CHAPTER XXIV.

THE CLAYS AND BASHAWS.

The imported Barb, Grand Bashaw—Young Bashaw, an inferior individual—His greatest son, Andrew Jackson—His dam a trotter and pacer—His history—His noted son, Kemble Jackson—Long Island Black Hawk—Henry Clay, founder of the Clay family—Cassius M. Clay—The various horses named Cassius M. Clay—George M. Patchen—His great turf career—George M. Patchen Jr.—Harry Clay—The Moor, and his son Sultan’s family.

This family is no longer prominent in trotting annals and its blood has been practically absorbed by other strains that have proved themselves more potent in transmitting and more uniform and more speedy in performing. The name “Bashaw Family” is a misnomer and it should never have been used, but as it has represented, for many years, the oldest line of developed speed, it seems a necessity to recognize it here. A branch of this family, designated as “The Clay Family” has perpetuated itself in some strength and will be considered in this chapter.

GRAND BASHAW, the horse that gave this family its name, was imported from Tripoli by Richard B. Jones, who was the American consul at that port. Mr. Morgan was associated with him, and they imported at the same time two other Barbs, Grand Sultan and Saladin. Grand Bashaw was kept in Lower Merion, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, several years; Grand Sultan was kept in New Salem, New Jersey, for a time, and Saladin was taken to North Carolina and afterward died in Georgia. From these three horses nothing has been left to the horse history of the country but one single attenuated line. Grand Bashaw was a black horse, fourteen hands and an inch high, with a star and a snip on his nose. He was kept all his life in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and died at Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1845.

YOUNG BASHAW was a grey horse, about fifteen and one-quarter hands high, and is the only descendant of Grand Bashaw through which we can trace to that horse. He was foaled 1822 and was bred by Thomas Logan, of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. His dam was Pearl, by Bond’s First Consul, a famous running horse, his grandam Fancy, by imported Messenger, and his great-grandam by imported Rockingham. This is the pedigree under which he was advertised, but it has never been authenticated in any of its crosses. Judging by the horse himself and his progeny there can hardly be a doubt that there was a Messenger cross in it, but just where cannot be determined.

He made his first season in Salem, New Jersey, 1826. He was then four years old and by no means handsome or attractive in his form. His head, ear and neck were his worst features; but in addition to these defects he was flat on the ribs and habitually carried his tail to one side. His limbs and feet were as good as ever were made, but his great redeeming quality was his trotting gait. When in Salem he was only a rough, partly developed, four-year-old colt, but he showed then a step and a rate of speed so remarkable as to induce a few to breed to him, notwithstanding his ungainly appearance. He did not cover more than a dozen mares that season, and all-told he got eight foals. Out of these eight, seven proved to be superior trotters for that day. Andrew Jackson was the best, but there was another that could go below 2:40. The common remark was, wherever he touched a mare of Messenger blood, there was sure to come a trotter. This was the general rule, but the best hit he ever made, probably, was when he covered Joseph Hancock’s black pacing mare and got Andrew Jackson.

In looking over his blood elements we can see nothing in his pedigree to justify these trotting qualities except the grandam, Fancy, by Messenger. First Consul was a great race horse, but neither he nor his descendants ever evinced a disposition to trot. The horse Rockingham was contemporaneous with Messenger and a constant rival while Messenger was about Philadelphia. He was not wholly running-bred, as he was by Towser, afterward called Counsellor, and out of a hunting mare. As a stock horse he was esteemed as only second to Messenger on the Delaware, where he stood many years.

The fame of Young Bashaw did not cease nor die out after the exploits of Andrew Jackson, Black Bashaw, Charlotte Temple, Washington and others from his own loins. The Clays, the Long Island Black Hawks and the Patchens have kept spreading it wider and wider until of late years we find that only the one great Hambletonian family has overshadowed them all. Young Bashaw, after eleven years in the stud along the Delaware River, above and below Philadelphia, died at Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, June, 1837.

