280 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



eight or ten years old, went along to help drive the cattle and 

 to see the city. He was detained two or three days longer than he 

 expected and it was very important that he should reach home at 

 a certain time. On the morning of that day he found himself 

 in Hobokeii, with his son, and no means of getting home except 

 on Silvertail. So he took the boy up behind him and went home 

 that day, seventy-five miles, by sundown. She was fully sixteen 

 hands high and of very fine style. Her head, neck and ear were 

 bloodlike, and her resolution and will were remarkable even in 

 old age. Her step, at the trot, is not known to have been much 

 developed, but she could gallop all day long. On several occa- 

 sions she carried her master to Albany in a day. Besides the 

 famous One Eye she produced several superior foals that brought 

 high prices, in those days, but we have only the one line tracing 

 to her as a producer. She died the property of Ebenezer Seely. 

 In searching for the particulars of this pedigree of Hamble- 

 tonian and in tracing it back to old ''Black Jin," I was neces- 

 sarily brought into contact with a great many people, some of 

 whom were helpful and some were not. As a matter of course 

 I met with the usual number who professed to "know it all," but 

 really knew nothing that was reliable. As the whole tracing 

 was in the Seely family, the public may wish to know what kind 

 of people they were. Jonas Seely, first, of Oxford in Orange 

 County, was a large farmer in the last century and an extensive 

 cattle feeder and drover. As there were no railroads or steam 

 boats in those days, much of his time was given to driving cattle, 

 either in collecting them from the interior or in taking them to 

 market in New York. He had use for good horses and he had a. 

 fancy for the best. His business brought him into contact with 

 the butchers of New York, and we find he sold many of his horses 

 as well as his cattle to them. These same business relations were 

 continued under his successor. He left a large family of sons. 

 who seemed to take to the horse as a duck takes to water. 

 Jonas, second, was one of his younger sons and succeeded to his 

 father's business as well as to the homestead. He was born 1797 

 at Oxford, and his father removed to the farm at Sugar Loaf 

 when he was a child. He was a thrifty and successful farmer. 

 For a number of years he was engaged with his partner and life- 

 long friend, Ebenezer Pray, in buying and driving cattle from 

 the West to the New York market. In June, 1882, he passed 

 away and there ended an acquaintance and a friendship of nearly 



