CHAPTER XIX.

MESSENGER’S SONS.

Hambletonian (Bishop’s) pedigree not beyond doubt—Cadwallader R. Colden’s review of it—Ran successfully—Taken to Granville, N. Y.—Some of his descendants—Mambrino, large and coarse in appearance—Failure as a runner—Good natural trotter—His most famous sons were Abdallah, Almack and Mambrino Paymaster—Winthrop or Maine Messenger and his pedigree and history—Engineer and the tricks of his owners—Certainly a son of Messenger—Commander—Bush Messenger, pedigree and description—Noted as the sire of coach horses and trotters—Potomac—Tippoo Saib—Sir Solomon—Ogden Messenger, dam thoroughbred—Mambrino (Grey)—Black Messenger—Whynot, Saratoga, Nestor, Delight—Mount Holly, Plato, Dover Messenger, Coriander, Fagdown, Bright Phœbus, Slasher, Shaftsbury, Hotspur, Hutchinson Messenger and Cooper’s Messenger—Abuse of the name “Messenger.”

It is not my purpose to write a history of all the descendants of Messenger, for that would fill several volumes and would be simply writing over again the trotting and pacing records of the past twenty years. I will, therefore, limit the chapters on this topic to such of his descendants as have demonstrated the value and prominence of their blood, as a factor, in the make-up of the American Trotter. Naturally, the immediate progeny of Messenger will first demand consideration, and then will follow the succeeding generations that have written their own history in the official records of trotting and pacing. Completeness of description and space occupied will be determined, chiefly, by the prominence and historic value of the animal under review. In this scope and without following any chronological order, I will try to embrace all that is known that would be of value to the student of trotting-horse history.

HAMBLETONIAN (BISHOP’S), originally called HAMILTONIAN.—This was a dark-bay horse about fifteen hands two inches high. He was bred by General Nathaniel Coles, of Dosoris, Long Island, and was foaled 1804. He was got by Messenger, his dam Pheasant (the Virginia Mare), said to be thoroughbred, by imp. Shark and grandam by imp. Medley. I first unearthed the pedigree of this “Virginia Mare” in the advertisement of Hambletonian for 1814 when he was owned by Townsend Cock and standing that year at Goshen, New York. The “Old Turfman,” Cadwallader R. Colden, was thoroughly familiar with all turf subjects in the early years of this century, and was the best turf writer of his generation. He had no patience or tolerance with frauds in pedigrees and always exposed them without mercy. He stoutly maintains that the pedigree of the “Virginia Mare” was bogus, and, to use his own language, he says:

“When Hambletonian became a public stallion, his owners were in a dilemma; a _pedigree_ was necessary, so to work they went, and, as many had done before and as many are doing now, _made one_; and in his handbills his dam was given as bred in Virginia, and got by imported Shark, with a train of maternal ancestors, with as much truth, and affording as much ability to trace it or discover the breeder of the dam, as though they had said _hi, cockalorum jig_.”

Mr. Colden goes into the pedigree of this mare and the non-racing character of her family at great length, and it cannot be denied that he has the whole argument. As a specimen of sharp and interesting turf writing of that period and from that pen, I must commend my readers to turn to this article, which will be found in _Wallace’s Monthly_, Vol. II., p. 67.

With the probabilities all against the truthfulness of the pedigree of the dam, as given, it is certainly true that he was a running horse and attained distinction in his day. I have no full list of his performances at hand, but the following may be taken as a fair summary of his principal achievements. He ran at Newmarket in the spring of 1807 (then three years old), one mile, beating General Coles’ colt Bright Phœbus, Mr. Terhune’s bay filly, and distancing two others. He also ran, two days after the above race, four heats of a mile each, beating Bright Phœbus again and distancing three others. In the fall of 1808 he ran five weeks successively, and the three last weeks he won three four-mile purses, running the distance in shorter time than it ever had been run in the State of New York. I must say here that these races were run on the then Harlem course, which was not a full mile in length.

While Hambletonian was on the turf, Tippoo Sultan, a grandson of Messenger, beat Bond’s First Consul in a famous four-mile race, and Mr. Bond determined that he would find a horse that would be able to lower Tippoo Sultan’s colors, and it was thought there was nothing in the North able to do it except Miller’s Damsel, so he made a match for four thousand dollars a side on condition that Damsel should prove not to be in foal. But the mare proving to be in foal the match was off. He then took Hambletonian into his stable and offered to match him for the same amount against Tippoo Sultan, but he went amiss and the match was off. This incident is here introduced to show that whatever his real merits, Hambletonian had some reputation as a running horse. It was said that the secret of Mr. Colden’s hostility to the “Virginia Mare” and her descendants was because those descendants were always able to beat the descendants of his fashionably bred mare Matilda. Whatever the motive in exposing a pedigree that has never been fully established, there is one particular and that the most important of all particulars, in which Mr. Colden has done justice to Hambletonian. He says: “_Hambletonian got some excellent roadsters, good trotters._”

There seems to be no description of this horse extant that is fully satisfactory. For some seasons he was in the hands of Mr. Daniel T. Cock, who in 1869 furnished me the following: “He was a dark bay, a little heavy about the head and neck, fifteen and a half hands high, and rather an upright shoulder. Back, loin and hind quarters as good as were ever put on a horse. Fore legs a little light, but hind legs strong and good—pretty straight. He was a beautiful saddle horse, notwithstanding his head and ear were a little coarse.” Other persons who had seen him have described him as “a great strong horse, with bone and substance enough to pull the plow or do any other kind of drudgery.” It has been said that he had a fine open trotting gait and that, in a cutter with old Isaac Bishop behind him, he was able to show the boys the road.

