CHAPTER XXX.

INVESTIGATION OF DISPUTED PEDIGREES.—(_Continued_.)

How Belle of Wabash got her pedigree—Specimen of pedigree making in that day and locality—Search for the dam of Thomas Jefferson—True origin and history of Belle of Wabash—Facts about the old-time gelding Prince—The truth about Waxy, the grandam of Sunol—Remarkable attempts to make a pedigree out of nothing—How “Jim” Eoff worked a “tenderfoot”—Pedigree of American Eclipse—Pedigree of Boston—Tom Bowling and Aaron Pennington—Chenery’s Gray Eagle—Pedigree of George Wilkes in doubt.

At Louisville, Kentucky, October, 1860, a ten-mile race was trotted which excited a good deal of local interest and comment. The contestants in this race were entered as follows:

“Captain Magowan, by imp. Sovereign, dam by American Eclipse.” “Gipsy Queen, by Wagner, dam by imp. Glencoe.” “Belle of Wabash (Indiana Belle), by Bassinger, dam by imp. William.”

The names of the parties making the entries are given in the entries of the first and second, and the Louisville _Journal_ of the week before remarks that “J. J. Alexander will represent his State honorably with the Belle of Indiana.” Captain Magowan held the lead from start to finish, and at the end of the eighth mile, some say the seventh, Belle of Wabash was drawn. It will be observed that, so far as given, each one of these animals was furnished with a first-class race-horse pedigree; for it was then held as firmly as any religious tenet that no horse could go that distance at any gait unless he was strictly thoroughbred, and, in Kentucky, if he did not have such a pedigree they gave him one on the spot. At that time they never bothered their heads hunting up the breeder of an animal to learn how it was bred. They simply wanted to see the performance and then make the pedigree to suit it. These three pedigrees were all bogus in all their elements, and I knew so little of the ways of the horse world, at that time, that I accepted and recorded them as genuine.

Captain Magowan was a roan gelding, willful and bad tempered, and all that seems to be known about his origin is the conceded fact that he was bred in Kentucky and that he was probably descended from the tribe of Copperbottoms, or possibly the Tom Hals. The roan color prevailed in both tribes and the horse himself looked like the Copperbottoms.

Gipsy Queen, at the time of the above race in 1860, was owned by a “sporting man” named George Bidwell, of Chicago, or at least she raced under his direction. About the time of this race, Mr. Thomas J. Vail bought the mare and took her to Hartford, Connecticut. He bred her to Toronto Chief and she produced a black colt. The mare and colt afterward passed into the hands of Mr. William B. Smith, and this colt grew up to be the famous Thomas Jefferson—“The Whirlwind of the East.” In connection with Mr. Smith I devoted a good deal of labor to a futile search for the origin and pedigree of this mare, and the result of our search amounted to nothing more than a reasonable probability that she was bred at Rochester, New York; was got by a son or grandson of Vermont Black Hawk and was taken from there to Chicago. This latter point of the transfer to Chicago seemed to be quite circumstantially fixed in Mr. Smith’s mind.

Mr. Allen W. Thomson, of Woodstock, Vermont—a man of great industry and a lover of the truth for the truth’s sake—also made an exhaustive search, and from a recent contribution to the press he evidently thinks he has found it, and possibly he has; but while I generally agree with Mr. Thomson’s conclusions, and prize them as honest and carefully reached, I am forced to dissent in this case. Without going into details, he brings the mare from Williamstown, Vermont, and takes her to Woodstock, Illinois, where she is paired with another black mare, and after passing through two or three hands they at last land in a public livery stable in Chicago, and there the identity of the suppositious Gipsy Queen is lost, and so far as known she never came out of that stable. One or two years afterward a black mare from Chicago, in possession of George Bidwell, appeared in some public races, notably the one given above, and the conclusion is at once reached that this black mare, Gipsy Queen, was the black filly brought from Williamstown, Vermont. To this all the intermediate owners between Williamstown and Behrens’ livery stable were ready to insist that this black mare was the Williamstown filly, but not one of them had ever seen the mare that George Bidwell was handling, and some of them evidently were not worthy of belief if they had seen her. There is the “missing link” between Behrens’ stable and George Bidwell, that has not been supplied and probably never can be supplied. The chances that the Williamstown filly was the real Gipsy Queen, all things considered, seem to stand as about one to a thousand. We must, therefore, conclude that we have no satisfactory information as to how or where this mare was bred.

BELLE OF WABASH.—My first inquiry about this mare was made more than twenty-five years ago, and I did not then suppose that her pedigree would ever become a question of any general interest. In the first volume of the Register I had entered her as a black mare, foaled 1852, got by Bassinger, son of Lieutenant Bassinger, and dam said to be by imported William IV. She was then owned by George C. Stevens of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After her son—The Moor—proved himself a great sire of trotters in getting Beautiful Bells, Sultan, and other good ones, her pedigree became a question of very great importance. As the search for it would occupy more space, in detail, than I can give to it in these pages, I will here give the references in _Wallace’s Monthly_, where the principal correspondence may be found: Vol. XIV., p. 510; XV., p. 441; XVI., p. 43; and for a complete understanding of the matter the references here given should be carefully examined.

Mr. S. D. Puett, of Indiana, was the first to give me a starting point in the investigation of the pedigree of this mare. In all that had been said about her I never was able to find a man who really knew anything about her origin, until Mr. Puett gave me the address of Cyrus Romaine, who had owned her when very young and handled her for speed. He says “she was sired by a colt from her own dam, that was got by a Copperbottom stallion from Kentucky.” He was not able to give any information about the sire of the dam, and as to the gait of the dam he says: “Her dam was a natural pacer. I cannot say as to her sire, as he was unbroken at the time.” He bought the mare at three years old, handled her one year and sold her to Mr. J. J. Alexander, of Montezuma, of the same county (Parke), in 1856. Mr. Alexander still owned her in 1860 when she trotted in Louisville, and after his death Williams, his trainer, married his widow and still controlled the mare. Mr. Romaine failed to give the name of the breeder of the mare, which will be explained further on. Soon after he wrote, April 26, 1880, he removed to Nebraska and I have not heard from him since. In 1857 she was trained for Mr. Alexander by John Williams on Stroue’s track at Rockville, Indiana, the county seat of Parke County. In 1860 she was entered by Williams in several races at Indianapolis and at other points, and made a record of 2:40. About 1865, or perhaps a year or two earlier, she became the property of George C. Stevens. In his catalogue for 1868 she is entered merely as “Old Belle,” and he know nothing of her origin or history till I gave it to him, along with the humbug pedigree that I had copied from the entries at the Louisville ten-mile race.