ANDREW JACKSON was the most noted son of Young Bashaw. He was a black horse, fifteen and a half hands high, with three white feet and a strip of white in his face. He was very well formed in every point and was strong, compact, short-legged and handsome. He was foaled 1827, and was bred by Joseph Hancock, of Salem, New Jersey. His dam was a strong, compact black mare that both trotted and paced, and was noted for her speed at the latter gait. This mare was brought in a drove from Ohio, in the spring of 1820 and on the twenty-first of June of that year she was sold to Mr. Hancock, of Salem, New Jersey, for one hundred dollars. He kept her a little over six years, and in the spring of 1826 bred her to Young Bashaw, and in the fall of that year sold her to Powell Carpenter; and soon after he sold her to Daniel Jeffreys, a brickmaker on the Germantown road, near Philadelphia. She was then in foal by Young Bashaw, and the next spring she dropped the colt that became famous as Andrew Jackson.

The incidents connected with the history of this mare are here given, perhaps in unnecessary detail, but as Andrew Jackson was very extensively advertised under a fraudulent pedigree from about 1834 till the time of his death, and as I had at one time accepted it as true, it is better that it should be made very plain, especially as I had been severely criticised for changing it. The correction made, as above, was founded on information received from two separate and distinct sources and both thoroughly reliable. The fraudulent pedigree of this mare represented her as “by Whynot, son of imported Messenger, and her dam by Messenger” himself. This was just such a pedigree as so great a horse should have had, but there was no truth in it. The attack was led by quite a large breeder in one of the prairie States, who had a number of animals remotely descended from Andrew Jackson. He did not even pretend to know anything at all about the truth of the matter, but simply urged most vehemently that the pedigree should be restored because it was old. The fact of the matter was the man wanted the old lie instead of the new truth maintained because it would help to sell his stock, which was the very object for which the lie was originally invented.

Daniel Jeffreys was very much addicted to trotting horses, and when he bought the black mare that was then carrying Andrew Jackson he kept her for his own driving and named her “Charcoal Sal.” She was no doubt among the fastest of the road horses, but there is no record of her ever being in a race. How much Jeffreys drove Charcoal Sal that autumn cannot now be determined; probably too much for the physical, but not too much, for the mental, organization of the foal she was carrying.

About the break of day, one morning in the following April, somebody was passing Jeffreys’ brickyard (my recollection is, it was George Woodruff himself), and he heard a splashing in the water accumulated in one of the clay pits, and Charcoal Sal circling round in great distress. She had dropped her foal, and in its weak efforts to get on its feet, it had rolled into the pit. It was at once pulled out and the family aroused, and no time was lost in rubbing it dry and wrapping it in warm blankets. Some of the mare’s milk was poured into it from time to time, and toward noon it was so much revived and strengthened as to manifest a disposition to get on its feet. This was due, principally, to the womanly care and good nursing of Mrs. Jeffreys. But, when helped up, he appeared to have strength enough everywhere but in his pastern joints, and there he had no strength at all. In this condition the colt remained a day or two, a most pitiable and most helpless object, standing on its pasterns instead of its feet. One morning at the breakfast-table Mr. Jeffreys said he would give any of the boys a dollar if he would put that colt out of misery and bury it out of his sight. Mrs. Jeffreys, whose womanly feelings and sympathies were all enlisted, replied to her husband’s remark that “the boy who would kill that colt never could eat another mouthful at that table.” What a grand exhibition of true womanly instincts! Day by day her unremitting care was rewarded by seeing a little more strength gathering in the weak places, and at last her kind, motherly heart was gladdened by seeing him skip and play, a strong beautiful colt.

Mr. Jeffreys kept the colt till he was some five or six years old! and then sold him to John Weaver, whose residence was about half a mile from the old Hunting Park Course. He remained the property of Mr. Weaver till he died, September 19, 1843. In his stud services he was kept on both sides of the Delaware, in the region of Philadelphia, and made one season, perhaps two, on Long Island. As a trotter he stood as the first of all stallions of his day.

