MESSENGER'S DESCENDANTS. 263 



" MILFORD, X. H., May 4th, 1870. 

 " MK. J. H. WALLACE, Muscatine, Iowa. 



" DEAR SIR: Yours of 22d of April is duly received and contents noted. I 

 was 24 years old when first acquainted with the dam of the ' Harris Horse,' so 

 called, in the fall of 1813. Was then carrying on a farm, now owned by Win. 

 Randall, Esq., in this town, for Mr. Israel Munson, a commission merchant 

 then doing business on India Street, and afterward on Central Wharf, Boston. 

 I was in Boston in the fall of 1813, as above, and found the dam (of Hamble- 

 tonian) and mate in Mr. Munson's possession. He said they had been ' leaders ' 

 in a stage team, and they acted as if green about holding back, etc. He never 

 said she was imported from England, neither did I hear such a story till two 

 or three years ago. The dam was called ' a Messenger.' All the description I 

 can give of her is that she was a strong, well-built, light dapple grey, and would 

 weigh ten hundred, certain. The span was well matched. The nigh one (the 

 dam) was more serviceable than the other. Led them all the way from Boston 

 behind an ox team; kept them till the middle of April and then returned the 

 pair to Boston. Mr. Munson drove them up, only stopping to dinner, when on 

 his way to Vermont in August, 1814, and I didn't see them again until Decem- 

 ber. I then drove them from Boston to Vermont, and used them a year on the 

 Munson farm, on Otter Creek, in Wallingford. In June, 1815, I took them to 

 Phoenix Horse (bay, black mane and tail, good looking and smart) in Clarendon 

 Flats. Both stood and had foals the spring after I left Mr. Munson's employ. 

 The off mare was occasionally a little lame, I think in the off fore foot, when 

 bard drove, but the nigh one was perfectly free from lameness or limping. I 

 left Mr. Munson in the spring of 1816, and know nothing of mares afterward. 

 "Yours truly, JOSEPH TUCKER, 



"(By Geo. W. Fox)." 



1 have given this letter entire, with the exception of a few 

 closing sentences, that the public may be able to judge of its 

 authenticity. That these mares were leaders in a stage team 

 when Mr. Munson bought them is confirmed by members of the 

 Munson family, and that the nigh mare was represented to be a 

 Messenger at the time of the purchase I have not the least 

 doubt. But whether she was really a Messenger is quite another 

 question. All I can say is, it was possible in the nature of 

 things; and the employment and qualities of the mare, together 

 with the representations of Mr. Munson, appear to make it 

 probable. During the mare's lifetime I find she was spoken of 

 in the Munson family and about Wallingford as "the imported 

 Messenger mare" and in this phrase, no doubt, was the origin of 

 the story that she was herself imported. When this .phrase, 

 through her son, reached the next outer circle, "imported Mes- 

 senger mare" no longer meant a mare by imported Messenger, 

 but an imported mare by Messenger. 