In 1807 he became the property of Townsend Cock, of Long Island, and he remained on the turf till 1810, when he was put in the stud. That and the following season he was at the stable of his owner; 1812 at Cornwall; 1813 at Fishkill; 1814 at Goshen; 1815-16 at Fishkill; 1817 at White Plains. In the winter of 1819 Mr. Cock sold him to Stephen and Smith Germond of Dutchess County, New York, and Isaac Bishop of Granville, New York. The latter was probably the real owner, and the horse then became known as “Bishop’s Hambletonian.” He made several seasons in the region of Granville and was back in Dutchess County 1823 and 1824. The next year he was at Granville—1825. He made one season, at least, at Burlington, Vermont, and some seasons or parts of seasons at Poultney, Vermont. It is said he lived till 1834.

At Wallingford, Vermont, he was bred upon the “Munson Mare,” said to be a daughter of imported Messenger, and doubtless either by him or one of his earlier sons, and the produce was Harris’ Hambletonian, also known as “The Remington Horse” and Bristol Grey, and this son became the progenitor of a great tribe of trotters, known as the “Vermont Hambletonians,” some of which were very fast pacers, among them the famous Hero, the fastest of his generation. Another son of Mr. Bishop’s horse was the Judson Hambletonian, that was the sire of the Andrus horse, that got the famous Princess, that was pitted against Flora Temple. He was also bred on his half-sister, Silvertail, by Messenger, and produced One Eye, a very fast mare, the grandam of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, and I have always thought that this combination was the very cream of the pedigree of that great horse. He was also bred on a daughter of Mr. Coffin’s son of Messenger and produced Whalebone, that was the phenomenal long-distance trotter of his generation. His son, Sir Peter, out of an unknown mare, was also a famous old-time trotter. One of his daughters was bred to Coriander, son of Messenger, and the produce was Topgallant, the fastest horse of his time. These individual enumerations might be extended indefinitely, but I have given enough to show that he was not merely a progenitor of trotting speed in remote generations, but that speed came directly from his own loins. Another most significant fact is here brought to light, namely, that when bred back upon the blood of his own sire he achieved his greatest successes.

MAMBRINO.—This great son of Messenger was a bright bay with a star and one white ankle. He was fully sixteen hands high, with great length of body and generally of coarse appearance. He was foaled 1806, and was bred by Mr. Lewis Morris, of Westchester County, New York. His dam was by imported Sour Grout, out of a mare by imported Whirligig, and she out of the famous Miss Slammerkin, that is a well-known landmark reaching beyond the Revolution. The late William T. Porter, of the _Spirit of the Times_, stoutly maintained that Mambrino was not a thoroughbred horse, and his reasons seemed to rest wholly upon his coarse and cart-horse appearance. Technically, Mr. Porter was right, but the trouble did not rest with the dam, as he seems to have supposed, for I have seen the original certificate of breeding in the handwriting of Mr. Morris, his breeder, and there is no slip on that side of the pedigree. Mr. Morris was a prominent breeder and racing man for many years and his character was without taint. The pedigree is a very long one and I would be very far from vouching for the truth of the remote extensions, but back to the mare by Cub, imported by Mr. De Lancey, who bred Miss Slammerkin, there can be no mistake.

In the spring of 1810, then four years old, he was purchased of his breeder by Major William Jones, of Queens County, Long Island, and in the autumn of that year he was trained and ran for the two-mile purse at the old Newmarket Course, Long Island, and it is said gave some evidence that he could run, but after that he was never trained nor started in a race, from which we may conclude he was not a race horse, or his owner, who bred and ran his horses, would have given him another trial.

In 1811 he was put in the stud and made the season at Huntington, Long Island, in charge of Ebenezer Gould. It is not known where he made the season of 1812, but probably in Orange or Dutchess County. The years 1813-14-15 he was in charge of my late highly esteemed and venerable correspondent, David W. Jones, on the borders of Queens and Suffolk counties, Long Island, where he covered about two hundred and fifty mares. In 1816 he was in one of the river counties, in 1817 at Fishkill, and 1818 at Townsend Cock’s, Long Island. In later years he changed hands many times, at from two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars, and there is no published trace of him till we find that he made the seasons of 1825 and 1829 at Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, and he died the property of Benjamin Germond, on the farm of Azariah Arnold in Dutchess County, about 1831.

He took his beautiful color from his dam and transmitted it with great uniformity. His general structure was after the Messenger model, especially in the large bones and joints of his limbs. His head was long and bony and his ears were large and somewhat heavy. He was too high on his legs and his general appearance was coarse, all of which he transmitted. In speaking of his offspring Mr. Jones remarks: “When young they were somewhat leggy and lathy, but spirited, stylish and slashing in action. When matured, he must indeed be fastidious who would crave another.” With regard to his gait Mr. Jones uses the following very emphatic language: “I have been the breeder of some, and the owner of many good horses, and with the best opportunities of judging, having ridden him (he was never driven) many, many miles, I say, with entire confidence, he was the best natural trotter I ever threw a leg over. His walk was free, flinging and elastic; his trot clear, square and distinct, with a beautiful roll of the knee and great reach of the hind leg.” In the absence of actual training and timing, it is hardly possible to get better evidence that Mambrino was a natural trotter that might have been developed to a considerable rate of speed. It would be interesting to know just why the horse “never was driven.” Did he show an unconquerable aversion to harness, and did Abdallah inherit this aversion? This description of Mambrino’s gait was written in 1866, and the writer had spent a long lifetime in an intimate personal knowledge of many, or indeed most, of the best early trotters that this country had produced.

The only one of his immediate progeny that attained distinction as a trotter was the famous Betsey Baker. This mare was very prominent among the best of her day, and was able, on one occasion at least, to beat the great Topgallant, and in tandem with Grey Harry when she was old she trotted in 2:41¾-2:43¾. Others of his progeny were trotters of some merit, but none of them especially distinguished on the turf. His three sons, Abdallah, Almack and Mambrino Paymaster, are the bright links in the chain extending from Messenger to the two-minute trotter that will keep his memory green as long as there is a trotting horse on the earth. Abdallah at the head of the Hambletonians, Almack at the head of the Champions, and Mambrino Paymaster at the head of the Mambrino Chiefs embrace the major portion of the great trotters of this generation.