Through the kindness of Mr. Puett I received the following letter from Mr. Henry C. Brown, a very reputable business man and a grain dealer in Rockville, Parke County, Indiana. This letter from Mr. Brown has in it such evidence of candor and intelligence that I will here insert it entire:

“DEAR SIR: In reply to your inquiry of the 23d ult., as to what I know of the ‘origin and history of the mare called Belle of Wabash,’ I will give you the following _facts_:

“In the year 1855, or ’56, I am not positive which, this mare, when a three-year-old, was purchased by Cyrus Romaine, then a resident of this county, of an old farmer in Clay County, this State, paying $85 for her. This farmer lived at that time about a mile and a half north of Brazil, the present county-seat of Clay County.

“As to this farmer’s name, neither myself nor Romaine can tell. He was an old man at that time, and undoubtedly has gone to his reward long ago. _Neither do we know anything at all about the pedigree of the mare._

“There is no person living, so far as I or Romaine know, that can tell anything about her ancestors, and in my opinion it would be impossible, at this late day, to find any one in Clay County that could give us any information in regard to her.

“The country around Brazil at that time was almost a wilderness; now the city is spread out, and covers, no doubt, the farm where the mare was foaled. Clay County is now the center of the Indiana coal-fields, and, of course, the entire face of the country about there is changed wonderfully since 1856; consequently it would be almost if not quite impossible to find the exact location.

“After keeping the mare eight or nine months, Romaine sold her to John Alexander, of Montezuma, this county, for $160. Alexander soon after commenced training her, and in about one year I think he, or his trainer, John Williams, took her to Kentucky, and entered her there in some kind of races. Since then you know her history much better than I do.

“At the time Romaine bought the mare he and I were trading in stock together, boarding at the same house and sleeping in the same bed. I mention, this only that you may understand that I know what I am writing about.

“I am truly sorry that I cannot give you the true pedigree of the mare, but it cannot be done. There is no man here or anywhere else that can tell you anything more than I have stated herein.

“You will no doubt think that there is considerable of superfluous matter in this letter, but I do not see how I could tell you what I wanted to in fewer words.

“Everything stated herein is _truth_, and, if necessary, I am willing to make affidavit to the same at any time.

Very truly yours,

“HENRY C. BROWN.”

Mr. Romaine’s representation amounted to nothing definite or satisfactory about the pedigree of Belle of Wabash, because he failed to give the name and location of her breeder, but Mr. Brown’s letter clears this all up on the grounds that Mr. Romaine really did not know the breeder’s name. Whatever her sire and whatever her dam, we may feel sure they were not trotting-bred, although she was a trotter. We are left, therefore, to conclude that, as in a thousand other cases, this mare was a pacing-bred trotter. The one point that is vital is settled by Mr. Brown, as he was with Mr. Romaine when he bought the mare and knew all about the transaction. He cannot remember the breeder’s name, but he locates him as “living a mile and a half north of Brazil,” and that it is now all cut up into residence and mining lots. This seems to fix the location of the breeder beyond all doubt. This old man seems to have been a pioneer in a very poor county and still a comparative wilderness when this transaction took place. At that time the coal fields had not been touched, and it is wholly beyond belief that he took his unknown old mare out of his own county, across the adjoining county of Parke and into Vermilion County, wherever in it Mr. Weisiger lived, to have her bred to his part-bred stallion Bassinger. And then when he came to sell the foal at three years old for $85, when horses were high, can we believe he would do so without ever mentioning how the filly was bred? The chain of ownership is complete, as she passed from her unnamed breeder to Mr. Romaine, from him to Mr. Alexander, in whose hands she did her trotting, and then to Mr. Williams, and there is no place for the Louisville humbug pedigree to come in. She got her bogus pedigree at the same time and in the same way that Magowan and Gipsy Queen got theirs, and there was not a single shadow of truth in any one of them. The tenacity with which some people hold on to a “thoroughbred” origin for their trotters when the evidence is all against them has long been a mystery to honest folks, who are able to look at things as they are; but it is not difficult to understand the phenomenon when we analyze the reasons for it. First, the owner is anxious to hold on to all he can possibly claim in the way of aristocratic descent with the hope that it may help his sales; and second, there are always a few “featherheads” with golden pockets ready to buy that kind of stuff, because they have never gone far enough in horse history to be able to kick themselves loose from the swaddling clothes of their infantile prejudices.

PRINCE.—The chestnut gelding Prince was one of the great trotters in the early “fifties.” He was pitted against Hero, the pacing son of Harris’ Hambletonian, Lantern and others. As usual at that time he was given a thoroughbred pedigree, which I was then led to accept, without really knowing anything about his origin. He was represented to have been bred in Kentucky, and owned by R. Ten Broeck of that State. Then would naturally follow a thoroughbred pedigree coming from that State, and nobody doubted it for a long time. He was represented to be by Woodpecker, son of Bertrand; dam by imported Sarpedon; grandam said to be thoroughbred. When he started in his ten-mile race against Hero, William T. Porter said he was by Woodpecker, and out of that grew the pedigree above. In the old _Spirit of the Times_, of October 11, 1856, there is a short communication signed “Hiram,” in which is the only circumstantial account of the origin of Prince that I have ever seen. It is implied by the writer that he was bred by a Mr. Dey, of Chautauqua. County, New York, for he says he was got by “an old chestnut horse called Duroc, from Long Island,” and came of the Dey Mare. It seems that Dey sold the colt to a young man named Worden, and he was first known as “the Worden colt.” He was then sold to Manley Griswold, and from Griswold to Daniel Vanvliet, who sold him in Buffalo to Bennett & Jones (or Thomas), for one thousand dollars, and they sold him to William Whelan, of Long Island, for fifteen hundred dollars. “Hiram” carries the history of the horse no further, as he had then placed him in the hands of the great artists of the trotting world. Of his sire, “Old Duroc,” he says he was taken from Long Island to Villenova, in Chautauqua County, by a merchant of that place, named George Hopkins, and after getting about twenty colts he died. Among these twenty we find Prince and another afterward known as the Walker Horse, which achieved a high local reputation as a sire of trotters and I have frequently met with his cross in the pedigrees of good animals. This showing is not absolutely complete, but it is infinitely better than any other that has over been given to the public.

