Lancey, cousin to the preceding, and
not a rich man, who was colonel of a body of Tory cavalry operating in
Westchester County from 1777 to the close of the war in 1782. It is not
known whether he ever owned a race horse in his life, but it is certain
he was a dashing fighter, and at the head of the cowboys he was known to
the inhabitants of all that region. His name is not to be found anywhere
in connection with horses. He bore, in full, the same name as the
distinguished horseman, and was mistaken for him, although he was on the
other side of the ocean.
Third—It is claimed that “one Smith” stole the horse in question from
Colonel De Lancey and sold him to Mr. Ward, of Hartford, Connecticut, who
kept him a few years and sold him to Selah Norton, of the same place,
and remained his till he died. Who was this “one Smith” and where did he
belong? Where is the evidence that this “one Smith” stole a horse from
Colonel De Lancey?
Fourth—In the New York _Packet_, then published at Fishkill, under date
of October 19, 1780, we find the following: “Last week Lieutenant Wright
Carpenter and two others went down to Colonel James De Lancey’s quarters
and lay in wait for his appearance. He accordingly came and having tied
his horse at the door, went into the house; upon which Carpenter seized
the horse and mounted. When De Lancey discovered him, he immediately
alarmed his men, who pursued him to White Plains, but in vain,” etc.,
etc. This Lieutenant Carpenter was a dashing young fellow and was
promoted next month to the position of first lieutenant in Captain Lyons’
company, of the Second Regiment of New York Militia, of Westchester
County, and still commanded by Colonel Thomas. This is the man who stole
the horse, this is the contemporaneous evidence of it, and “one Smith”
had nothing to do with it.
In these four points we have what may be considered the first chapter
of this investigation and, as will be readily seen, each of them must
be fatal to the pretentious claim that has been maintained for about a
hundred years. Avoiding all circumlocution, I think it is safe to say
that this so-called pedigree did not originate this side of Hartford. The
Second Regiment of New York Militia, called “The Skinners,” was made up
of Westchester County men, and as Colonel De Lancey had been sheriff of
that county, everybody knew him and knew that he was not the race horse
James. We must, therefore, look further on for the time when and the
person by whom this pedigree was manufactured.
In 1784 this horse was advertised at Lanesboro, Massachusetts, under the
name of Beautiful Bay, and no attempt was made to give a pedigree or
origin of the horse.
In 1785 he was at West Springfield, Massachusetts, in charge of Justin
Morgan, still called Beautiful Bay, and still no pedigree.
In 1788 and 1789 he was in charge of John Morgan, Jr., of Springfield,
Massachusetts, and here, for the first time, he is designated as “the
famous full-blooded English horse, called True Briton or Beautiful Bay,”
but no pedigree is given.
In 1791 he was advertised at East Hartford, Connecticut, by his owner,
Selah Norton, and his pedigree is here given for the first time as
follows: “True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, got by imported Traveler, dam De
Lancey’s racer.” After advertising the horse for seven years without a
pedigree, at last Mr. Selah Norton manufactures one and gives it over his
own signature.
In 1793 he is again called Beautiful Bay, but no pedigree, at South
Hadley, Massachusetts.
In 1794 and 1795 he was kept at Ashfield, Massachusetts, by Mr. Norton
himself, and called Traveler, and his pedigree is again given in amended
form as follows: “Sired by the famous old Traveler, imported from
Ireland, dam Colonel De Lancey’s imported racer.”
This is the last trace we have of the horse Beautiful Bay, for that
seems to be his honest name, and now I must ask some questions. These
advertisements cover a period of eleven years and they are worthy of
careful study. From 1784 to 1791 there is no attempt at giving any
pedigree at all. With the exception of three seasons he seems to have
been let, probably on shares, to different keepers, in different parts
of the country. From first to last Selah Norton seems to have been his
owner. If he had received the pedigree, and the romantic story of his
theft, from “one Smith,” as claimed, is it conceivable that he would have
concealed that story from the public when it would have added so much to
the patronage of his horse? How does it come that not a single man having
this stallion in charge, except Selah Norton himself, ever gave his
pedigree? What prompted Selah Norton to withdraw the horse from public
service, in Hartford, immediately after he first gave his pedigree? Was
it because everybody there knew it was a fraud? When the horse was taken
to South Hadley in 1793, why did his keeper there refuse to accept either
the name True Briton or the new pedigree? It will be observed he was
advertised there simply as Beautiful Bay and no pedigree given. The next
two years we find him at Ashfield, Massachusetts, to which point it would
seem his owner had removed from Hartford. For some reason that can be
better imagined than explained, the names Beautiful Bay and True Briton
are there dropped and he is rechristened as Traveler. To this change of
name the old pedigree is attached, with a very important change in that
also, as follows: “Sired by famous old Traveler, imported from Ireland,
dam Colonel De Lancey’s imported racer.” These three words, “imported
from Ireland,” are very important in two particulars, for they not only
knock out the “featherheads” who have been always maintaining that the
imported Traveler meant Lloyd’s Traveler of New Jersey, son of Morton’s
Traveler, that was imported from Yorkshire into Virginia about 1750,
but it convicts Selah Norton of inventing this pedigree, for there was
no such horse brought from Ireland. It is certainly unnecessary to say
another word in illustration of Selah Norton’s character. When we study
these advertisements it becomes as clear as the light of day that nobody
believed him or the story that “one Smith” stole the horse from Colonel
De Lancey. The crimes of horse stealing and desertion were exceedingly
common during the period of the revolution and it is quite possible that
“one Smith” may have stolen a horse out of somebody’s stable and sold him
to Mr. Ward or Mr. Norton as the same horse that Lieutenant Carpenter
stole from Colonel De Lancey, but neither “one Smith” nor “one Norton”
knew anything more about his pedigree than he did about the man in the
moon, and I will here end the second chapter of this investigation.
I am clearly of the opinion that Justin Morgan was an honest man and that
he would not tell a lie, even if he knew it might accrue to his present
and personal advantage. He was poor, feeble in health, and had hard
scuffling to get along. As a means of livelihood, in part at least, it
seems to have been his business for a good many years to keep stallions
on shares for different owners. As late as 1795 he had a horse from
Hartford, Connecticut, called Figure, to which we will refer later on.