WINTHROP, OR MAINE MESSENGER.—Perhaps no son of Messenger, not excepting Hambletonian and Mambrino, produced a more marked effect upon the stock of any part of the country than this horse did in the State of Maine. The impress he there made was not only remarkable at the time, but it is still felt and acknowledged in his descendants to this day. There have been many conflicting statements made to the public about him and his history, but I think I am now able to give, in authentic and reliable form, all that is really known of his origin and history. He was foaled about 1807 and was among the last colts by the imported horse, but unfortunately we know nothing of the blood of his dam. Mr. Alvan Hayward, for many years a citizen of Kennebec County, Maine, but more recently of York, Livingston County, New York, says his dam possessed some imported blood; but as all his records and memoranda were burned up in 1845 he is not able to give the pedigree of the mare that produced him.

Mr. Hayward bought the horse about 1817 or 1818, in the village of Paris, Oneida County, New York, of a man by the name of Rice or Wright, but did not remember which. He took him to Winthrop, Maine, where he was first known as “Messenger,” then as “Kennebec Messenger,” or “Winthrop Messenger,” and when he became old, as “Old Messenger.” The earliest contemporaneous account I have of this horse is his advertisement for the season of 1819, which I copy from the Hallowell _Gazette_ of May 12, of that year, and is as follows:

“THE VALUABLE HORSE MESSENGER.

“The subscriber hereby recommends to the public and all who feel interested to improve in the breed of good and serviceable horses, the good horse Messenger, that stock so well known and approved of on Long Island, New York, and Pennsylvania. Said horse was raised on Long Island, and owned by Mr. Rylander, a gentleman who has taken the greatest pains to import the best breed of horses that came to his knowledge. Said horse is a silver grey, well proportioned, of a large size, and a good traveler. Gentlemen who are desirous of raising good horses will do well to call and see for themselves.

“The Messenger will stand for the most part of the time in the village at Withrop Mills.

ALVAN HAYWARD.

“Winthrop, May 1st, 1819.”

From the foregoing it will be seen that the new element, brought out in the history of this horse is the statement that he was owned at one time by Mr. Rylander, of Long Island. There were two brothers of this name, and they imported a great many horses, but never before had I heard their names connected with Winthrop Messenger. This carries us back to a period in the history of the horse before he was taken to Oneida County.

Colonel Stanley, a prominent banker of Augusta, and at one time a leading horseman and stage proprietor, bought Messenger of his kinsman, Hayward, and owned him some seven years. He says the horse was brought to Maine as early as 1816, and that his Uncle Hayward had certificates that he was got by imported Messenger, out of a mare well-bred and part of imported blood.

In a communication from Mr. Sanford Howard, who had been prominently connected with the breeding interests of the country for many years, the following description is given:

“I saw him several times, first in 1828. In the latter years of his life he stood mostly at Anson, on the Kennebec River, and I think died there about 1831 [he died at Dixfield]. He appeared like an old horse when I first saw him, older, perhaps, from being much afflicted with grease, which had become chronic, and at length had almost destroyed his hoofs; so that the last time I saw him he was nearly incapable of locomotion. His feet and legs looked like those of an elephant. This trouble was transmitted to his offspring through several generations (though not invariably so), and constituted, perhaps, in connection with, in many cases, a flat foot and low heels, their greatest defect.

“Mr. Hayward states, in concluding his letter, that he has no doubt the horse he took to Maine was got by imp. Messenger. The remark is probably elicited by intimations that he might have been gotten by a son of Messenger. I presume Mr. Hayward’s belief was well founded. As imported Messenger did not die until the 28th of January, 1808, there is no discrepancy between that event and the age of Mr. H.’s horse. At the same time I must admit that Maine Messenger hardly looked like a half-blood horse. He was pretty large, rather short-legged, thick-set, with heavy mane and tail, very hairy legs, long hair on his jaws, and was heavy coated (in winter) all over his body. These characteristics were sometimes accounted for by saying he was probably out of a Dutch mare, meaning such mares as the Dutch farmers of New York kept. I never heard of any claim being set up for his speed in trotting, and I presume he was never tried at running. He was strong and plucky, and the story was told at Winthrop that on an occasion when all the stallions of the neighborhood were brought out to be shown, they were put to a trot in sleighs for half a mile or so, and Messenger was beaten. Whereupon his owner proposed that the horses should each draw a sled with six men on it up to Winthrop hill, and be timed. It was done, and Messenger beat them all. I think the first of his offspring that became noted for fast trotting was a gelding called Lion, taken to Boston by a well-known horse dealer by the name of Hodges, of Hallowell, Maine. He was sold, I think, for four hundred dollars, which made quite a sensation among the Kennebec farmers who had any stock of the same sort. I do not recollect the rate of speed this horse showed, but a mile in three minutes was then considered wonderful, and probably this was about his rate. Other horses of the stock were soon brought out as fast travelers. I remember a friend of mine showing me some young horses he was training, and I rode with him after several of them. They were _natural trotters_, and would do _nothing but trot_, even under severe applications of the whip. But I think the second generation from Mr. Hayward’s horse were generally faster trotters than the first. They were also generally handsomer horses, not so rough looking. Nearly all the horses of this stock which have acquired a reputation in Massachusetts, New York, etc., as fast trotters, had not more than a quarter of the blood of the horse that Mr. Hayward took to Maine, and consequently had not more than an eighth of the blood of imported Messenger.

“The mares that produced these horses were of no particular blood. Various stallions had been kept in that section. Morgans from New Hampshire and Vermont, with an occasional change to the French Canadians, and now and then a quarter or half bred horse from New York or New Jersey.”