WAXY, the grandam of Sunol. When the two-year-old filly Sunol in 1888 came out and trotted a mile in 2:18, it fairly took one’s breath away, and the first question on every tongue was, “How is she bred?” She was represented to be by Electioneer, out of Waxana by General Benton, and she out of Waxy by Lexington, and “thoroughbred.” When asked who bred her and how it was known that Waxy was by Lexington, the answer came back that the breeder was not known—that she had been taken across the plains by a man who died on the way. The search then commenced for the breeder of Waxy and the identification of her dam. As the search progressed there were some very curious things developed. When it started in the spring it was a yearling stallion colt, and when it reached California, in the fall, it was a two-year-old filly. More than this, it was shown by indubitable proofs, such as they were, that she had two dams, and then shown that she had no dam at all. With such a Kentucky muddle on hand there was an excellent opportunity for a controversy that might possibly become somewhat heated. This controversy is famous in the history of the exposures of untruthful pedigrees, and I will give a brief outline of it, with some specimens of the evidence adduced to sustain it.

Early in the spring of 1864 Mr. John P. Welch, an intelligent man, trained to the profession of civil engineer, reached the blue grass region of Kentucky for the purpose of securing and taking across the plains a band of well-bred horses to California. In this venture he was backed by Mr. John Anderson, a wealthy gentleman of the latter State. Mr. Welch was successful in perfecting his arrangements, and when on the very eve of starting he sent forward a complete inventory of all the animals he had in his band and sent this inventory to the _California Spirit of the Times_, in which paper it was published May 14, 1864, and is as follows:

1. Bay mare, 6 years old, by imp. Sovereign, dam by Glencoe, g. d. Ann Merry. 2. Bay filly, 3 years, by Vandal, dam Miss Singleton by Old Denmark, g. d. Bellamira by Monarch. 3. Bay filly, 2 years old, by Mambrino Chief, dam by Commodore. 4. Bay horse, 3 years old, by Mambrino Chief, dam by Gray Eagle. 5. Black colt, 2 years old, by Kt. of St. George, dam (dam of Capitola) by Margrave. 6. Bay mare, 9 years old, by imp. Glencoe, dam by Rudolph, g. d. Belle Anderson. 7. Bay filly, 2 years old, by Revenue, dam Sally Morgan by Emancipation. 8. Chestnut filly, 4 years old, by Vandal, dam by Gray Eagle, g. d. Churchill. 9. Chestnut mare by Wagner (dam of No. 11). 10. Bay mare by Sovereign. 11. Black colt, 2 years old, by Kt. of St. George, dam No. 9, by Wagner. 12. Chestnut filly, 3 years old, by Jack Gamble, dam Betty King by Boston. 13. Bay mare, 6 years old, by imp. Sovereign, dam by Mirabeau, g. d. Arabella. 14. Captain Beard, b. s., 9 years old, by imp. Yorkshire, dam by imp. Glencoe, g. d. by imp. Leviathan, g. g. d. by Stockholder. 15. Gray mare by Gray Eagle, dam Mary Morris, by Medoc. 16. Hope, ch. m. by Glencoe, dam Susette by Aratus. 17. Bay mare by Sovereign, dam by Gray Eagle. 18. Chestnut filly, 2 years old, by Bob Johnson, dam by Brawner’s Eclipse. 19. Chestnut filly, 3 years old, by Kt. of St. George, dam by Gray Eagle. 20. Bay colt, one year old, by Lexington, dam by Gray Eagle, g. d. Mary Morris. 21. Ch. c., 2 years old by Ringgold, dam Hope by Glencoe. 22 and 23. Pair 3:00 six-year-old trotting mares. 24. Black mare, trotter, 8 years old; time, 2:50. 25. Bay gelding, trotter, 5 years old; time, near 3:00. 26. Bay mare for show, but not to go.

From this inventory we must conclude that Mr. Welch was a careful and methodical man. He knew he had twenty-six animals ready to start, and after he had written off the descriptions and pedigrees of these twenty-six animals he verified his work by numbering them from one to twenty-six inclusive, and then he knew he had not omitted any one. This inventory is the basis of the whole truth in this matter, and is the only evidence in the wide world of what animals Mr. Welch started with to California. As this is the vital and only starting point to reach the truth, I trust my readers will examine it again carefully and see whether it includes any filly or mare by Lexington, of any age. When you ask any of these “more-running-blood-in-the-trotter” people who took Waxy, the phantom daughter of Lexington, to California, you will get an evasive answer, and when pressed they will at last say, John P. Welch. Now, as to John P. Welch, “he being dead yet speaketh.” From his unknown grave he tells these people they are trying to establish what is not true, and with his ghostly finger points to the inventory and demands, “Where is the Lexington filly in that list? You are trying to displace the truth with a falsehood,” and he drives this charge home to the heart of each one of them.

Here we might close this case and leave it to the enlightened judgment of all intelligent and honest people, for there is not a scintilla of evidence that any two-year-old daughter of Lexington was taken to California in 1864. Until this evidence is adduced, no attempt to overthrow the contents of John P. Welch’s inventory has a single peg to stand on. But I am not yet done with some of the peculiarities that have been developed in this case, for long ago I learned in this pedigree business,

“That for ways that are dark, And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar.”

