AMERICAN STAR, PILOT, CHAMPION AND NORMAN. 349" 



Emerson in Saratoga County and was afterward burned up in his 

 stable. This son of Messenger, called Peacock, was entirely new 

 to me then I was investigating this pedigree in 1876 and I was 

 disposed to reject it, but Mr. Mills certainly had a horse of that 

 name and he represented him to be a son of Messenger, and he 

 probably was, but I do not know that he was so bred. 



Mr. McNitt sold the colt at three years old to Martin Stover, 

 who lived on his place, for eighty dollars; the next year Stover 

 sold him to James Mills. In 1840 Mills sold him to Mr. Tefft 

 and Zack Adams, and they sold him not long after to Philip 

 Allen and Calvin Morse, of White Creek. Mr. Morse had him 

 a number of years and when old sold him to Mr. Grant, and he 

 died at Spiegletown in Renssalaer County, New York. He was 

 a very perfect, natural trotter, and his speed was developed to 

 some extent. In August, 1847 or 1848, Mr. Morse put him into 

 the hands of John Case, of Saratoga Springs, the driver of Lady 

 Moscow, to prepare him for the State Fair, at which he expected 

 to meet the famous Black Hawk. Mr. J. L. D. Eyclesheimer, a 

 very intelligent gentleman, formerly of the region of Saratoga, 

 wrote that while the horse was in Case's hands, he, with Mr. 

 Morse, timed him a full mile in 2:40^. At the State Fair he was 

 all out of fix and Black Hawk beat him in the second and third 

 heats. He won the first heat in 2:52|. In the rivalries between 

 stallions at agricultural fairs, however, is a very poor place to 

 look for fair work and fair judgment, either from the stand or 

 from the spectators. 



GENERAL TAYLOR was a grey horse, foaled 1847, got by the 

 Morse Horse, dam the trotting mare Flora, a New York road 

 mare of unknown breeding. He was bred by the brothers Eycles- 

 heimer, then of Pittstown, New York. He was taken to Janes- 

 ville, Wisconsin, 1850, and thence to California, 1854, where he 

 trotted thirty miles against time in one hour forty-seven minutes 

 and fifty-nine seconds. He also beat New York a ten-mile race 

 in 29:41. This horse has no representative in the 2:30 list, but 

 his blood has always been very highly esteemed in California for 

 its speed, but more especially for its game qualities. Honest 

 Ance was another son of the Morse Horse that did a great deal 

 of racing in California, although he has no record in the 2:30 

 list. He was a chestnut gelding, and was managed by the 

 notorious Jim Eoff, who was always ready to win or to lose as 

 money seemed to suggest. 