In 1788 he sold his little place in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and
removed to Randolph, Vermont, where he died in March, 1798 In the autumn
of 1795 he visited West Springfield again, for the purpose of collecting
some money that was still due him there, probably some deferred payments
of his former home, and as he was not able to get the money he took two
horses in lieu thereof. One was a three-year-old gelding, and the other
was a two-year-old bay colt, entire. He led the gelding beside the horse
he was riding and the colt followed all the way. The evidence that fixes
the date of this trip in the autumn of 1795 and the age of the colt that
followed seems to me to be completely bomb-proof. This evidence not only
embraces the recollections of Justin Morgan’s neighbors, but when he died
the colt, in 1798, was sold by his administrators as a five-year-old. In
all the changes of ownership that took place through his life and at his
death, in 1821, he was represented as foaled in 1793. He died from the
effects of a kick that was neglected, and not from old age.
The only serious attempt that has been made to controvert the date
of 1793 was that made in the name of John Morgan, of Lima, New York,
in 1842, he being then eighty years old, in the Albany _Cultivator_.
Unfortunately the editor fails to publish the letter he professes to
have received from John Morgan and only gives his construction of it,
which any child knows is no evidence at all. The editor represents him
to say “that the two-year-old stud which he (Justin) took with him to
Vermont was sired by a horse owned by Selah Norton, of East Hartford,
Connecticut, called True Briton or Beautiful Bay.” Justin Morgan removed
to Randolph, Vermont, in the spring of 1788, and this John Morgan removed
to Lima, New York, about February, 1790. They were not brothers, but
distant relatives. If John means to say that Justin “took with him” when
he removed to Vermont a two-year-old son of Beautiful Bay, that colt must
have been foaled in 1786, which would make him twelve years old instead
of five when he was sold upon the death of his owner, and thirty-six
years old instead of twenty-nine when he died from a kick. Now, if we
concede that Justin did take with him a two-year-old son of Beautiful
Bay, the dates render it impossible that he should have been the founder
of the Morgan horse family and we have no trace of him whatever.
Another authority has very recently come to the front, and in order to
avoid the difficulty of dates and still retain the possibility of the
horse being by Beautiful Bay, insists that he was foaled 1789 and bred
by Justin Morgan himself. Under this new light he was foaled in Vermont
and didn’t have to travel there at all. He insists further that he named
the horse Figure and kept him in the stud till his death in March, 1798,
when the horse was sold and his name changed to Justin Morgan. It is
true that Justin Morgan, still seeking to make a living, kept a stallion
two or three years owned in Hartford, Connecticut, and advertised him as
“the famous horse Figure, from Hartford.” Now, if this horse was foaled
the property of Justin Morgan and owned by him as long as he lived, why
should he advertise him as “from Hartford?” All these efforts to fix
dates by shifting about so as to make it possible for the bogus stolen
horse to come in as a sire, have already received more attention than
their importance demands and I will therefore call this the close of the
third chapter.
There are several incidents connected with the life of the colt of 1793
that fixed his identity and age upon the recollections of the neighbors
and friends of Justin Morgan. Solomon Steele, Evans, Rice and others who
knew the colt well, all agree that the colt followed his companion and
playmate from West Springfield to Randolph in the autumn of 1795 and
that he was not then halter broken. They all agree that Evans hired him
for fifteen dollars a year to draw logs in his clearing, in the place of
a yoke of oxen. They all agree that Justin Morgan died in March, 1798,
and that the colt was then sold as a five-year-old. The death was an
immovable date fixer around which everything in connection with these
events must be determined. And when the horse died in 1821 nobody had
ever doubted that he was foaled 1793.
Justin Morgan, Jr., was in his tenth year when the colt was brought home,
and he was twelve years old when his father died. In 1842 Justin Morgan,
Jr., in a communication to the Albany _Cultivator_, says: “One was a
three-year-old gelding colt, which he led; and the other a two-year-old
stud colt, which followed all the way from Springfield. The said
two-year-old colt was the same that has since been known all over New
England by the name of the Morgan Horse. I know that my father always,
while he lived, called him a Dutch horse. I have a perfect recollection
of the horse when my father owned him and afterward, and well remember
that my father always spoke of him as of the best blood.”
When he made these clean-cut and emphatic declarations Justin Morgan,
Jr., was fifty-six years old, and it has been suggested that he was too
young, at the time, to have remembered about the colt. This is a grave
mistake, for farmer’s boys remember a thousand things better then than
they ever do afterward. I don’t think that my own memory is remarkable,
but today, at over three score and ten, I can, with the utmost
distinctness, recall the names, color, markings, size, peculiarities
and, in some cases, the history of most of the horses that were on the
farm when I was eight years old. I can, therefore, have no hesitation in
accepting Justin Morgan’s evidence on account of his youthfulness, at the
time of which he speaks.
Did Justin Morgan know what he was saying when he “always, while he
lived, called his horse a Dutch horse?” And did he understand the
historical meaning of his words when “he always spoke of him as of the
best blood?” To answer these questions we must make some reference to
history. The Dutch horses were a breed wholly distinct from the horses
of the other colonies. The colony of New Netherlands (New York) received
its supply from Utrecht, in Holland, commencing in 1624 and a few years
following. In forty years they had so increased that the colony was well
supplied. These horses were about fourteen hands and one inch high,
which was about one hand higher than the horses supplied to the English
colonies. They were not only higher, but they had more bone and muscle,
and, I think, more shapely necks. In every respect they were better,
except that they were not so good for the saddle, for the reason, as I
think, that they were not pacers. The standard that determined their
superiority was the higher prices at which they were bought and sold,
over the New England horses, as shown by the official reports of the
colony. When the colony passed under British rule, the first governor
immediately established a race course on Hempstead Plains, Long Island,
and there in 1665 the first organized race in this country took place.
This was long before the English race horse had reached the character of
a breed, and a round hundred years before the first representative of
that breed reached New York. The horses that ran at Hempstead Plains were
undoubtedly Dutch horses, for the inhabitants of New York and Long Island
attended these annual meetings in great numbers, and as they were nearly
all Dutch they would not have gone a stone’s throw to see an English
horse run. These annual race meetings were kept up a great many years by
the successive governors.
In 1635 two shiploads of Dutch horses, from the same quarter, chiefly
mares, reached Salem, Massachusetts, and were sold at prices enormously
high as compared with the prices of those sent from England to the same
colony. These two shiploads added materially to the average size of
the horses of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, as shown by statistics,
as well as the other colonies getting their foundation stock from that
source. We may safely conclude, I think, that some of the descendants of
these shiploads were taken to the valley of the Connecticut when Hartford
was planted, for we not infrequently meet with the term “Dutch horse”
in the old prints of that valley. Besides this source the valley of the
Hudson was full of them. They retained their distinctive appellation
till about the beginning of this century.