At this point the case bifurcates, one fork leading to the Grey Eagle mare as the dam of Waxy, and the other to the Brawner’s Eclipse mare, and I think my language will not be wholly unparliamentary when I pronounce them both frauds. Mr. Levi S. Gould, a worthy business man of Boston, whom I have always esteemed as honest, was the first to dig up this whole matter in the columns of the _California Spirit of the Times_, and the first to give the above inventory to the public. He traveled thousands of miles and claimed to have traced Waxy to the stable of her breeder, Philip Swigert, of Frankfort, Kentucky. The full account of his laborious trip was published in _Wallace’s Monthly_ for March, 1889, p. 17. In the inventory he found one animal got by Lexington, but this was a bay colt of 1863, and out of the Grey Eagle mare, but he wanted a chestnut filly. After studying the matter over, he concluded that this “bay colt” was a typographical error for “chestnut filly” and that this established the pedigree of Waxy. He interviewed a number of people who had known of, or had been in some way connected with, the Welch venture, and they were all able to confirm his discovery of the typographical error, and could recount to a nicety their distinct recollections of the sorrel filly by Lexington, out of the Grey Eagle mare. These people seemed to possess the most astonishing memories, and the color, breeding and age of a filly they had not seen nor heard of for a quarter of a century all came back to them with as much freshness as though the events had occurred yesterday. Then there was a peculiar element in their memories, for they could recall everything about this one filly and nothing about any of the others. At last Mr. Gould reached Mr. Brodhead, of Kentucky, where the “finishing touches” were put upon the pedigree of Waxy. Mr. Satterwhite did not reach Woodburn till after Mr. Gould had left, but that did not prevent him from making a “statement” that exactly fitted the theory of the pedigree as matured by Mr. Gould and Mr. Brodhead. He had been Mr. Philip Swigert’s foreman in 1864, and had a right to know something of the transfer of some eight or ten head of stock from Mr. Swigert to Mr. Welch in the spring of that year. Satterwhite was quite too good a witness, as he disclosed his cramming frightfully. He remembered “the light chestnut filly, by Lexington and out of the Grey Eagle mare,” with great distinctness and was sure she was foaled in 1863. In no single case was he certain except in the filly by Lexington, and in no single case was he able to give the ages of the other young things correctly. After Satterwhite made his visit to Woodburn, Mr. Brodhead wrote Mr. Gould as follows:

“Satterwhite says Dick Jackson was with Welch. I think, with what you have, the pedigree of Waxy is conclusively proved, and you can get your article ready. The sooner it is published the better. I forwarded some letters to you, and I hope they gave you additional information.”

It will be remembered that Mr. Gould started out on the assumption that, as there was but one animal in the inventory by Lexington and that was a bay colt of 1863, that “colt,” he argued, was a typographical error, and instead of “bay colt” it should read “sorrel filly.” On this very uncertain basis he worked throughout. On this basis he collected all his futile statements. On this basis, and to lend a helping hand, Satterwhite testified; and on this basis Brodhead wrote, “With what you have, the pedigree of Waxy is conclusively proved.” Now that Mr. Brodhead is satisfied and that Mr. Bruce promptly entered Waxy in his Stud Book as by Lexington and out of the Grey Eagle mare, we must drop the whimsical idea of the “typographical error” and consider whether the bay colt of 1863, by Lexington, did really become a sorrel filly of 1862 when he reached California a few months later.

1. The bay colt, No. 20, of the inventory, was the only animal in the band by Lexington. He was a foal of 1863, and was a year younger than any of the others.

2. In speaking of the losses, by death on the route, of some of the more noted animals, Mr. Anderson enumerates the noted stallion Captain Beard, and a very fine yearling colt by Lexington, called Frank. Here perished the only foal by Lexington in the band, and we may as well bury Mr. Gould’s and Mr. Brodhead’s “typographical error” with him, for the colt kicked it to death before he died.

3. When the band reached California there were several additions smuggled into it as being part of the originals from Kentucky, and among these additions was the light chestnut filly that has been since known as Waxy, given as a foal of 1862, and got by Lexington, dam unknown.

4. As Mr. Brodhead had proved conclusively, from the records at Woodburn, that Mr. Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare was barren in 1862, the “typographical error” parties found themselves placed “between the devil and the deep sea.”

This outside filly that had been smuggled into the band of Kentuckians was advertised along with them, as a foal of 1862, in the fall of 1864; she was sold as a foal of 1862; she was entered in a sweepstake for three-year-olds as a foal of 1862; she was exhibited at a horse show as a foal of 1862; she started to run the only race she ever attempted as a foal of 1862, and proving herself utterly worthless as a race mare, she was given away on the spot as a foal of 1862.

As the only representative of Lexington in the band was “the yearling bay colt Frank,” as shown by Mr. Anderson, the partner of Mr. Welch; and as the records at Woodburn had clearly and distinctly shown that Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare was barren in 1862, the bottom was out of the conspiracy and it was abandoned. There was a little fussing about the possibility that there might have been a mistake and that Waxy might have been a foal of 1863 after all, but it amounted to nothing more than the enfeebled squeak of an asthmatic mouse and then all was quiet.

Before passing to the other branch of the investigation, this seems to be the proper place to speak of the incidents of the sale and its sequences at the Fair Grounds at San Jose, January 3, 1865. There were some twelve or fifteen head, that had been previously advertised, offered at public sale, and a number of those were sold, all indeed in which this inquiry has any interest. When the stock arrived at San Jose, there was a good deal of confusion, and it is just possible that some of them were not correctly placed. The only discrepancy which I have found between Mr. Welch’s inventory and the facts is in the color of the filly No. 18, that appears in the inventory as a chestnut, but is advertised and sold as a bay. This mistake in color is not infrequent in the spring of the year before the old coat is shed, and I think it may be reasonably accounted for on this ground. James L. Eoff, well known from ocean to ocean as the king of all “horse sharps,” seems to have taken a good deal of interest in assorting the animals and in picking up scraps of information from the boys who had come with them. At the same time he was an excellent judge of racing stock, and as silent as the grave to the victims whom he sought to mislead and then beat. In this way he soon knew more about the breeding of the animals than those in charge of them. Mr. William Woodward seems to have been his friend (?) with plenty of money, but a perfect “tenderfoot” in the mysteries of the race horse. No doubt he pointed out to Mr. Woodward the so-called Lexington filly and advised him to buy her, assuring him that he wanted her himself, but if he wanted to take a little fly in racing he would not bid against him. The sale came off, and Eoff ran up the Revenue filly, out of Sally Morgan, to three hundred and twenty-five dollars and got her, it is said, for Theodore Winters. When they came to the filly by Bob Johnson, out of the mare by Brawner’s Eclipse, Eoff bought her at two hundred and fifty dollars for himself, and named her Lilly Hitchcock. The next animal sold was the filly by Lexington, dam unknown, and she was bought by William Woodward at two hundred and fifty dollars, and he named her Waxy. The sale was slimly attended and much of the stock was bid in for the owner, Mr. John Anderson. That night the wine flowed very freely, as it was the initiation of the “tenderfoot,” Mr. Woodward, into the ranks of running-horse men. After they all “got hot” (except Eoff), a sweepstakes was opened for the three fillies, Ada C. (the Revenue filly), Lilly Hitchcock and Waxy, at two hundred and fifty dollars each, and Eoff was careful to see that it was made “play or pay.” The race was a dash of a mile and a quarter, and it took place nearly twelve months after the match was made. Eoff won easily with Lilly Hitchcock, and Waxy was so badly beaten that Woodward gave her away on the spot and “swore off” ever owning another running horse. Thus Eoff’s cunning carried his plot through, without a break at any point. From the hour he bought this filly he stoutly maintained she was by Lexington and out of the Brawner’s Eclipse mare. She ran all her races under this pedigree and never was challenged, and if ever there was a mare in California bred in this way, this is likely to be the mare. We can understand just how he could have discovered where Waxy came from, and that she never saw Kentucky, and on this knowledge he based the game he played on poor Woodward.