This excellent communication from Mr. Howard is especially valuable, as the conclusions drawn by an accurate and competent observer from a personal acquaintance with the original horse and his progeny. There are some inferences, however, that may be drawn from Mr. Howard’s letter that would be unjust to this distinguished animal. His general coarse appearance, in connection with which Mr. H. says, “he hardly looked like a half bred horse,” was a prominent feature in the family. Mambrino, a very high-bred son of old Messenger, was very coarse, and the same remark was often made about him. The quantity and length of his coat in the winter of his old age are not conclusive against his pretensions to a large share of good and pure blood. They are the results oftentimes of neglect and ill health. It is somewhere stated that the famous Sir Archy before he died looked exceedingly shaggy, his hair being fully three inches long. Mr. Howard expresses the opinion that “the second generation from Mr. Hayward’s horse were generally faster trotters than the first.” In many instances this, no doubt, is true, for it would be altogether contrary to the uniform laws which govern these things if development and use did not strengthen and intensify the instinct to trot in successive generations. If Mr. Howard is right, and we do not doubt he is, the increased capacity did not grow out of the dilution of the blood, but out of the strengthening of the instinct by culture and use. At the time Mr. Howard made this remark he evidently did not know that the famous old-time trotters, Daniel D. Tompkins and Fanny Pullen, were both immediately from the loins of Winthrop Messenger. In their day these two were classed among the best and fastest trotters that the world had then produced. The facts that both these animals were the immediate progeny of Winthrop Messenger were never brought to light for many years, and all I will say about them now is that they do not rest on shadowy traditions or suppositions, but are fully and circumstantially established.

In a letter written by Mr. Hayward, May 12, 1852, in speaking of the useful and everyday qualities of this horse’s progeny, he used the following language:

“The stock produced by that horse I consider superior, as combining more properties useful in a horse than any other stock I have ever been acquainted with, being good for draft, for carriage, for travel, for parade, or any place where horses are required. They had great bottom and strength, and were of hardy constitution. There are some horses in this town twenty-two years old, that were by a son of Winthrop Messenger, which I brought with me when I left Maine. They have always been accustomed to draw the plow and to perform other hard labor, and yet they have the appearance of young horses, and will now do more service than many horses of seven or eight years old.”

Among the several sons of imported Messenger whose names are conspicuous as the progenitors of great tribes of the most distinguished trotters I know of no one entitled to a higher place on the roll of fame, all things considered, than this one that went to Maine, and there laid a foundation that has made the State famous throughout the length and breadth of the land for the speed and stoutness of its trotting horses.

With such noted performers from his own loins as Fanny Pullen and Daniel. D. Tompkins, and in the next generation the famous Zachary Taylor, this horse made about the best showing of all the sons of Messenger, but as his line failed to produce a Rysdyk’s Hambletonian or a Mambrino Chief, it dropped to a place somewhat removed from the front of the procession.

ENGINEER was a grey horse, about sixteen hands high and very elegant in his form, style and proportions. The earliest account we have of him is in the spring of 1816, when he was advertised in _The Long Island Star_ to stand at the stable of Daniel Seely, near Suffolk Court House, and at Jericho, in Queens County. He was in charge of Thomas Jackson, Jr., generally designated as “Long Tom.” He was then well advanced in years, but no attempt was made to give his age. Mr. Daniel T. Cock, in charge of Duroc and one or two other stallions, was then in sharp competition with Engineer, and he assures me he was a horse of large size, great share of bone and sinew, most elegant form, and a fine mover. His elegant appearance was so captivating that he was a very troublesome competitor.

The advertisement referred to contains the following very unsatisfactory paragraph relating to his pedigree, viz., “The manner he came into this country is such that I cannot give an account of his pedigree, but his courage and activity show the purity of his blood, which is much better than the empty sound of a long pedigree.” This was a most unexpected discovery, for I had always understood that Engineer was a son of Messenger and never had heard of this mystery before. It is here intimated that the horse was imported, and the story that Jackson told was that he was brought from England to Canada by a British officer, and by some surreptitious means found his way from Canada to Long Island. What appears to be the real history of the horse, and the version accepted afterward by everybody on the island, will be found in the following extract from a letter written by David W. Jones, February 28, 1870. He says:

“I can well account for Mr. Cock’s recollections of the history of the first Engineer. Thomas Jackson and George Tappan, noted owners and keepers of stallions on Long Island and in the counties of Orange and Dutchess, in the course of their peregrinations met with a person in possession of this horse, who offered him for sale. Impressed with his fine appearance and pedigree, they at once entered into negotiations for his purchase, and finally obtained him at so low a price as to cause strong suspicions that he was not honestly in his vendor’s possession. They, however, determined to take the chances, and at once brought him to Long Island, their place of residence, and determined on what they deemed a harmless representation in regard to his history; for this they had several motives. First, Messenger stallions were then very numerous on Long Island; their blood coursed in the veins of nearly every brood mare. Secondly, imported stallions were much desired, and by a little added fiction they could give him considerable _éclat_, and thirdly, in case of his having been unjustly obtained this would afford the best means of disguise. Accordingly they represented him as having been imported from England to Canada and ridden in the army by Gen. Brock, who, in an engagement with our troops, was shot and killed. The horse, escaping into our lines, was secured by our soldiers and brought to the State of New York. On these representations they claimed to have purchased him. No pedigree, as I recollect, was attempted to be given, and though many doubted the truth of this statement, there was no evidence to controvert it. For a length of time this story was adhered to; but after several years, when all fears of difficulty had subsided, they acknowledged the deception. Mr. Tappan, who resided but a few miles from me, was a man of more than ordinary candor and fairness, for one of his position and employment. I knew him well, and occasionally rendered him a favor by preparing his horse bills. On one of these occasions, at my house, he gave a full and particular statement of the whole affair. Some of the details have escaped me, but the essential facts are distinctly recollected. The owner, with Engineer in possession, was met at some public place and the purchase completed, and this statement then made, ‘that he had become involved in debt, and that his creditor had begun a prosecution, with a view to levy on the horse, the only property he possessed, and he was determined not to lose all.’ This was certainly enough to arouse their suspicions with regard to his history. He declared the horse was bred and raised in Pennsylvania and that he was got by imported Messenger. Whether any further pedigree was given is not recollected. He was at this time (1814) a horse considerably advanced in years and perfectly white. Mr. Tappan also told me that he had afterward traced the horse, and was entirely satisfied of the former owner’s veracity. I will not apologize for the length of this statement, being desirous of giving you all the information here possessed and probably all that can now be obtained.”