His first race took place October 19, 1832, over the Hunting Park Course for a purse of two hundred dollars for green horses, to saddle. He was entered under the name of “Brickmaker,” was ridden by George Woodruff (“Uncle George”), and beat Jersey Fagdown, son of Fagdown, by Messenger. Time 6:30, 6:23.

The next year he beat Jersey Fagdown again for the same purse and over the same course.

October, 1834, he again won the same purse, over the same course, at two miles to saddle, beating Sally Miller. Time 5:26, 5:25.

The next October, 1835, over the same course, the same conditions, he beat Lady Warrenton, by Abdallah, and Daniel D. Tompkins, by a son of Winthrop Messenger. Time 5:20, 5:19.

These performances have been extended far enough to give a just conception of his speed and his staying qualities. His races seem to have been pretty much all to saddle and two-mile heats. In that day most races were to saddle. George Woodruff told me he was on his back when he made Edwin Forrest trot in 2:31¼ to win, but whether it was in a race or a trial I cannot now recall. Mr. George Woodruff was an uncle of Hiram Woodruff and a very worthy man. To him I am indebted for all the details of the early life of Andrew Jackson, and they were of his own personal knowledge.

KEMBLE JACKSON.—About the year 1853, of all the idols of the trotting-horse world, perhaps no one had so many worshipers as Kemble Jackson. In 1852 he was beaten by O’Blennis, three-mile heats in harness, and in April, 1853, he was beaten by both Green Mountain Maid and Lady Vernon, mile heats in harness, but in June following he achieved a great triumph. The race was on the Union Course and there was a vast concourse of people there to see it. The purse and stake was for four thousand dollars, three-mile heats to two hundred and fifty-pound wagons. The interest was very intense, as O’Blennis, Boston Girl, Pet, Iola and Honest John were in it. Each horse in the race made better time than he ever made before, and yet Kemble Jackson took the lead and maintained it from end to end, without a skip or a break. After the first heat even, the friends of O’Blennis would not hedge their money, for they had faith that the gallant son of Abdallah would win. The finish of the second heat was in the order above given. The time was 8:03, 8:04¾. Faster time has since been made to wagon, but probably not with this weight and at this distance. As a weight-puller for three miles I believe he still remains the champion. He was a very strongly built chestnut horse, and was got by Andrew Jackson the last year of his life.

The pedigree of his dam was in confusion for a long time. Her name was Fanny Kemble. There were a number of running-bred mares named after that very popular actress, and everybody who had anything tracing to “Fanny Kemble” was sure that that particular mare was the dam of Kemble Jackson. In the first volume of the “Register” he is given as out of Fanny Kemble by Sir Archy, and in the second volume there was some fairly good evidence that he was out of Fanny Kemble by Hunt’s Eagle, tracing on through running lines. It is true he was out of a mare called Fanny Kemble, but neither of the two foregoing. Her blood was wholly unknown. The Hon. Ely Moore was a member of Congress, and when on his way to Washington in 1839 he saw a very fine, stout-looking mare hitched to a gig in the city of Baltimore. She was a chestnut and showed such ability to handle a great heavy gig with ease and rapidity that he bought her. He bought her for what she was herself and not for what her blood was. There was no evidence asked or given as to how she was bred. This mare produced several foals to Andrew Jackson, the youngest of which was Kemble Jackson. While he was still a colt, Mr. Moore presented him to his son-in-law, G. U. Reynolds, who still owned him when he died. Mr. Reynolds is an intelligent and very reputable man, and this is the history of the origin of Kemble Jackson as given to me in person by him. Mr. Moore paid two hundred and fifty dollars for this mare Fanny Kemble, and she was so handsome and so fast on the road that he considered her a very cheap mare. The company never was too hot nor the road too long for her.

