HAMBLETONIAN'S SONS AND GRANDSONS. 295 



This gelding was her only foal other than Alexander's Abdallah, 

 and Katy Darling died at Muscatine, the property of a Mr. 

 Stewart. A search was long kept up for the pedigree of this 

 mare, and for the full details of what is known of her history the 

 reader is referred to the different volumes of Wallace's Monthly. 

 The conclusion from all the evidence found is that she was prob- 

 ably by a son of Andrew Jackson. 



As a foal by his dam's side Alexander's Abdallah attracted 

 much favorable attention by his fine trotting action, and his per- 

 sistency in cavorting around at that gait. Among those who 

 took great delight in watching the little fellow trot was Mr. 

 Hezekiah Hoyt, and when the youngster was seventeen months 

 old Mr. Hoyt, acting for, or in partnership with, Major Edsall, 

 bought the colt for five hundred dollars, a fine price at that time. 

 Major Edsall kept him until he was seven years old, and I am 

 under the impression that he won some local races during that 

 time, when he was known as EdsalFs Hambletonian. He was 

 accorded a fairly liberal patronage in Orange County, and his 

 progeny showed so well that Major Edsail sold him for three 

 thousand dollars in 1859 to Joel F. Love and James Miller, of 

 Cynthiana, Kentucky. The Hambletonian family was just then 

 becoming popular, and the price paid indicates that this horse 

 was already regarded by good judges as one of Hambletonian 's 

 best sons. That he was regarded, moreover, as quite a trotter is 

 indicated by the fact that at the close of his second season in 

 Kentucky 1860 Mr. Miller matched him against Albion, a 

 competing stallion, for two hundred and fifty dollars a side. The 

 affair caused quite a sensation at the time, the Cynthiana horsemen 

 going in crowds to Lexington to back Abdallah. The latter was 

 driven by "Jim" Monroe, and Albion by Warren Peabody, and 

 Abdallah won in the hollowest fashion, distancing Albion in 2:46. 

 As youngsters Abdallah's first progeny in Kentucky showed very 

 well, and in the spring of 1863 he was purchased by R. A. 

 Alexander, and made the seasons of 1863 and 1864 at Woodburn. 

 On the evening of February 2, 1865, Marion's band of Confed- 

 erate guerrillas raided Woodburn and took away a number of 

 horses, among them Alexander's Abdallah and the then famous 

 young trotter, Bay Chief, by Mambrino Chief. Marion mounted 

 Bay Chief and, crossing the Kentucky River, the band encamped 

 on the farm of a Mr. Bush, in a rough, hilly region, twelve miles 

 from Woodburn. Here the next morning the Federal cavalry, 