Mr. O. W. Cook, of Springfield, Massachusetts, did a great deal of
fundamental investigation on the origin of this family, away back in
1878-9, etc., and I am under special obligations to him for being the
first man to open my eyes to the great confidence game that has been
played for a hundred years, and all originating in the fabulous story of
“one Smith.” Among other important things he unearths an advertisement
of Young Bulrock that was advertised to stand at Springfield, 1792, as
follows: “Young Bulrock is a horse of the Dutch breed, of a large size,
and a bright bay color, etc.” In speaking of his pedigree, Mr. Cook most
pithily remarks: “In view of the three-fold concurrence of time and place
and breed, it fits into the vacuum in the Morgan’s lineage as a fragment
of pottery fits into its complement.” There was another horse advertised
in Springfield that year, but he had neither name nor breed and in color
he was gray. The advertisement of Young Bulrock fits in time, fits in
color and fits in breed; and thus removes all reasonable doubt that
he was the sire of the original Morgan horse. This is the reason why
Justin Morgan “always, while he lived, called him a Dutch horse;” and
the little scrap of history given above will show why he always spoke of
him as “of the best blood.” He was right in the former and he was right
in the latter declaration. It is not possible, at this day, to prove,
technically, these matters of a hundred years ago, but after considering
all the facts in the case, we must conclude that they are satisfying to
the human understanding, and that Justin Morgan told the truth.
For the past fifty or sixty years the breeding of the original Morgan
horse has been a subject of apparently unending controversy. The real
facts concerning his origin, however, have never been brought to light
and fully developed until within the last few years, and it is probable
that nothing of material value will ever be added to the foregoing
tracing. We have found from contemporaneous history that Lieutenant
Wright Carpenter stole a horse from Colonel James De Lancey and was
successful in carrying him into the camp of the patriots at Fishkill, and
that is all we know about that particular horse. After the war was over
it is stated that “one Smith” sold a horse to Mr. Ward, of Hartford, and
represented that he had stolen the horse from Colonel De Lancey, and Mr.
Ward sold that horse to Selah Norton, who seems to have owned him as
long as he lived. It must be accepted as true that Lieutenant Carpenter
captured a horse from Colonel De Lancey, but we cannot accept it as true
that this was the same horse owned by Norton. We must first know how and
where “one Smith” got him. Norton had this horse and advertised him in
different parts of the country for public service seven or eight years
before the romance of his history and pedigree was given to the world.
As this romance would have been a grand feature in an advertisement of a
stallion, Mr. Norton was too slow in evolving it, and when he did bring
it out nobody believed it. At that period many portions of New England
abounded in stallions with bogus pedigrees and histories, and if we judge
Norton by his acts in giving his horse three different names at different
times and places, we must conclude he was ready to conceal or invent
anything that would add to his horse’s popularity and patronage.
SHERMAN MORGAN.—In his history of the Morgan Horse, Mr. Linsley names
this and three or four other sons of the original, that were kept for
stock purposes, but none of them seems to have attained any eminence,
except Sherman. As he never made any pretensions to being a trotter,
he would have been forgotten long ago, had it not been for the lucky
circumstances that he was the sire of Black Hawk, and thus his name
has been preserved. He was scant fourteen hands high, with heavy body
on short legs, and carried his head well up. He was a chestnut and
foaled about 1809. There has always been a doubt in the minds of many
as to whether he was the sire of Black Hawk, but that question will
be considered when we reach that horse. His dam was a very handsome
mare, brought from Narragansett, a pacer, and a very desirable saddle
mare. In the trotting “Register,” three representations are given as to
the breeding of this mare, namely, that she was of the Spanish breed;
that she was an imported English mare; and that she was brought from
Virginia on account of her beauty and speed. The first claim seemed to
have the best historical support, and besides this she was brought from
Providence, Rhode Island, and was a very fine pacer. The theory was then
prevalent that the Narragansett pacers were of the “Spanish breed.” The
elimination of that foolish notion from the history of the pacers does
not affect the plain statement that she was a Narragansett pacer. It is
not known that this mare ever produced anything else, either by the
original Morgan or by any other horse.
BLACK HAWK.—As his name indicates, this horse was a jet black, and was
something over fifteen hands high. He was foaled 1833, was got by Sherman
Morgan, and was bred by Benjamin Kelly, of Durham, New Hampshire. As the
question of his paternity has been the subject of a great deal of bitter
controversy, continued through many years, and participated in by men of
intelligence, on both sides, I must give the history, as I understand it.
Mr. Kelly kept a tavern at Durham and Mr. Bellows, the owner of Sherman
Morgan, made this house one of his points of stopping as he traveled his
horse, in his circuit of the season. Along with Sherman he had another
horse called Paddy, black as a raven, that did some service at seven
dollars, while the price for Sherman was fourteen dollars. On one of
his visits, Mr. Kelly’s black mare, called “Old Narragansett” was bred
to Sherman and proved to be in foal. Not long after this Mr. Kelly sold
the mare to Mr. Shade Twombly, living about two miles from Durham, and a
part of the agreement was that if the mare should prove to be with foal,
Mr. Twombly was to pay for the services of the horse. The next spring
the mare dropped a fine black horse colt, and Mr. Twombly claimed the
colt was by Paddy and not by Sherman, hence, he refused to pay fourteen
dollars for the services of Sherman, but was willing to pay seven dollars
for the services of Paddy. This resulted in a lawsuit in which it was
proved that Sherman was the sire of the colt, and Mr. Twombly’s estate
had to pay the money. The colt was kept by Mr. Twombly’s heirs, at
pasture in Greenland, New Hampshire, till he was about two years old,
when he was sold at auction to Albert Mathes, of Durham, for seventy
dollars and from him he passed to Benjamin Thurston, of Lowell, for two
hundred dollars. In Thurston’s hands he became quite noted, locally, as a
trotter, and in 1844 he became the property of David Hill, of Bridport,
Vermont, where he became altogether the most popular stallion in the
United States, and died there November, 1856. He was the first horse to
command one hundred dollars for his services; and many of the great mares
of the country were sent to his embrace, among them the world-renowned
Lady Suffolk, but unfortunately she failed to produce.