Everybody has heard of “The Kemble Jackson Check” and nearly everybody, until within the last few years at least, has been using it without knowing just why or when it can be used with advantage. When in the hands of Hiram Woodruff, Kemble Jackson got into the habit of bringing his chin back against his breast, and in that shape Hiram could pull on him all day without getting control of him. In this dilemma, Mr. Reynolds suggested an overdraw check which might prevent the indulgence of this bad habit. Hiram took the suggestion, had one made, and it was a success, in his case. In twenty-four days after the performance which made him a great name from one end of the land to the other he died of rupture. As he was only nine years old and as he was just beginning to be appreciated as a stallion the breeders of the country sustained a great loss. Up to this point in his history he had no reputation, had been little patronized and left but few of his progeny to perpetuate his name.

LONG ISLAND BLACK HAWK.—This son of Andrew Jackson was foaled 1837 and his dam was the distinguished trotter Sally Miller, by Tippoo Saib, son of Tippoo Saib by imported Messenger. This mare was bred in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and trotted as a three-year-old in 1828 on the Hunting Park Course, Philadelphia. She was distinguished in her day, beating many of the best, and was the first three-year-old trotter of which we have any account. She was finally owned on Long Island, but I have never been able to learn the name of her owner. Black Hawk trotted some famous races on Long Island, the most noted of which, perhaps, was his match with Jenny Lind in which he was to pull a two hundred and fifty-pound wagon, and the mare the usual weight. In this match he beat her in straight heats. Time 2:40, 2:38, 2:43. In 1849 he beat Cassius M. Clay, time 2:41, 2:38, 2:41. This horse was owned for a time by Jonas Hoover, of Germantown, Columbia County, New York, and was there called Andrew Jackson Jr., or Young Andrew Jackson. He made some seasons in Orange County, and died at Montgomery in that county July, 1850. His progeny were not numerous and but two of them from his own loins entered the 2:30 list. His son Jupiter put five in the 2:30 list; Andrew Jackson Jr., two; Mohawk, three; Nonpareil, two; Plow Boy, one; and Vernol’s Black Hawk, one; to which we may add the fact that this last named was the sire of the famous Iowa stallion, Green’s Bashaw. Although his life was not long and his stud career was probably up to the average, it cannot be said that he was a great progenitor of trotters.

HENRY CLAY, the nominal head of the tribe that has taken his name, was a black horse, foaled 1837, got by Andrew Jackson, son of Young Bashaw; and his dam was Surrey, or Lady Surrey, as she is sometimes called, a pacing mare that was brought from Surrey, New Hampshire, to New York, and was converted to a trotter, or possibly she may have been double-gaited from her birth. It has been generally stated in years past that this mare was brought from Canada, and as there have been many disputes about her origin, I will try to give what authentic knowledge we have concerning her.

Mr. Peter W. Jones, one of the “old-time” horsemen and a very reliable man, said that David W. Gilmore, formerly a grocer at City Hall Place and Pearl Street, New York, bought a pacing mare, five years old, of Mark D. Perkins, of Mount Vernon, New Hampshire, which came from Surrey, New Hampshire, and hence her name “Lady Surrey.” Gilmore rode her to New York, with a young man named Lovejoy. He gave less than one hundred dollars for her. She was a superior saddle mare, and as Mr. Gilmore appreciated horseback riding he bought her for that purpose. Frank Gilmore, who was a deputy sheriff under Sheriff Orser, of New York, said that Lady Surrey was the mare his brother rode from New Hampshire, and after he sold her she turned out to be a trotter.

This is the story as told by Mr. Jones, and judging from its source I have no doubt it is substantially correct. This leaves us without any knowledge whatever of the blood of the mare, but only that she was both a pacer and a trotter. She was engaged in some races and was quite well known to the trotting men of that day, and she must have been a pretty good one to have been owned by such a horseman as George M. Patchen and by him bred to Andrew Jackson. It is said Surrey and Sally Miller were coupled with Andrew Jackson the same day; they both stood, and the one produced Henry Clay and the other Long Island Black Hawk.

While Henry Clay remained the property of his breeder he was trained and was looked upon as a promising young horse, but I have not been able to determine what rate of speed he was able to show. He certainly did not stand anywhere near the fastest, and he does not appear to have ever won a race, and perhaps never started in one. Still, he was esteemed as one of the best horses on Long Island and was liberally supported while there. When about eight years old he was sold for a fine price to General Wadsworth, of Livingston County, New York, and he was kept at various points in that part of the State till he died of old age and neglect in 1867. He came into the world when trotters were few and he lived till they were many. He left a numerous progeny, but as the sire of trotters he was a pronounced failure. In examining the 2:30 list I find a single one of his get, before he left Long Island, with a single heat of even 2:30. And in examining the list of his get during the twenty-odd years of his life in Western New York, I find a single representative, with a single heat in even 2:30, and this one was out of a mare by old Champion, a very noted trotting progenitor. He left three sons that appear as sires: Andy Johnson, with three just inside of the 2:30 list, Henry Clay Jr., with a single one to his credit, and Cassius M. Clay, with one very fast one to his credit. This Cassius M. Clay was the sire of the famous George M. Patchen. Three of Henry Clay’s daughters produced six 2:30 trotters, and for a time it was held that the dam of the very famous George Wilkes was a daughter of his, but that claim has not been sustained by later developments.

The name and memory of the horse Henry Clay would have been perpetuated in horse history through an attenuated line of descendants, as a fairly good horse, though unsuccessful as a trotting progenitor, had his bones been left to rest and rot where they were buried. Unfortunately, about the time of his death, there sprang up a most voluble enthusiast whose special mission on earth seemed to be to extol the superlative greatness of Henry Clay, and the contemptible worthlessness of “Bill Rysdyk’s bull,” as he designated Hambletonian. He commenced pouring his endless contributions into the columns of the breeding press and writing interminable letters to as many prominent breeders as would receive them, and all about the Clay blood being the only blood from which the trotter could be bred. These effusions were written with some skill, abounding in great prodigality of fancy and still greater economy of truth. It was astonishing how many men believed what he said and how few understood that the “old man” was in it as a “business.” He had gathered up all the cheap sons of the old horse and wanted to sell them at a handsome advance, and for a time the game won.

To keep the interest from falling off and the Clay blood moving, he secured access to the purses of two wealthy gentlemen who were possessors and admirers of Clay blood, and the bones of the horse were taken up, mounted and set up, and presented to the United States National Museum at Washington, D. C. The bones are still there, and the inscription on the pedestal when last seen was as follows:

“The progenitor of the entire family of Clay Horses, and the foundation of the American Trotting Horse.”

Then follow the names of the two gentlemen who presented the bones to the Museum, but as a kindness to them their names are omitted. The first clause of the inscription is true, but the second is not true, and I very seriously doubt whether they ever authorized the second clause. Henry Clay was not the “foundation” of anything, except the airy fabric of a fortune for our enthusiast. The scheme as an advertising dodge was well worked, and the schemer could well exclaim, “Where now is Bill Rysdyk’s bull?” In the nature of things such shams cannot last; this one had its fleeting day, and in the end the sheriff sold its worthless accumulations.

CASSIUS M. CLAY.—This son of Henry Clay was quite a large bay horse, taking his color and much of his shape from his dam. He was foaled 1843, and his dam, Jersey Kate, was the dam of the trotting horse John Anderson. Jersey Kate was a bay, about fifteen hands three inches high, with a clean, bony head, long neck, well set up, and when in driving condition was a little high on her legs. She was used in livery work, and when a good and fast driver was wanted, Jersey Kate was always in demand. In the same stable a pair of “Canuck” ponies were kept that were driven in a delivery wagon. They were duns with white manes and tails and about fourteen and one-half hands high, quick steppers with no speed. One of them slipped his halter one night and got Jersey Kate with foal. While she was carrying this foal she became the property of Mr. Z. B. Van Wyck’s father, and when she had dropped her colt and was put to farm work it was found that she was too rapid and spirited for his other horses, and he sold her to Joseph Oliver, of Brooklyn. The colt she dropped was weaned before the sale of the dam and remained in the family till he grew up. He was a grey, a little below fifteen hands, and as the boy, Z. B. Van Wyck, had broken and ridden him he got it into his head that he would make a trotter, so he bought him from his father for eighty dollars. He continued to improve and he sold him to Timothy T. Jackson and he to Charles Carman, who trotted him in many races. When Mr. Oliver, then owner of Jersey Kate, saw her “catch” colt by a “Canuck” pony able to beat many of the good ones on the island, he concluded to breed her to Mr. Patchen’s horse, Henry Clay, and the produce was Cassius M. Clay. From her appearance, form, and especially her action, it was the universal opinion she was by Mambrino, son of Messenger, and it is probable she was, but in the absence of proof she must be classed as “breeding unknown.” Had it not been for the speed of little John Anderson, there would not have been any Cassius M. Clay.

When the colt grew up, Mr. Oliver, his breeder, sold him to Mr. George M. Patchen, of Brooklyn, and he became a very popular stallion. After the death of Kemble Jackson and Long Island Black Hawk he was considered the best trotting stallion on Long Island. He was in a good many races, some of which were reported, but more that were not, and as against stallions, he was with the fastest. In temper he was disposed to be vicious and had to be watched. In form he could not be considered beautiful, but powerful. When the artist was modeling the equestrian statue of Washington that stands in Union Square, he had a great search for a horse to serve as a model, and he selected Cassius M. Clay as the best representative of majesty and power that he could find. Although the bronze is of heroic size, it is, no doubt, a fair representation of the outline and structure of the horse. He died at Montgomery, Orange County, New York, July, 1854, in the same stable where Long Island Black Hawk had died four years before. The three great horses, Long Island Black Hawk, Kemble Jackson and Cassius M. Clay, died just as they entered on what should have been the period of their greatest usefulness, the first at the age of thirteen; the second at the age of nine; and the third at the age of eleven. If these horses had lived through the usual period of horse life, doubtless the records of performers would bear very different relations from what they do to-day, but the _really great sire_ had not yet made his appearance.

Considering the short period Cassius M. Clay was in the stud he left a numerous progeny, but only one of them, George M. Patchen, achieved greatness on the turf. He placed thirty-four heats in 2:30 or better to his credit and made a record of 2:23½ in 1860, which was the fastest for any stallion of his day. This was the only one in the 2:30 list from the loins of Cassius M. Clay. Nine of his sons became the sires of eighteen trotters, and more than a dozen of his sons were named “Cassius M. Clay Jr.” thus leading to great confusion and oftentimes uncertainty as to identity.

CASSIUS M. CLAY JR. (NEAVE’S).—This was a brown horse foaled 1848, got by Cassius M. Clay; dam by Chancellor, son of Mambrino; grandam by Engineer, sire of Lady Suffolk. He was bred by Charles Mitchell, of Manhasset, Long Island, owned by Joseph Godwin, New York; stood in Orange County, 1852, in Dutchess, 1853, and was taken to Cincinnati that fall. He was owned by Mr. Neave, made a few seasons, broke his leg in the hands of Mr. McKelvy, and had to be destroyed. Mr. Godwin represented this horse to me as very fast until four years old, when by an accident he was thrown into the Harlem River when hot and was stiff ever afterward. He put four of his get into the 2:30 list, and four of his sons got ten trotters and one pacer. His early death was esteemed a great loss, for he was better bred than most of the other sons of his sire.

CLAY PILOT, by Cassius M. Clay (Neave’s), was out of a catch filly, whose dam was the famous Kate, the grandam of Almont. From the noted old trotting mare Belle of Wabash, whose history will be found in