I am not aware that in the past sixty years any question has ever been raised as to the truth of the universally accepted statement that Engineer was a true son of Messenger, and I would not have disturbed it now, nor thought of doing so, had it not been for that remarkable advertisement discovered in the obscure Long Island paper. That was contemporaneous history, however, and it must either be explained or accepted. The question has been examined down to the bottom by one of the most conscientious and capable men of his generation, in this department of knowledge. His verdict has been accepted as the truth by all parties of that day, and I cannot reject it.

It is not known that any of his immediate progeny attained distinction on the trotting turf. Several of his sons bore his name in the stud and while their blood seemed to be helpful in the right direction, only one of them made any mark as a sire of speed, and that was the horse known as Lewis’ Engineer, the sire of the world beater, Lady Suffolk. Burdick’s Engineer, another son, was taken to Washington County, New York, and got the dam of the famous Princess, which produced the great Happy Medium. In all these instances there was commingling with other strains from Messenger.

COMMANDER.—This was a grey horse, fully sixteen hands high and of massive proportions. He was a son of imported Messenger and out of a mare by imported Rockingham. This Rockingham was not a thoroughbred horse. Commander was bred in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and found his way to Long Island about 1812, where he was liberally patronized. His name frequently occurs among the remote crosses of good pedigrees, but his fame rests wholly on the progeny of his son, Young Commander, who was the sire of Screwdriver, Screws, Bull Calf and other good ones. This horse Young Commander was sometimes called “Bull” and sometimes “American Commander.”

MESSENGER, (BUSH’S), generally known as BUSH MESSENGER. This son of Messenger was bred by James Dearin, of Dutchess County, New York, and was foaled 1807. His dam was a Virginia mare, named Queen Ann, by Celer, son of imported Janus, and out of a mare by Skipwith’s Figure, son of imported Figure, and she out of a mare imported by Colonel Miland, of Virginia. This pedigree was not accepted without some misgivings, but as it was possible and as it had been indorsed sixty years ago by Cadwallader R. Colden and published before that by Mr. Dearin, I am disposed to accept it as reliable.

He was sixteen hands high, a light grey, becoming white with age. He was excellent in form and probably the most handsome and attractive of all the sons of Messenger. The first public notice we have of him, he was advertised at the stable of his breeder, six miles south of Poughkeepsie, in 1813. Soon after this he became the property of Philo C. Bush, and this was the first horse, he says, that he ever owned. This Mr. Bush was a noted “character” in his day. From early manhood, through good and evil report, and until he died a very old man in poverty and want, he was a habitue of the race track. He knew all about race horses and their breeding, and he could prattle pedigrees from morning till night. Added to this knowledge which his life pursuits had placed in his possession, he was endowed with a most vivid imagination which was brought into the most active play whenever he found it necessary. To maintain his “reputation” it seemed to be a necessity that he should be able to extend all pedigrees laid before him and give the remote crosses, whether he knew anything about them or not. He was the author of the running pedigree given to the dam of Major Winfield—Edward Everett, son of Hambletonian—and on it money was won in a bet. An investigation of just two minutes disclosed the facts that by established and known dates the whole thing was utterly impossible. He was literally a very “racy” _raconteur_, but his reminiscences soon became tedious, notwithstanding their brilliancy, and it was always important to have a call to some business that cut off further entertainment from his _répertoire_.

Mr. Bush says he paid one thousand seven hundred and forty dollars and a silver watch for this horse, and with him he got an elegant suit of clothing that had belonged to imported Express. It is said that he never ran but one race and that was at Pine Plains, in which he distanced all his competitors in the first heat. In 1816 Mr. Bush kept him at Kinderhook; 1817 at Kinderhook and Schodack; 1818 at Kinderhook and Albany; 1819-20 at Utica. In the autumn of 1820 he was sold to Dr. Millington, of Crooked Lake, Herkimer County, and he was kept there 1821-22. He was then sold to Edward Reynolds, of East Bloomfield, where he was kept three or four years, after which he made one or more seasons at Le Roy, and he died at East Bloomfield in July, 1829. This horse had probably more trotting speed than any of the other sons of Messenger. Mr. Bush assured me that he could trot very fast for a horse of that day, and when led by the side of another horse he could beat three minutes very easily, but as we have to take Mr. Bush’s assertions _cum grano salis_, we fortunately have very reliable testimony of contemporaneous date and from a source wholly disinterested. I have before me a letter written by Judge J. Porter, of East Bloomfield, dated June 4, 1828, in reply to inquiries from some correspondent about the horse, his terms, etc. He writes as follows:

“I should think he was a very swift _trotter from what I have seen_, and very sprightly and nearly white. He has got a great number of fine colts in this town which are three years old; and the probability of their drawing on the old horse’s business is the reason of his being removed to Le Roy and Batavia.”

Whether Judge Porter was a horseman or not he certainly reflected, in this remark which I have emphasized, the leading quality for which Bush Messenger was distinguished in that region _and in that day_.

Although he was certainly a very fast natural trotter, it is not known that he was ever trained an hour in his life, neither is it known that any fast or trained trotters ever came from his loins. This was the period of fast mail coaches running from Albany to Buffalo, and as the old proprietors of those great lines were pushed westward from State to State until they finally were driven across the Mississippi, I have many times heard them talk of the great slashing grey Messenger teams that would carry their coaches along at ten miles an hour, and lament that there were no such horses nowadays. There were other sons of Messenger and many grandsons, all known as “Messengers,” but as a progenitor of horses suited to the stage coach this particular one that broke his neck in trying to get out of his inclosure was the premier. He probably came nearer filling the place in this country that his grandsire filled in England—English Mambrino—than any other one of the tribe, for we can truly say of him, as Pick said of his grandsire, “from his blood the breed of horses for the coach was brought nearly to perfection.”