To understand why the fight against the Sherman Morgan paternity of this
horse should have been so bitter and so persistent, we must consider the
condition of the horse interests in New England at that time. When Black
Hawk came to the front the Morgans of the real Morgan type had already
attained some degree of popularity and here came a horse overtopping
them all, with no trace of the Morgan type about him. He and his family
attracted the attention of purchasers and threw a shadow of doubt over
the little punchy, hairy-legged fellows that knocked out many a sale.
Besides this, it was a serious and real question in the minds of a great
many honest and intelligent men, as to whether Sherman Morgan, so typical
of his family, could possibly have been the sire of a horse so completely
outside of the family, not only in appearance and formation, but in his
ability to trot. In 1847 Black Hawk was pitted against the Morse Horse,
mile heats, best two in three, at the Saratoga State Fair. He won the
first heat in 2:50½ and the second in 2:43½. He was then fourteen years
old and this was very fast, for a stallion of that period. It is but
justice to say that the Morse Horse contingent claimed that Black Hawk
was set back in the first heat for running and that the heat was given to
the Morse Horse in 2:52½ and that the second and third heats were won by
Black Hawk in 2:54½ and 2:56. Just what the truth is in this disagreement
I am not able to determine. As we look at this horse, so distinct from
all his tribe; and as we consider the very indistinct knowledge of the
laws of generation as held by the masses in that day, we cannot wonder
that the paternity was so vehemently disputed. Neither can we wonder, as
his descendants pass in review before us, that this dispute has never
been settled to the satisfaction of the contending parties. The old
Morgan type never reappears in the descendants of this family.
But, we must not forget that we have considered only half of the
inheritance of this horse. He had a dam as well as a sire. To that
half of his pedigree we must now give some attention. The story of the
“half-bred English mare, brought from New Brunswick” has had its day
and we may as well lay it aside as a humbug. Mr. Allen W. Thomson, of
Woodstock, Vermont, has brought out the facts with regard to this mare in
a form that is very clear and satisfactory. In 1876 Mr. Thomson visited
Albany for the purpose of examining everything that had been said in _The
Country Gentleman_ newspaper touching on the paternity of Black Hawk. In
this search for the sire he would necessarily find many references to
the dam and among these references he was greatly surprised to find she
had been described as “a pacing mare.” He goes on to say: “In our visit
the same fall to Durham, Dover, Portsmouth and Greenland to learn more
of her, we found a number that knew her when owned in Durham, and they
said she was then known as the ‘Old Narragansett Mare.’ They said that
Benjamin Kelly, deceased, brought the mare into Durham, that he had a
son John L. living in Manchester, New Hampshire, and that he would know
more about her, etc.” After learning that Mr. John L. Kelly was a very
intelligent and responsible man, having been city marshal and mayor of
Manchester, and known as “Honest John,” he wrote him and received the
following reply:
“In answer to your inquiries about the dam of Black Hawk, I
will give you my best recollections, aided somewhat by a diary
which I kept at that time. I returned to Durham from a sea
voyage in the fall of 1830. In the following spring I went to
Boston with my father with a lot of horses. We stopped over
night at Brown’s Hotel, at Haverhill, Mass., where we met a
teamster from Portsmouth, N. H., with a team of four horses. In
the hind span was a large gray horse and a dark bay mare. Among
father’s horses was one which was a good match for the gray
horse. The man noticed it and told father that the mare was too
fast for the horse, was worth two of him for speed and bottom,
yet he would trade with father for his gray horse. After a good
deal of talk, with the aid of Mr. Brown, the trade was made
and we drove the mare in the carriage to Boston, leading the
others. We found her to be a splendid roadster, and as she was
not in good condition to sell, we took her back to Durham. At
this time she was chafed and bruised up very badly with the
heavy harness, yet in a few months she came out of it, with no
traces of it, except a few white spots on her back and breast.
The teamster said she was a Narragansett mare. She would weigh
1,000 pounds. Father kept her as one of his stable horses. She
was found to have great speed as a trotter, and father was
always bragging about her. One day, late in the season, Israel
Esty, of Dover, drove up to Durham with a trotter, and bantered
father for a trot, mile heats on Madbury Plains, between Durham
and Dover. I had great faith in the mare and pleaded with
father to accept his offer, and he did, and fifty dollars was
staked on the race. John Speed was father’s hostler at the
time, and he commenced getting the mare ready for the race.
He had only three weeks to do it in. At the time specified, a
large collection of people from Dover and Durham collected to
witness the race. Dr. Reuben Steele was one of the judges. The
Esty horse won the first heat, the Kelly mare won the next two,
distancing the horse in the last one. In the spring of 1832
John Bellows came to Durham with the old Sherman Morgan, and
I persuaded father to have the mare bred to him. He did, as I
saw the horse cover her. I was 21 in 1832; went to sea again
that fall. My recollection of the dam of Black Hawk is she was
a very fine pointed dark mare, with a nostril so large, when
excited, that one could put his fist into it.
JOHN L. KELLY.
“Manchester, N. H., August 25, 1876.”
The only “trip” in this letter is where Mr. Kelly speaks of the mare as
“a dark bay,” but as the identity of the mare is fully maintained by
other witnesses, this shade of color is not material and is, doubtless
a slip of the pen. We don’t know she was a Narragansett mare, but we
do know that she was called a Narragansett. It is wholly possible she
may have been a bastard Narragansett, or she may have been called a
Narragansett merely because she was a pacer. At that date there were
still many descendants of the old Narragansetts to be found, of greater
or less degree of purity in their breeding. Among Mr. Thomson’s gleanings
from persons who knew the mare there are some bearing upon her color
and gait that are in order at this point of our inquisition. Mr. John
Bellows, the owner of Sherman Morgan, says: “She was a good-sized black
mare, a fast trotter, with a swinging gait, and resembled in appearance
the Messenger stock of horses.” The following description was gathered
from several persons who knew the mare well and among them Mr. Wingate
Twombly, son of her former owner. “She was a large, rangy mare, a little
coarse and brawny, did not carry much flesh, might have weighed some over
one thousand pounds and was a trifle over fifteen and one-half hands
high. Head and ears rather large, neck long and straight, withers low and
thin, medium mane and tail, had more hair on the fetlocks than her son,
was called black a little way off, but close to one could see her grey
hairs mingled with her coat and close to she was called a steel mixed.
She had a white strip in her face and some say a little white on one hind
foot. She was smart to go, but her gait was not a smooth, square trot.