After the failure to establish the claim that Waxy came out of Philip Swigert’s Grey Eagle mare and publicly confessing that the evidence upon which Mr. Gould and Mr. Brodhead based their conclusions was fallacious and the conclusions themselves incorrect, the advocates of “more running blood in the trotter” pulled themselves together for another bout. What purported to be an old document was dug up somewhere—indeed I am told there were two of them dug up, one in Kentucky and the other somewhere on the Pacific coast—purporting to be duplicates of an agreement entered into, in March, 1864, between John P. Welch, of California and Philip Swigert, of Kentucky, by which Welch agreed to take certain blood horses to California and sell or breed them on the shares, etc. This document possessed all the paraphernalia of authenticity, with government stamp, witnesses to the signatures of the contracting parties, etc. This document (I don’t know which “duplicate”) was shown to me in April, 1891, and at the first glance, and without reading a word except the date, it astounded me. There was a paper purporting to be twenty-seven years old, and it looked as bright and fresh as though it had been written within twenty-seven hours. There was no fading of the luster of the ink and there was no ageing in the color of the paper. Having devoted a great deal of time to the examination of writings, varying in age from one day to a hundred years and more, and this experience extending through many years, I ought to be a fairly competent judge of the effects of age on ink and paper. Here was a paper purporting to be over a quarter of a century old with all the newness of yesterday, and when Mr. J. C. Simpson showed it to me I was impressed with the belief, on this one point of evidence alone, that it was spurious, and that Mr. Simpson had been made a victim by some rascally scrivener. With so much for the appearance of the paper, on its face, we will now examine the contents and see whether any evidence can there be found that will throw further light on the question of its authenticity. Unfortunately I have not what purports to be the original of this document before me, and I must therefore depend upon my memory and upon what Judge Halsey, as attorney for Mr. Brodhead, has printed as the contents. In giving the list of animals I will follow the order of the “document” and place before each one, for convenience of reference, the number attached to that animal in Mr. Welch’s original inventory.

15. One gray mare, by Grey Eagle, out of Mary Morris. 16. One sorrel mare, Hope, by Glencoe. 17. Sovereign filly, out of Grey Eagle mare, four years old. 8. Vandal filly, out of bay Grey Eagle mare, four years old. 18. One two-year-old filly, by Bob Johnson, out of bay Grey Eagle mare. 19. One two-year-old filly by Lexington. 20. One yearling colt, by Lexington, out of Grey Eagle mare. 21. One two-year-old filly, by Ringgold, out of Hope.

In looking over this list there are several points suggested for remark and they all have a bearing, more or less direct, on the question at issue. The list seems to have been prepared, if prepared by Mr. Swigert, very hurriedly and without sufficient regard to completeness or accuracy. He started off, possibly to make a careful list, as he gave the color of the two-year-old mares at the head and then dropped all purpose of completeness and gave no colors nor descriptions to those that followed. He gives No. 21 as a filly when it was a colt, and so appears in the inventory, was sold as a colt with pedigree at San Jose, January, 1865, and again, with the same pedigree, at The Willows, February, 1866. Under ordinary conditions the statement of the breeder should be conclusive against all others, but in this case the evident hurry and absence of descriptions have destroyed the value of the whole list, in great degree, as evidence that could be accepted with safety. We must, therefore, look for something in the way of evidence more deliberative and descriptive in its preparation, and this we find in the joint work of Mr. Swigert and Mr. Welch, as embodied in the inventory. When the descriptions of the animals were taken, both men were equally interested in accuracy and completeness, both were present, and probably the animals were before them. Hence my infinitely greater confidence in the deliberative work of the two, as found in the inventory.

The one point about which all this hubbub has been raised is the so-called “Lexington filly,” that appears as the sixth in the above list. She has no number attached to her name, and this means that she was not in the inventory, and it means more than this; for it is, in a manner, the dying testimony of an honest man that he took no Lexington filly to California, and fortunately this testimony has been preserved. The methods introduced to prove that Welch did take her are the methods of the imbecile. Let us admit, for the moment, that Swigert had a Lexington filly and that she was in a contract with Welch to be taken to California; does that prove that Welch took her, when he says he did not? There are hundreds and hundreds of people every year who buy steamship tickets to go to Europe who fail to go. The records of Mr. Swigert’s ticket office show that the ticket was bought, but they fail to show that the purchaser went aboard the ship. You must go to Purser Welch and get a list of passengers actually on board in order to determine who did and who did not go. Accidents, sickness and death are all factors in the movements, of horses just as they are in the movements of human beings. It is the observation of a long lifetime that horsemen are never so near their best as fools as when they attempt to establish a fraudulent pedigree by evidence that utterly fails to cover the case. They claim to have found a ticket that would carry Waxy to California, and whether genuine or counterfeit they rely wholly on this ticket as evidence that she went. The master of the vessel affirms she was not aboard his vessel, and in support of this he shows a complete list and description of the passengers numbered from one to twenty-six inclusive. This is the whole thing in a nutshell. The proof is clear and conclusive that Mr. Welch did not take any daughter of Lexington to California. Now, will the prominent and active supporters of Waxy’s pedigree, as a daughter of Lexington, come forward and in a manly way answer this question of five words? “_Who took Waxy to California?_” If Welch, prove it. If anybody else, prove it. We may be able to catch a few gulls with chaff, the first attempt, but we can’t repeat it. If the question can be answered, it is well, and if not, honest people will form their own conclusions that it is not sustained and is no more worthy of belief than the “Grey Eagle mare” form of the same pedigree, which is now universally conceded to be a fiction.