POTOMAC was a bright bay, fifteen and a half hands high, and was bred by Daniel Youngs, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. He was foaled 1796 and got by imported Messenger; dam by imported Figure; grandam by Bashaw. He was put on the turf in the spring of 1799 and was a respectable race horse at short distances. He ran against and beat some of the best of his day. He was on the turf about three years. In the midst of his racing career he was purchased by Mr. Van Ranst for five hundred pounds. In 1802 he was owned by Major William Jones, of Cold Spring Harbor, and made some seasons there. In 1806 he was at New Windsor, Orange County, New York. In 1808 he was in charge of Thomas Jackson, at Rahway, New Jersey, and 1811 at Crosswicks, near Trenton, New Jersey. It is probable he died about this time, as we find no further trace of him. Most of his stock were bays, of good size, and very salable animals. Nothing can now be recalled that connects him with any of the trotting strains coming from his sire. He was not strictly running-bred on the side of his dam.

TIPPOO SAIB was a bay horse with one white foot and was fully sixteen hands high, with plenty of bone. He was foaled 1795, got by imported Messenger; dam Mr. Thompson’s imported mare by Northumberland; grandam by Snap, etc. His fine size and elegant pedigree made Tippoo Saib a very desirable horse to breed to, but for some cause he did not appear much on the turf. He ran a few races and went into the stud early, in the neighborhood of Trenton, New Jersey, and in the following year was at Goshen, Fishkill, and Pine Plains, New York. My impression is he was then returned to West Jersey and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he was probably owned in his latter days. His sons Tippoo Sultan, Financier and others, acquired great fame on the turf. His connection with the trotting lines of descent is very distinct, but not very prominent.

SIR SOLOMON was got by imported Messenger; dam Camilla by Cephalus; grandam Camilla by imported Fearnought and out of imported Calista, etc. He was foaled about 1800, bred by General Gunn, of Georgia, who seems to have kept Camilla and perhaps others in the North for the purpose of breeding. The pedigree on the side of this dam is an excellent one and would seem to justify the owner in seeking to get the best crosses possible into his stud. When five years old he was sold to Mr. Bond, of Philadelphia, for two thousand dollars. His races were numerous and often successful, beating some of the best horses of his day, and among them the famous Miller’s Damsel, also by Messenger, over the Harlem Course in heats of four miles. Not much is known of his stud services, and he seems to have been kept several years in Union County, New Jersey. He seems to have labored under the disadvantage of having a greater horse of the same name—Badger’s Sir Solomon by Tickle Toby—in competition with him, and thus the son of Tickle Toby would steal many a chaplet from the brow of his namesake, the son of Messenger.

OGDEN MESSENGER was a grey horse, foaled 1806, got by imported Messenger; dam Katy Fisher, by imported Highflyer; grandam a mare imported by H. N. Cruger in 1786, by Cottager; great-grandam by Trentham; great-great-grandam by Henricus; great-great-great-grandam by Regulus. The pedigree of this dam is correct, and she was doubtless entitled to rank as thoroughbred. This horse was bred by Mr. Cruger, and at three years old was sold to David Ogden, and that summer he was pastured on the farm of Major William Jones, of Long Island, from whose books we have the foregoing facts. Mr. David W. Jones remarks: “I retain a perfect recollection of him. He was at that time a large overgrown colt, not particularly ugly nor exceedingly coarse, but having no special beauty nor finish. I cannot better describe him than to say he was a coarse pattern of a fine horse, with marked traits of his lineage.” Mr. Jones evidently saw him at his worst age and before he fully reached his maturity.

Judge Odgen, his owner, was a large landholder in St. Lawrence County, New York, and in the spring of 1810 he removed from New Jersey to an island of eight hundred acres in the St. Lawrence river, opposite the village of Haddington, and took the horse, then four years old, with him. It is not known that he ever ran a race for money, and it is not probable he ever did, for it was his owner’s aim and object to improve the stock of the country as well as his own, in which he was successful. After five or six years he was taken to Lowville in Lewis County, and made several seasons there in charge of Charles Bush, and from this fact he came to be known there, locally, as Bush Messenger. Thus it happened that there were two sons of imported Messenger in the State of New York at the same time, and both known as Bush Messenger, and to these we might add a grandson and a great-grandson in the State of Maine, and at later date both named “Bush Messenger.” It was at one time supposed that Mr. Ogden’s horse while at Lowville became the sire of the famous Tippoo of Canada that became the head of a very valuable tribe of trotters and pacers, but later developments showed that this was a mistake. (He appears to have alternated in his services between Lewis and Jefferson counties, but whether weekly or yearly I cannot state. He was taken to Lowville as early as 1815 and was there five or six years.)

The facts about this horse have been developed from much correspondence with different parties, but more especially from Mr. V. Sheldon, of Canton, New York, and from Mr. P. F. Daniels, of Prescott, Ontario. Both men knew the horse personally, and Mr. Daniels was seventy-five years old when he wrote. He still had a very clear recollection of the horse in his appearance and style of action. In describing him he says: “He was peculiarly marked about his hocks and knees, having a series of dark rings about his limbs, continuing at intervals down to his hoofs, and many of his sons and daughters were marked the same way.” Having ridden him many times he says: “He; had a long flinging step and was a fast trotter. His action was high and not easy to the rider, and he could not widen behind as some of our modern trotters.”