Some called it a sort of a pace, others that she single-footed. She went
with her head low when trotting fast. One person said it was about a
straight line from her back to her head when she was going fast.” She was
called the Narragansett Mare when Mr. Kelly owned her. From other sources
and from men who personally knew the mare and had ridden beside her, we
have undoubted evidence that she was very fast, but all through there is
some confusion about the character of her gait. Mr. Bellows, who ought to
know something about the gait of a horse, says: “She was a fast trotter,
with a _swinging gait_.” Now just what he means by the phrase “swinging
gait” is hard to determine. Putting all these bits of evidence together,
the reasonable conclusion seems to be that she was double-gaited, and
when speeded she would go from the trot to the pace or from the pace to
the trot as the case might be.
[Illustration: ETHAN ALLEN.
Son of Vermont Black Hawk.]
From this synopsis of all that has been developed in the blood lines
of Black Hawk, there can be no longer any mystery about where he
got the characteristics making him so intensely different from the
representatives of the typical Morgan. His sire was out of a high-class
Narragansett pacer, and his dam was probably a fast Narragansett pacer,
thus giving him presumably seventy-five per cent. of Narragansett
blood and twenty-five per cent. of Morgan blood. The fight that was
made against him all his life, as not being a genuine Morgan, had its
foundation in justice and truth. He was not a Morgan in either blood or
character. He founded a very valuable line of trotters, something that
no other branch of the Morgan family has ever accomplished, and of right
his descendants should be designated as “the Black Hawk Family,” and
not jumbled up with the heterogeneous mass of nondescripts still called
“the Morgan Family.” Black Hawk’s gait was spluttery and uneven, rather
than square and mechanical. A few of his progeny were very perfectly
gaited, but a great many of them manifested their evil inheritance,
which, together with unskillful handling, destroyed all possible value
as trotters. He placed three in the 2:30 list; fourteen of his sons were
sires of 2:30 performers, six of them with two or more, and two daughters
produced 2:30 performers. He died November, 1856.
ETHAN ALLEN, 43.—This was a handsome, bright bay horse, less than fifteen
hands high, with three white feet and a star. He was foaled 1849, got by
Black Hawk, 5; dam, a fast trotting grey mare of unknown pedigree. With a
list of all the celebrated American horses before him, it would be very
difficult, if not impossible, for the best informed horseman to select
an animal that has been so great a favorite with the American people,
and for so long a time, as the famous Ethan Allen. When four years old
he gave the world a sensation by eclipsing everything that had appeared
before him at that age; and again when he was eighteen years old he
renewed and intensified the sensation by trotting in 2:15 with a running
mate. These sensations of his youth and his old age, did much to give
him a standing with the people; but his wonderful beauty and remarkable
docility and kindness, with the elegance and ease of his action, made him
the favorite of everybody. His trotting gait was recognized by the best
judges and experts as probably more perfect than that of any horse of his
day. Others have gone faster singly, but no one has done it in greater
perfection of motion. In his great flights of speed he was not bounding
in the air, but down close to the ground, with a gliding motion that
steals from quarter-pole to quarter-pole with inconceivable rapidity. He
was bred by Joel W. Holcomb, of Ticonderoga, New York, and as the result
of a practical joke he played, for the purpose of annoying his uncle,
David Hill, the owner of Black Hawk, against whom he had some pique just
at that time, many well-meaning and no doubt honest people once believed,
and possibly still believe, that Ethan Allen was by Flying Morgan and not
by Black Hawk. The fact that Ethan Allen was the same color as Flying
Morgan and that there was some resemblance in size and style of action
of the two horses, lent a strong suggestion to the joke as a truth. I am
indebted to Mr. I. V. Baker, Jr., of Comstock’s Landing, S. B. Woodward,
then of Ticonderoga, and B. H. Baldwin, of Whitehall, New York, for the
details of the way the Flying Morgan story started, and need only say the
narrator was an eye-witness to the whole affair. In the spring of 1852,
in the barroom of S. B. Woodward’s hotel, at Ticonderoga, quite a number
of the villagers being present, Mr. Joel W. Holcomb came in and said
he was going to write a letter to R. M. Adams, of Burlington, Vermont,
the owner of Flying Morgan, and he was going to have some fun with him;
and, going to the desk in the room, he wrote, substantially as follows:
“I don’t know but I have made all the reputation for David Hill and old
Black Hawk that I care to. I am willing to have the credit go where it
belongs, and desire to let yourself and the public know that my colt
Ethan Allen is got by your horse Flying Morgan.”
“There,” he said, “you will see this in all the Vermont papers next week.
Won’t Uncle David be mad?”
“What!” exclaimed some of his neighbors, after hearing it read, “you
won’t put your name to such a falsehood as that? It’s a shame.”
“Well, well,” said Holcomb, “I’ll add a postscript.” And going to the
desk he wrote below his signature, leaving a good wide space between his
signature and the following words:
“Flying Morgan never covered the dam of Ethan Allen, never smelt of her
and never saw her, consequently Ethan Allen was not by Flying Morgan,
but he can beat Flying Morgan or any other stallion in the State of
Vermont.”
The next fall Mr. Adams visited many of the fairs with his horse and
showed Holcomb’s letter, and, it is said, with the postscript torn off.
Every man in Ticonderoga knew as well as Mr. Holcomb how Ethan Allen
was bred, and this letter created much indignation. But Holcomb was a
reckless man and cared for nothing more than what he called a good joke,
and the more it hurt any one’s feelings the better it suited him.
This account of the “joke” was written down by Mr. Baker, at the
dictation of Mr. Woodward, April 22, 1875, and I have implicit confidence
in its substantial accuracy. It has been said that the reason Holcomb did
this was out of ill feeling toward Mr. David Hill, the owner of Black
Hawk, and Holcomb’s uncle, because he dunned him for payment of the
horse’s services in getting Ethan Allen. One day at the Fashion Course,
in the spring of 1867, as I was looking at Ethan while he was taking
his daily exercise, either Mr. Holcomb or Mr. Roe, his partner—I knew
them both by sight as the owners of Ethan Allen, but not well enough to
distinguish one from the other, but I think it was Mr. Holcomb—came up to
me and expressed a good deal of solicitude to know how I was registering
the horse. He appeared gratified when I assured him I had no doubt he
was a son of old Black Hawk and would so enter him. He remarked “that
was right,” and said the Flying Morgan story originated in a practical
joke and should not be permitted to go into history as a fact. This is
the full history of the basis of the controversy, and certainly, to a
reasonable man, it does not leave a single peg on which to hang a hope
for the Flying Morgan story.