AMERICAN ECLIPSE.—It is not my purpose to frighten people by overthrowing landmarks that have stood for years, but it is my purpose to tell the truth and expose falsehood in pedigrees wherever I meet it. As a satisfaction and guide to breeders in the future it is important to know just how the early stock were bred, although they may have belonged to past generations. A breeder never can know too much of the lines in which he is operating. This great horse was a good chestnut, with a star and left hind foot white. He was stout, with heavy limbs, and somewhat coarse, and not of the best quality, but possibly better than the average of the Durocs. He was a fraction of an inch below fifteen two. He was foaled 1814, got by Duroc, son of imported Diomed; dam Miller’s Damsel, by imported Messenger; grandam a mare by Pot8os, imported by Mr. Constable along with the horse Baronet, in 1795. This is just as far as we can go with any certainty, and this leaves the greatest race horse of his day far short of being thoroughbred. When Mr. Constable bought the Pot8os mare in England he got no certificate of pedigree, but he was told there she was out of a mare by Gimcrack. Mr. Cadwallader R. Colden was the best-informed man of his day on the history, blood, and performances of the blood-horse, was a very intimate and warm friend of Mr. Constable, and he did everything that could be done to straighten out and extend this pedigree, but he utterly failed. He thought it probable that the mare was thoroughbred, but he believed the Gimcrack cross was a fiction. Some eighteen or twenty years ago, when in London, Mr. Tattersall suggested to me that if Lord Grosvenor bred a filly by Pot8os in 1792 that was thoroughbred, there could hardly be a doubt that she was entered in some of the stakes for three-year-olds. Then and there we searched the old records, but nothing could be found to support the supposed pedigree. It was not till 1832 that any special effort was made to establish the pedigree through the press, and in January of that year the famous Patrick Nesbit Edgar, of North Carolina, wrote as follows to Mr. Skinner, editor of the _American Turf Register_:

“The authority I had for sending the remote pedigree of American Eclipse for publication was that it was furnished me lately by a gentleman in England, who put himself to uncommon pains to procure it. He resides near Bath, in that country. All the authority requisite I have at this time in my possession. The Pot8os mare was got by Pot8os; her dam, foaled in 1778, by Gimcrack, out of Snap-Dragon, sister to Angelica by Snap. (See English Stud Book.)”

Mr. Edgar wrote more on the same subject, after he was pressed to it by Mr. Colden, but he failed to produce any evidence whatever that he was telling the truth. According to his representations his correspondence on the subject had been very extensive, and he complained that he had paid out forty shillings in postage.

It will be observed how cleverly Mr. Edgar conceals the sources of his information while he pretends to give them, and that has been the favorite “dodge” of all rascally “pedigree makers” from that day till the present. Mr. Constable always insisted that the mare was bred by Lord Grosvenor, and that she was by Pot8os, but he did not insist that she was out of a mare by Gimcrack. As Lord Grosvenor was one of the most prominent of all breeders of race horses in his day, and as he evidently kept the records of his stud with more care than most of his contemporaries, we might reasonably expect to find some trace of this mare if she was thoroughbred. After a careful and diligent search of all the records of that period, it is found that Lord Grosvenor never bred a Gimcrack filly to Pot8os. This disposes of Mr. Edgar’s humbug story, and when we state the pedigree of American Eclipse we can simply say he was got by Duroc; dam Miller’s Damsel by Messenger, and grandam the imported Pot8os mare, and there we must stop.

For years past I have observed that the less a man knows about horse history and horse achievements, the more importance he attaches to the word “thoroughbred;” and of all the millions and millions of lies that have been told about pedigrees nine-tenths have been concocted and circulated for the one purpose of enhancing the supposed value of the animal by claiming “thoroughbred” blood. The “instinct” to lie about pedigrees, so common among certain classes of horsemen, seems to be “the sum of inherited habits” that has come down from generation to generation. If you ask one of these mendacious gentlemen whether American Eclipse was a thoroughbred he will answer, with a strong marked expression of contempt and pity for your ignorance on his countenance, “Certainly he was thoroughbred.” If you then ask him about his pedigree he will answer, “I don’t know anything about his pedigree.” Then you venture to ask how he knows he was thoroughbred if he does not know anything about his pedigree, and he will squelch you completely by saying, “No horse not thoroughbred could ever have done what American Eclipse did.” Here we get at the real basis of the universal mendacity on this subject. The preacher wrote a great book called “The Perfect Horse” in which he maintained that the Morgan Horse was thoroughbred. The lawyer wrote another great book on “The American Roadster” in which he maintained that Dexter was a thoroughbred. With two gentlemen of intelligence and education writing such miserable stuff, what are we to expect from the masses?

Now here is the horse American Eclipse, the greatest horse of his day in his racing achievements, that in his blood is very far from being “thoroughbred,” under any rule that has ever been suggested or devised. Now, with this taint on his escutcheon, it follows that no one of his descendants for at least five generations can be classed as thoroughbred. As a progenitor, Eclipse cannot be considered a great horse, either in his immediate or more remote descendants. Medoc was about his best, and he was better than his sire. Another son, called Monmouth Eclipse, was grandly bred on the side of his dam, was sold, it was said, for fifteen thousand dollars for stock purposes, and proved a most lamentable failure, never having got a colt that was worth fifteen dollars as a race horse. The great fame of American Eclipse, therefore, rested upon what were then designated as “his mighty achievements upon the turf.” A reasonably complete history of this horse may be found in _Wallace’s Monthly_ for March, 1877, p. 160. His great race against Henry, in which he represented the North as against the South, was doubtless the most memorable turf event that ever took place on this continent, and a very brilliant description of it will be found at the reference given above. This race of four-mile heats took place on the Union Course, Long Island, May, 1823, for twenty thousand dollars a side, and it was, in effect, Eclipse against the world. Eclipse, fit or not fit, must start, while his opponents had several prepared to start against him and all they had to determine was to select the fastest and best of the whole party. At the last hour Henry was chosen as the champion of the South, and he won the first heat by about a length in 7:37½. A change was made in the rider of Eclipse and he won the second heat by about two lengths in 7:49. In the third heat the instructions to the rider of Henry were not to hurry the gait, but to trail to near the finish and then pull out and win in a rush. The rider of Eclipse understood the tactics of the enemy and he hurried the pace every step of the way, in order to tire out his younger opponent. When near the finish Henry made his dash and covered Eclipse’s quarter with his head, but he could get no further and abandoned the contest. Eclipse had been punished unmercifully from start to finish, and the time of the heat was 8:24. This shows an average rate of speed in the third heat of two minutes and six seconds to the mile, a rate which half a dozen trotters and a round dozen of pacers have beaten for a single mile. It shows also the cruelty, to say nothing of the absurdity, of heat racing at the distance of four miles. Still American Eclipse was the greatest running horse of his generation.