When Mr. Daniels was a young man he was engaged in carrying the mail, and in March, 1821, he believes it was, Judge Ogden gave him an order to bring the horse home from Lewis County. He led him all the way behind his mail conveyance and delivered him safely to young Mr. Ogden, who gave him to an Irish groom named Daley, and Daley remarked he would soon make him look like another horse. That night he gave him an overfeed of corn and he died of colic. He was never advertised while at home and he was not very liberally patronized. The Freemans and the Archibalds, however, Mr. Daniels says, bred to him largely. His stock were good and many of them excellent, especially those descended through his sons Blossom and Freeman’s Messenger.

MAMBRINO (GREY).—This son of Messenger was foaled about 1800, his dam was by Pulaski, grandam by Wilkes; great-grandam by True Briton. He was bred by Benjamin C. Ridgeway, near Mount Holly, New Jersey. In 1807 he stood at Flemington under the name of Fox Hunter. He was purchased by Richard Isaac Cooper, who resold him to William Atkinson for about one thousand two hundred dollars. He was a flea-bitten grey, mane and tail white, handsome and stylish, about sixteen hands high, head medium size, and a good, well-formed horse at every point, except his feet, which were big and flat. He was probably never harnessed and was a very popular stallion in Salem and adjoining counties for many years. Mr. Atkinson was a very prominent and influential member of the Society of Friends, and “Billy” Atkinson was always a welcome guest as he traveled through Salem, Gloucester, and Burlington counties with his horse, and his genial good humor made him as popular as his horse. He always claimed great speed for his horse; but owing to his position in the society he never could gratify his friends by showing it. When his offspring came into service they were not only performers of great merit on the road and the course, but they had bone and substance that fitted them for every kind of labor required of them. All the Quakers had Mambrinos and nothing else, after “Billy” Atkinson and his horse had been among them a few years. Some of his descendants attained to great local fame as trotters and some did well as runners. He was a very valuable horse and left a wonderfully numerous and valuable offspring.

BLACK MESSENGER.—Among all the progeny of Messenger, this is the only one that I can now recall that was black. He was bred by William Haselton, of Burlington County, New Jersey, and out of a mare highly prized in the Haselton family, but her blood cannot now be traced. He was foaled in 1801 and on the death of Mr. Haselton in 1804 he was sold to Charles or Richard Wilkins of Evesham, ten miles from Camden, New Jersey, who owned him till he died at an advanced age. As the birth of this horse is fixed by documentary evidence at 1801 it suggests that Messenger was kept in Burlington County, New Jersey, the unplaced season of 1800. Still as he was at Lawrenceville in the fall season of 1800 it is possible the mare was sent to him there. He was full sixteen hands high and possessed great muscular development and strength of bone. He was not handsome, but his figure and style were very commanding. In his day he was regarded as one of the best natural trotters ever in Burlington or Gloucester counties. This was not the claim of his owner merely, but the unprejudiced opinion of all the horsemen who knew him. His stock were very highly prized as horses suited to all purposes and especially for fast road work. Some of them were greatly distinguished locally as fast trotters, and among them was Nettle, the dam of the famous Dutchman, that was the greatest trotter of his day.

WHYNOT MESSENGER, Pizzant’s Messenger, Austin’s Messenger, and Cousin’s Messenger were all sons of Messenger and got by him while he was in West Jersey, but as nothing has been developed concerning their maternal breeding nor the character of their progeny, I will pass them over with this bare record that such horses existed.

SARATOGA.—This son of Messenger was a flea-bitten grey and was foaled about 1805. It is believed he was bred on Long Island, but nothing is known of the blood of his dam. He was driven in harness and did service in several counties in Pennsylvania, and was sold at auction in Philadelphia to James Dubois of Salem, New Jersey. He was a great, strong horse, and was kept at work on the farm of his owner, covering mares only as opportunity offered. He was a slashing trotter, but it was only when his owner was away from home and got an extra drink or two that anybody ever had an opportunity to see how fast he could go. A number of his progeny were fast trotters; among them a mare called Charlotte Gray that was the fastest of her day in all that region. Among his sons, one called Dove was greatly distinguished in the stud.

NESTOR AND DELIGHT.—These were sons of Messenger, the former bred in Orange County, New York, in 1802, and was at Warwick in that county, 1807 in charge of Nehemiah Finn. The latter was bred in Westchester County in 1806, and made the season of 1827 at Warwick, New York, in charge of John G. Blauvelt, and is probably the horse that was more widely known as Blauvelt’s Messenger. The breeding of the dams of both these horses is very uncertain.

MOUNT HOLLY was a grey horse, fifteen and a half hands high. He was foaled about 1807 and was bred by Colonel Udell, of Long Island. His dam was by Bajazet, and his grandam was by Bashaw. Not much is known of him till he was well advanced in years and was taken to Dutchess County. Daniel T. Cock knew him well on the island, and he assured me he was a trotter in the true sense of the word. The late Mr. Daniel B. Haight, a horseman of excellent judgment and knowledge, knew him very well, and he describes him as of the true Messenger grey, and a smooth, well-finished horse all over. His offspring were smooth, handsome, and remarkably tough, and from their kindly tempers they were easily managed and made horses fit for any service. The most noted of his get were the famous trotters Paul Pry and Mr. Tredwell’s grey mare that went to England. His cross appears in the pedigrees of many trotters and is very highly prized to this day. In the latter part of his life he was owned by Jacob Husted, of Washington Hollow, New York, and made several seasons there. His sight failed entirely as he grew old, and he died about 1835. With two such performers from his own loins as Paul Pry and the Tredwell mare, it cannot be doubted that he inherited and transmitted the true Messenger “trotting instinct,” and that without any assistance from the blood of his dam.