But, the paternity of Ethan Allen is not left to the uncertainties of
recollection nor to be trifled with by practical jokers. The books of
Black Hawk’s services show that the dam of Ethan Allen was bred to him
on a certain day or days of the season of 1848, and was taken away
believed to be in foal. This fact is conceded on all hands as wholly
indisputable, but it is claimed that Flying Morgan was kept in Holcomb’s
stable one night, after the mare returned from Bridport, and the two
were there surreptitiously coupled. I have studied this claim in all its
details, I have examined every detail minutely, and I do not hesitate to
say there is not a single shadow of evidence to support the claim. In
Vermont, as in Kentucky, there are many people who can remember things
that never occurred, but in the former State these people are at a great
disadvantage, for they are not able to get so many to agree with and
support their remarkable memories. The Vermonters are very far from being
all honest, but they are very much disposed to make up their own minds,
whether right or wrong.
In searching for the breeding of the little flea-bitten grey mare,
“called a Messenger,” that produced Ethan Allen, I have not been sparing
of either time or labor. I have assiduously followed every clew that
presented itself, and waded through “sloppy” correspondence “knee deep,”
but I never have been able to reach a single point that was relevant and
tangible. From the first that is known of her at Hague, New York, her
identity has been maintained by a spavin on one leg and one hip knocked
down, and thus she has been traced through the hands of many owners till
she reaches Mr. Holcomb, of Ticonderoga, New York. A pretence has been
set up that she was by some Morgan horse, but this was only a wish of the
originator, and not a fact founded on reasonable evidence. It is said
she was quite a fast trotter, in her younger days, and that she could
beat all the farmers’ horses against which she was started. That she had
a trotting inheritance, and probably from Messenger, there can be no
reasonable doubt.
Ethan Allen made his first appearance as a trotter at the Clinton County
Fair, as a three-year-old, and made a record, over a very bad track, of
3:20-3:21. In May following, then four years old, at the Union Course,
he beat Rose of Washington in 2:36-2:39-2:42. This was then the fastest
time ever made by a four-year-old. He then retired to the stud and did
not again appear till October, 1855, when, over the Cambridge Park
Course, he beat Columbus, Sherman Black Hawk, and Stockbridge Chief for
the stallion purse in 2:34½-2:37. Three of the contestants here were sons
of Black Hawk. The next season he defeated Hiram Drew twice, to wagon,
making a record of 2:32¾. October 15, 1858, at Boston, he beat Columbus
Jr., and Hiram Drew, 2:37-2:35-2:33. The same month, on the Union Course,
he beat George M. Patchen, to wagons, distancing him the first heat in
2:28. At the Union Course, Long Island, July 12, 1860, he beat Princess,
distancing her the second heat in 2:29½-2:25½. This is his fastest
record. He was frequently beaten by George M. Patchen, Flora Temple,
etc., and it was thought by many that he could not take up the weight
and “hold the clip” for the full mile out. His most famous performance
was made in 1867, and as I had the pleasure of witnessing it, from a very
eligible position, I will here repeat the description as then made:
“On the 21st of June, 1867, on the Fashion Course, it was my good fortune
to witness the crowning event of his life. Some three weeks before, with
running mate, he had beaten Brown George and running mate, in very fast
time, scoring one heat in 2:19. This made horsemen open their eyes, and
there at once arose a difference of opinion, about the advantage to
the trotter of having a runner hitched with him, to pull the weight.
This resulted in a match for two thousand five hundred dollars to trot
Ethan Allen and running mate against Dexter, who was then considered
invincible. As the day approached the betting was about even; but the
evening before the race, word came from the course that Ethan’s running
mate had fallen lame and could not go, but they would try to get Brown
George’s running mate, then in Connecticut, to take the place of the
lame runner. As the horses were strangers to each other, it was justly
concluded that the change gave Dexter a great advantage and the betting
at once changed from even to two to one on Dexter. Long before noon the
crowd began to assemble; the sporting men everywhere were shaking rolls
of greenbacks over their heads, shouting “two to one on Dexter.” I met a
friend from Chicago, who sometimes speculated a little, and when he told
me he was betting two to one on Dexter, I took the liberty of advising
him to be cautious, for I thought the team would win the race, and that
its backers knew what they were doing. Before the hour arrived I secured
a seat on the ladies’ stand, from which every foot of the course, and
the countless multitudes of people, could be taken in at a glance. The
vehicles in numbers were simply incalculable, and the multitudes were
estimated at forty thousand people. Upon the arrival of the hour, the
judges ascended the stand and rang up the horses, when the backers of the
team came forward, explained the mishap that had befallen the runner,
that they had Brown George’s mate on the ground, but, as he and Ethan
had never been hitched together, they were unwilling to risk so large a
sum, and closed the race by paying one thousand two hundred and fifty
forfeit. When this announcement was made there was a general murmur
that spread, step by step, through all that vast multitude. The betting
fraternity were just where they started and every spectator realized a
feeling of disgust at the whole management. As soon as this had time to
exert its intended effect upon the crowd, the backers of the team came
forward again and expressed their unwillingness to have the people go
away dissatisfied, and proposed a little match of two hundred and fifty
a side, which was promptly accepted by the Dexter party; and when it was
known there would be a race after all the shout of the multitudes was
like the voice of many waters.
“This being a new race, the betting men had to commence _de novo_. The
surroundings of the pool stands were packed with an eager and excited
crowd, anxious to get on their money at two, and rather than miss, at
three to one on Dexter. The work of the auctioneers was short, sharp and
decisive, and the tickets were away up in the hundreds and oftentimes
thousands. But the pool-stands did not seem to accommodate more than a
small fraction of those anxious to invest, and in all directions in the
surging crowd, hands were in the air, filled with rolls of greenbacks,
and shouting “two to one on Dexter.” I was curious to note what became
of these noisy offers, and I soon observed that a quiet-looking man came
along, took all the party had to invest and then went quietly to another
of the shouters, and then another and so on, till I think that every one
who had money to invest, at that rate, was accommodated. The amount of
money bet was enormous, no doubt aggregating a quarter of a million, in a
few minutes.
“When the horses appeared on the track to warm up for the race, Dexter,
driven by the accomplished reinsman Budd Doble, was greeted with a shout
of applause. Soon the team appeared, and behind it sat the great master
of trotting tactics, Dan Mace. His face, which has so often been a puzzle
to thousands, had no mask over it on this occasion. It spoke only that
intense earnestness that indicates the near approach of a supreme moment.
The team was hitched to a light skeleton wagon; Ethan wore breeching, and
beside him was a great strong race horse, fit to run for a man’s life.