BOSTON was a chestnut horse, foaled 1833, and bred by Mr. John Wickham, the very eminent jurist, of Richmond, Virginia. He succeeded to the great fame of American Eclipse, and although about two generations, in a racing sense, after him there was no horse between them that was the equal of either of them. He was a terror to all competitors whether of the North or the South. But it is only my purpose here to put on record the real facts about his pedigree and to expose a glaring fraud that has been propagated concerning his breeding for many years. Mr. Wickham, the breeder of Boston, bought a mare by imported Alderman (1802 or 1803) from John Randolph, of Tuckahoe (not “Roanoke” as sometimes stated). This mare was out of a mare by imported Clockfast, and here, to sum it up and give Mr. Wickham’s exact language, as he wrote in 1827: “This mare, a dark bay, foaled about 1799, was got by Alderman, her dam by Clockfast, out of a mare said to be full-blooded, of the Wildair blood.” This Alderman mare he bred to Florizel, and she produced the race horse Tuckahoe, and a filly that was bred to Timoleon and produced Boston. Then Boston’s pedigree stands; Got by Timoleon; dam by Florizel; grandam by imported Alderman; great-grandam by imported Clockfast; great-great-grandam “said to be of the Wildair blood.” This is down to “hard pan,” and there is no authority in the wide world to add anything to it. If we admit the Wildair mare to be genuine and authentic we are still one degree short of the thoroughbred standard. The six additional crosses that have been added to this pedigree are entirely fictitious. They were copied from the advertisement of a stallion descended from this maternal line, that had neither indorsement nor name attached to it. This was seized upon by the late Benjamin Bruce, and boasted of as a “discovery” of the extension of Boston’s pedigree. After the appearance of this advertisement Mr. Wickham prepared and published a full list of his stock, with their pedigrees, from the first of his breeding operations, and when he reached the Wildair mare he stopped, just as I have stopped at that point. Here we have the two authorities—Mr. John Wickham, distinguished for his eminent character as a man and a jurist; or a nameless stallion advertisement without any shadow of truth or responsibility.

Timoleon, the sire of Boston, was one of the most distinguished sons of the great Sir Archy, his dam was by imported Saltram, and his grandam by Wildair, but beyond that the pedigree is a hopeless muddle, embracing some features that are absolutely impossible.

TOM BOWLING AND AARON PENNINGTON.—The first of these horses was by Lexington, the second was by Tipperary, son of Ringgold, and they were both out of Lucy Fowler, by imported Albion, grandam-by imported Leviathan, great-grandam by Top Gallant, great-great-grandam Eli Odom’s saddle mare, which means, in that country, she was a pacer. Tom Bowling was probably the best race horse of his year, and Pennington may be classed as mediocre, but as the latter is credited with some pacers or trotters that have come within the 2:30 list, his pedigree becomes of interest on this account. I will, therefore, give the facts in some detail, which go to show the truth about what the pedigree contains and what it does not contain.

In 1869 the late William R. Elliston, of Nashville, Tennessee, furnished me the following facts, which he obtained personally from Mr. Eli Odom. It was very fortunate that Mr. Elliston obtained these facts when he did, for Mr. Odom was advanced in years and died not long afterward. He was a brother-in-law of the once very famous breeder and race horse man, Colonel Elliott, of Tennessee, and in early life had charge of his establishment and knew more about Colonel Elliott’s stock than he did himself. He lived to old age, highly respected by all who knew him, and was a man of truth. He kept for his own use a pacing saddle mare whose blood he knew nothing about, and he bred her to Top Gallant, son of Gallatin, and the produce was a filly. This filly he bred to imported Leviathan, and in due time there came another filly which he bred to imported Albion, and the next filly was Lucy Fowler. This filly passed through the hands of a Mr. Fowler and perhaps one or two others, and at last became the property of Price McGrath, of Lexington, Kentucky, and was the dam of Tom Bowling, Aaron Pennington and others. Starting in with the pacing mare, Mr. Odom bred all that followed until we reach Lucy Fowler, and there we find she had seven parts of running blood and one part of pacing blood. While an animal bred in this way is certainly not “thoroughbred,” nobody can deny that he is “running-bred,” for there are hundreds of instances on record where animals of even shorter pedigrees than Tom Bowling have been noted race horses. But there is another fact connected with this family that is very interesting. When the running qualities of Pennington were exhausted, McGrath presented him to a kinsman of his, somewhere in Western Missouri. After awhile I began to hear of an occasional trotter from this horse and I wrote his owner (whose name I cannot now recall), and he replied that “he went all the saddle gaits and was a pacer.” Here was a tidbit that I thought well worth looking after, and I wrote the owner again for specific information of the character of his pace and whether it was a clean and pronounced side action, but for some reason or other I never was able to get a reply to my questions. There can be no mistake about his going the “saddle gaits,” but whether this was the result of training or whether he took to them naturally as inherited from Mr. Odom’s old pacing mare, is a point about which I have never been fully satisfied.

GREY EAGLE (CHENERY’S).—When Mr. Winthrop W. Chenery, of Boston, bought this horse, about 1866, he got with him the following pedigree.

“Got by Grey Eagle; dam by imp. Trustee; g. d. by Columbus; g. g. d. by Stockholder; g. g. g. d. by Pacolet. Bred in Kentucky, and passed through many vicissitudes, both as a runner and a trotter, beating his competitors at both gaits; owned for a time in Ohio, now the property of Winthrop W. Chenery & Co., Boston.”