PLATO was a large brown horse, fully sixteen hands high, and was a full brother to Bishop’s Hambletonian, being by Messenger, out of Pheasant. He was bred by General Coles, of Long Island, and was foaled 1802. As he matured the general judgment was that his limbs were too light for his body, and this is the only instance that I can recall where the get of Messenger failed at this vital point. He was trained and ran a few races, and from a trial with Miller’s Damsel General Coles said he was the best horse that ever ran against that famous mare. In a race against his half-brother, Sir Solomon, he won the first heat of four miles and broke down in the second, which finished him as a race horse. He was a larger and a handsomer horse than his full brother Hambletonian, but at no other point was he so good. When they stood in the same stable he was advertised at a lower price. He was a number of years in the stud on Long Island, New Jersey, and the river counties of New York, and after 1816 at Pine Plains there is no further trace of him. In his physical structure and doubtless, in his mental structure also, he took after his dam, and the only link now recalled coupling him with the trotter is the fact that he was the sire of the dam of Lewis’ Engineer, that was the sire of the great Lady Suffolk.

DOVER MESSENGER was a grey horse, and was got by imported Messenger, but the blood of his dam and the year he was foaled are unknown. He was kept several seasons at South Dover, Dutchess County, New York, and left a very valuable progeny strongly endowed with the instinct to trot. He was taken to the town of Russia, in Herkimer County, where he died. There was a younger horse bearing practically the same name, a son of Mambrino Paymaster, with which this horse has often been confounded.

CORIANDER.—This son of Messenger was a bay horse, about fifteen and a half hands high; was foaled in Queens County, New York, about 1796, and his dam was by Allen’s Brown Figure; grandam by Rainbow; great-grandam by Dauphin. He seems to have been kept on Long Island as long as he lived. His progeny was much like their sire, and Mr. D. W. Jones describes them as “clean, wiry, and brilliant. In their make-up there seemed nothing wasted and nothing wanted.” He ran some races, as did many of his get. He was bred upon one of the early daughters of Hambletonian, and she produced the great trotter “Old Topgallant,” the sensation of his period and one of the most famous of the very early trotters. One of the most remarkable facts in the history of this remarkable old gelding is that he ran some races before he was trained to trot.

FAGDOWN.—This son of Messenger was bred on the Jersey side of the Delaware, not far from Philadelphia, and was foaled, I think, in 1803. His dam was represented to be by Diomed, and if this be correct it must have been Tate’s imported Diomed that was imported into New Jersey and kept there a number of years. This was a bay horse and must not be confounded with the chestnut horse of the same name imported into Virginia. Fagdown became vicious and dangerous, and from this trait in his character he was generally called the “Man Eater.” He was kept in the region of Philadelphia and south of there for many years, and left a very numerous and very valuable progeny. They were noted for their superior qualities as road horses, and some of them were very fast, for their day. For a number of years no family of horses were so popular about Philadelphia as the Fagdowns. He had a son called Cropped Fagdown that was fast, and another son called Jersey Fagdown that trotted some races against the great Andrew Jackson. Another son, named after his sire, was bred in Northeastern Maryland, and was taken to Eastern Ohio in 1829, and he was kept in Columbiana, Mahoning, and Jefferson counties for at least ten years. He was never in a race nor never trained, but his Quaker patrons all insisted that when led by the side of another horse he could trot as fast as a pretty good horse could run. This grandson of Messenger was the sire of the grandam of Wapsie, the well-known trotter and sire of Iowa.

BRIGHT PHŒBUS was foaled 1804, the same year as Hambletonian. He was out of the imported Pot-8-os mare, and his breeder, General Coles, of Long Island, sold him to Bond and Hughes, of Philadelphia. His most noted achievement was at Washington, D. C., in 1808, when in a sweepstakes he more than distanced the great Sir Archy, by catching him when he had the distemper. His racing career was respectable, but not brilliant, and when that ended it is not known what became of him.

SLASHER, SHAFTSBURY, HOTSPUR.—There was quite a famous brood mare owned somewhere in Jersey called Jenny Duter, or Jenny Oiter, as some authorities have it. She was got by True Briton; dam Quaker Lass by imported Juniper; grandam Molly Pacolet, by imported Pacolet, etc., tracing on six or eight more crosses that are all fudge. This mare was bred to Messenger about 1801, and produced Shaftsbury; her daughter by Liberty was bred to him about the same time and produced Slasher, and about the same time her granddaughter by Slender was also bred to him and produced Hotspur. These three sons of Messenger do not seem to have ever been trained, and very little of their history can be traced, except that they were kept as stallions in different parts of New Jersey. It is not known that their blood has had any influence upon the American trotting horse.

MESSENGER (HUTCHINSON’S).—This was a large grey horse, foaled in 1792, and bred by Mathias Hutchinson, of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. His dam was by Hunt’s Grey Figure, son of imported Figure. He was kept in Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1797, and it is probable that he was often represented as imported Messenger himself. I have no knowledge of this horse or his progeny beyond the mere facts here given.

MESSENGER (COOPER’S).—This son of imported Messenger was generally known as “Cooper’s Grey” and sometimes as Ringgold. He was sixteen hands high and was foaled about 1803. He was bred in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and was kept about Philadelphia, on both sides of the Delaware, till 1821, when he was sold by the administrators of Jacob Kirk, and it has been said he was taken to the Wabash by Amos Cooper. He ran some races when he was young, and was a horse of a good deal of local fame. He was liberally patronized in the stud and left valuable progeny. It has been suggested that probably he was the sire of Amazonia, the dam of Abdallah; but as there is nothing to support this suggestion except the mere matter of location, and as all that has ever been claimed for her paternity is that she was by “a son of Messenger,” we must not forget that there were plenty of other sons of Messenger in the same locality that might have been her sire.

The name “Messenger” was more sadly abused in its duplication in the closing of the last and the early decades of the present century than that of any other horse, or perhaps of all other horses of that period put together. Multitudes of his sons were called “Messenger,” and, in the next generation, multitudes of his grandsons gloried in the same cognomen, and thus generation after generation perpetuated it, in widening circles, till “confusion became worse confounded,” leaving the historian in helpless and hopeless ignorance as to what was true and what was false. When grey horses in the second, third, or fourth remove from the imported horse became old, it required but little “diplomacy” to satisfy the public that they were true sons of the original, and this became the custom.