His traces were long enough to allow him to fully extend himself, but
they were so much shorter than Ethan’s that he had to take the weight.
Dexter drew the inside, and on the first trial they got the send off
without either one having six inches the advantage. When they got the
word, the flight of speed was absolutely terrific, so far beyond anything
I had ever witnessed in a trotting horse, that I felt the hair rising
on my head. The running horse was next to me, and notwithstanding my
elevation, Ethan was stretched out so near the ground that I could see
nothing of him but his ears. I fully believed that, for several rods at
this point, they were going at a two-minute gait.
“It was impossible that this terrible pace could be maintained long, and
just before reaching the first turn Dexter’s head began to swim and the
team passed him and took the track, reaching the first quarter-pole in
thirty-two seconds, with Dexter three or four lengths behind. The same
lightning speed was kept up through the second quarter, reaching the
half-mile pole in 1:04, with Dexter still farther in the rear. Mace then
took a pull on his team, and came home a winner by six or eight lengths,
in 2:15. When this time was put on the blackboard, the response of the
multitude was like the roar of the ocean. Although some distance away,
through the second quarter of this heat I had a fair, unobstructed side
view of the stallion and of his action, when going at the lightning rate
of 2:08 to the mile. I could not observe that he received the slightest
degree of propulsion from the running horse; and my conviction was then,
and is now, that any such propulsion would have interfered with his own
unapproachable action, and would have retarded rather than helped him.
The most noticeable feature in his style of movement was the remarkable
lowness to which he dropped his body and the straight, gliding line it
maintained at that elevation.
“The team now had the inside, and in the first attempt they were started
for the second heat, but they did not appear to me to be going so fast as
in the first heat. Before they had gone many rods Ethan lost his stride
and Dexter took the track at the very spot where he had lost it in the
first heat. The team soon got to work, and near the beginning of the
second quarter collared Dexter, but the stallion broke soon after and
fell back, not yards, nor lengths, but rods before he caught. Incredible
as it may seem, when he again got his feet, he put on such a burst of
speed as to overhaul Dexter in the third quarter, when he broke again and
Mace had to pull him nearly to a standstill before he recovered. Dexter
was now a full distance ahead and the heat appeared to be his beyond all
peradventure. I was watching the team in its troubles very closely and
my idea of the distance lost was the result of a deliberate and careful
estimate at the moment; and the query in my mind then was whether the
team could save its distance. At last the old horse struck his gait, and
it was like a dart out of a catapult, or a ball from a rifle. The team
not only saved its distance, but beat Dexter home five or six lengths in
2:16.
“In the third heat Mace had it all his own way throughout, coming home
the winner of the race in 2:19. The backers of Dexter, up to the very
last, placed great reliance on his well-known staying qualities; but
the last heat showed that the terrible struggle told upon him more
distressingly than upon the team. It is said by those who timed Dexter
privately that he trotted the three heats in 2:17, 2:18, and 2:21. As
an opinion, I will say that if ever there was an honest race trotted
this was one, but there was such an exhibition of sharp diplomacy, of
the “diamond cut diamond” order, as is seldom witnessed, even among the
sharp practices of the turf. It is not probable that Ethan’s running mate
fell amiss at all, the evening before, as represented; and if she did,
it was not possible to send to Connecticut for another horse and have
him there early in the morning as was pretended. This was a mere ruse
put out to get the advantage of the long odds. The managers of the team
knew just how the horses would work and knew they had speed enough to
beat any horse on earth. When the race was called and they came forward
and paid forfeit, it was merely to give the ‘two to one on Dexter’ money
encouragement to come out. It did come out most vociferously and was all
quietly taken. It was said John Morrissey was the manager in chief, and
that his share of the winnings amounted to about forty thousand dollars.”
I have here given my personal impressions of this race, not because the
performance was of any special value, as a test of speed, but because
the time was then phenomenal, even with this kind of hitch, and as an
illustration of what certain horses can do when relieved of all weight.
This was among the first of the contests of this kind, and although
some effort was made to introduce this plan by which a poor horse could
beat a good one, it never has received much encouragement. With all his
perfection of gait and wide popularity, extending from early life to old
age, Ethan Allen was not a success as a progenitor of speed. He placed
but six in the 2:30 list, and the best—Billy Barr—with a record of 2:23¾.
He left but one son equal to himself as a sire, and several daughters
that became the producers of single performers. He was kept several
seasons in Kansas and died there September, 1876.
DANIEL LAMBERT, 102, was a chestnut horse, foaled 1858; got by Ethan
Allen, 43; dam Fanny Cook, by Abdallah; grandam by Stockholm’s American
Star, etc. His color was a light chestnut, and his mane and tail were of
the yellow, flaxen shade. He was about fifteen hands high and long and
light in the body, with no indications of Morgan blood about him unless
it was in the kinkiness of his mane and tail. But why should he not
resemble almost anything else than the little nondescript Morgan, when he
had only one-sixteenth of his blood in his veins? He had more Messenger
than Morgan blood, and according to the rules of arithmetic it is a
misnomer to call him a Morgan. More than this, his dam was a daughter
of the great Abdallah, far and away the greatest trotting sire of his
generation. When we consider that he had four times as much of the blood
of Abdallah as he had of the original Morgan, we can see the absurdity
of sticking to the right male line after that line has been wiped out by
other lines far more potential. Lambert was bred by Mr. John Porter of
Ticonderoga, New York, and as a colt he showed great promise on the ice,
and was thought to be the fastest and best of the get of Ethan Allen. He
was known far and wide as the “Porter Colt,” and he was the popular heir
to very great expectations. To have created so much enthusiasm he must
have shown great speed for a youngster, and he is credited with a record
of 2:42 as a three-year-old. As a sire of trotters he stood very high at
one time and was even with Blue Bull in his number of representatives in
the 2:30 list, but in the end the little “plebeian” pacer outstripped him
a long way. Lambert put thirty-seven trotters into the 2:30 list, but
when we come to study this list we are not very favorably impressed, for
about one-third of the animals have but a single heat inside of the mark,
with only five or six reputable campaigners and a single one—Comee—that
ranked among the real good ones. Comee had seventy-one heats to his
credit and a record of 2:21¼. Thirty-three of Daniel Lambert’s sons
have put one hundred and thirty-six in the list, and forty-four of his
daughters have produced seventy-four performers.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE ORLOFF TROTTER, BELLFOUNDER, AND THE ENGLISH HACKNEY.