This was a correct type of the pedigrees of that time, lacking date, location, breeder and all other things necessary to trace and determine its value. The horse had certainly trotted in 2:31, and he had trotted two miles to wagon in 5:09½, and to this evidence of his trotting ability it was claimed that he had run and won many races at all distances. This was such a combination of abilities as I never had heard of before, and in attempting to solve the riddle I became deeply interested. The search then instituted has been kept up ever since, and I must say that after all these years I know absolutely nothing about the breeding of this horse. His first known owner was a petty gambler and general outlaw in the neighborhood of Portsmouth, Ohio, and the story he told will be found in _Wallace’s Monthly_, Vol. I., p. 53, and Vol. VII., p. 597, besides other references. The search has been so barren that I have not even the shadow of a theory as to what his blood may have been. He got two or three trotters and one or two pacers, I think, and here we have to leave him as the most completely unknown horse in all my experience.

GEORGE WILKES.—It is a grievous misfortune that the pedigree of this great progenitor should be in doubt. The misfortune is not in the fact that his descendants lose the supposed Clay cross in his dam, for that was not of very great value, but in the fact that we should not know just what belongs in its place. In December, 1877, I had the good fortune to meet with Mr. Harry Felter and Mr. William L. Simmons at a breeders’ banquet, and it was not long until we were in conversation about the blood of the dam of George Wilkes. I knew that the breeding of that horse had never been established, but I was greatly surprised that these two gentlemen—one the breeder and the other the owner of Wilkes—had never made any effort to trace and establish so important a fact. Mr. Felter stated that he had bought the mare from Mr. W. A. Delevan, and that Mr. Delevan had bought her from Mr. Joseph S. Lewis, of Geneva, New York. Thereupon I wrote to Mr. Lewis and the following is his response:

“Some twenty-six years since I bought a brown mare from a gentleman by the name of James Gilbert, then living in the town of Phelps, in this county, for a friend, and very soon after sold her to W. A. Delevan, of New York. She was then about five years old, a fine roadster, and could speed in about 3:30. He took her to New York, and after driving her some time sold her to my esteemed friend, Harry Felter. I think she passed into the hands of his father, and met with an accident. She was put to breeding, and had a colt by Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, that grew up to be the famous George Wilkes. For the benefit of many persons in New York I lost no time in looking about to learn the pedigree of the mare and of the horse that got her. On seeing Gilbert I learned that he got the mare of an old man who is now dead, by the name of Josiah Philips, of Bristol, in this county. I lost no time in sending a man, who lived with us at the time, by the name of John S. Dey, to Bristol, to get all the facts in the mare’s pedigree that he could get hold of. He learned through Philips that the father of this mare was the old Wadsworth Henry Clay, owned for many years by General Wadsworth, of Genesee. There is no mistake about this, as I have since learned from his neighbors that she was a Clay colt. Philips further stated that the mother of the mare was got by a horse called Highlander, a good horse, and owned in that section of country. I have no doubt about this, as there was such a horse in that section about that time. When I go to Buffalo, where Gilbert now lives, I may be able to get at more facts in regard to your inquiry, and if I can get hold of anything that will give more light on the subject before I am down in New York, I will drop into your office to see you.

Very truly yours, etc.

“J. S. LEWIS.”

The receipt of this letter, so straightforward and clean-cut in its statements, developed a mystery that was incomprehensible to me. Dates, names, places, circumstances, all stand out as evidences of the truth of the representations, and also as evidences that Mr. Lewis had fully investigated the matter, and given the results of his investigations to his friends in this city; still, those friends had never heard the facts, or had entirely forgotten them. As there was a strong prejudice against Clay blood in certain quarters, it occurred to me that possibly that cross had been left in abeyance so long that it really had been forgotten. This did not clear up the mystery, however, and I determined to have the whole matter investigated from a different starting point. I submitted the matter to Mr. John P. Ray, a very capable and very honest man, and he kindly and without reward undertook the investigation. The Philips family lived in the vicinity of Bristol, and the first of the family met by Mr. Ray was Mr. E. V. Philips, nephew and adopted son of Joshua Philips (not Josiah, as Mr. Lewis had it), and he enumerated several head of Clays that had been owned by his uncle Joshua, among them a mare that was bred by Mr. Clark Philips, bought of him when a yearling by E. V. Philips, sold as a four-year-old to his uncle Joshua, and by him the next year to “some man from the eastern part of the country.” He next met Mr. Clark Philips, who fully confirmed E. V. Philips about the Clay filly already referred to and said she was got when old Henry Clay was owned by Kent and Bailey of Bristol, and that her dam was “Old Telegraph” by Highlander, etc. In his original report to me of his investigation Mr. Ray uses the following language:

“When Henry Clay was being brought from the East to his home in Western New York, he stopped one night at the hotel then kept in Bristol by Dr. Durgan, deceased (the breeder of Castle Boy), and made a season at this place the following year, when he became the property of Kent & Bailey. He was kept in that town for several years, etc.”

Now, as between the original and voluntary statement of Captain Lewis and the investigation carried through by Mr. Ray, there is no conflict and all is smooth sailing, and upon the information derived from these two sources the pedigree of George Wilkes was decided as established by the Board of Censors. But more recent discoveries made by Mr. Ray, in which I have no doubt he is thoroughly conscientious and possibly thoroughly right, have raised a conflict that is irrepressible, for dates are involved and insisted upon that make the pedigree impossible. In his original statement Mr. Ray says that Henry Clay made the season of 1846 at Bristol, “when he became the property of Kent & Bailey. He was kept in that town for some years.” Up to this point there is no contradiction and no impossibility; Ray agrees with Lewis and Lewis agrees with Ray. But in the past two or three years Mr. Ray believes he has secured additional information, and this places Captain Lewis in a very unenviable position. The whole point of Clark Philips’ evidence is that he bred his mare “Old Telegraph” to Henry Clay when that horse was owned by Bailey Brothers, of Bristol, and I suppose they were the successors of Kent & Bailey of an earlier date. Now, as Mr. Ray told us in his first investigation that Henry Clay passed into the hands of Kent & Bailey in 1847, and as he tells us later that he did not pass into their hands till nine or ten years after that date and then fails to fix the precise year, it must be conceded by all that his information is not wholly satisfactory. Recollections may be ever so honest, but they are of various degrees of reliability. The best and final evidence is the service book of the horse. My best judgment of the whole matter is that Mr. Ray’s later information is probably correct, but until all doubt is removed by the production of some contemporaneous record covering the case there must remain an element of uncertainty attaching to the pedigree.