Orloffs the only foreign trotters of merit—Count Alexis
Orloff, founder of the breed—Origin of the Orloff—Count Orloff
began breeding in 1770—Smetanka, Polkan, and Polkan’s son,
Barss, really the first Orloff trotting sire—The Russian
pacers—Their great speed—Imported Bellfounder—His history
and characteristics—Got little speed—His descendants—The
English Hackney—Not a breed, but a mere type—The old Norfolk
trotters—Hackney experiments in America—Superiority of the
trotting-bred horse demonstrated in show-ring contests.
It may be a little outside of the field of our discussion to include the
Orloff Trotter, but as a few of them have been brought to this country,
and as that is the only organized and recognized _breed_ of trotters in
all the world beside our own, it seems to be necessary to give a brief
synopsis of the origin and history of that breed, so far as we may be
able. An additional and probably a more cogent reason for making this
foreign detour is the fact that there are now many American trotters on
the turf in Europe, and practically their only competitors, whether on
the turf or in the breeding studs, are the Orloffs of Russia.
“Wallace’s American Trotting Register,” the first volume of which was
issued in 1871, was an individual enterprise. Two years afterward the
director-in-chief of the Russian Imperial Studs submitted a series of
questions to different scientific gentlemen, whose studies were in
the right direction, soliciting their views, on the practicability
and advisability of establishing a governmental standard by which the
Orloff trotters should be classed and officially registered. The report
was favorable and the Russian trotting register was established under
governmental direction. This was the second movement toward establishing
a _breed_; not merely by writing a lot of names in a book, but by writing
those names on the turf of two continents. A delegation from France once
visited me to consult about establishing a Register in that country,
and to learn how to commence such an enterprise. When I asked them what
strains of blood they had that could trot, they did not seem to know of
any particular strains, or any one strain better than another, to serve
as a foundation, but they were sure they had plenty of trotters. This was
the first I ever had heard of French-bred trotters, and it was the last I
ever heard of the French trotting register.
The stalwart Alexis Orloff took a very active part in making Catherine
II. Empress of Russia—for which he was loaded with honors as well as
lucrative offices. In the war with the Turks in 1772 he was given command
of the Russian fleet, and with the assistance of the English fleet
under Admiral Elphinstone, he achieved a great victory and captured the
pasha in command of the Turkish fleet. Owing to some unusual kindness
Count Orloff was able to extend to the captured Turkish commander, or
his family, he presented the count with a pure white stallion, said
to be a Barb, which he took home with him and placed in his stud of
horses, that he had established but a short time before. Another story
is that the count bought this white horse, which he called Smetanka,
while he was in Greece and paid a large price for him. I am not able to
say which representation is the more probable, and it is not material
to our history, as there is no dispute about the identity of Smetanka
as the nominal head of the Orloff breed of horses, and neither story
gives any information about his blood. No doubt he was a Turk. Count
Alexis commenced his breeding stud in 1770, and there appears to have
been a good deal of system about it or else a large amount of very free
guessing. When first established, the horse breeders say, it consisted of
stallions and mares as follows: Arabs, 12 stallions, 10 mares; Turkish,
1 stallion, 2 mares; English, 20 stallions, 32 mares; Dutch, 1 stallion,
8 mares; Persian, 3 stallions, 2 mares; Danish, 1 stallion, 3 mares;
Mecklenburg, 1 stallion, 5 mares. From this it will be seen that he had
more English running blood than all the other varieties put together,
and yet no trotters came from that source. From this great variety of
composite material the count had free rein in his grand experiment of
producing the type of horse that best pleased his fancy. As a matter of
course the indiscriminate commingling of these different strains and
types would produce a mongrel lot, from which a few superior animals
might be selected, and doubtless were selected, for breeding purposes.
The different writers who have discussed the result of this experiment
seem to agree, substantially, that two distinct types were the
result—the galloper for the saddle and the trotter for harness—but they
assume what appears to me to be a very unreasonable conclusion that both
these types were indebted to the super-excellence of Smetanka. The count
was one of the most prominent sporting men of his day, an inveterate
horse-racer and cock-fighter, and under this kind of management it is
hardly credible that the twenty English thoroughbred stallions should
have been put aside for the little white horse of positively unknown
origin. But whatever may have been the predominating blood in the saddle
department, it is certain that the trotter is lineally descended from
Smetanka. He was bred on a Danish mare and produced Polkan (Volcan),
without anything new or striking in his characteristics. Polkan was bred
on a Dutch mare and produced Barss, and this was the first to manifest a
disposition to extend himself to his utmost at the trot and to stick to
it. Barss became a great favorite with his master; for, although stumbled
upon, he was a new creation and is the real progenitor of all the horses
that bear the name Orloff. His component elements are easily expressed.
He had twenty-five per cent. of the blood of Smetanka; twenty-five per
cent. of the blood of the Danish mare, and fifty per cent. of the blood
of the Dutch mare, it seems to be reasonable to conclude, therefore, that
the trotting instinct must be found in the unknown elements of the Dutch
mare.
Some years ago Prof. —— (the name I cannot now recall), from the Imperial
Agricultural College, near Moscow, Russia, paid me several visits for
the purpose of gathering up what information he could obtain about the
origin and history of the American Trotter. He was very intelligent and
thorough in his methods of obtaining information, and each succeeding day
he came back to me with a new series of questions hinging upon previous
interviews, and all carefully prepared. These questions were so admirably
shaped to reach the vital points of the subject that I became greatly
interested in the man. When it came my turn to ask questions, my first
one was, What was the origin and lineage of the Dutch mare that produced
Barss? He replied, “Ah, the scientific men of Russia would give a great
deal to be able to answer that question.” We both agreed, perfectly, that
the living instinct of the trotter came from that mare, but he was not
able to tell me anything of her history or habits of action. He told me
there were many pacers in Russia and that the best ones came from the
province of Viatka and from the region of the Volga River.
As the true source from which the Russian trotters have drawn their
ability to trot fast has not been developed nor determined by history, we
must consider the problem in the light of the surrounding conditions, and
possibly our American experiences may lead to its solution. In 1873 Prof.
Von Mittendorf, at the request of the director-in-chief of the imperial
stud, prepared a very able paper on the scientific questions involved
in the establishment of a Government Register for the Orloff trotters.
In this paper he discusses the pace and the trot as both original and
natural gaits and insists that there are no outward indications in form
or shape by which the animal, when at rest, can be decided to be a pacer
or a trotter. In his own words he says: