356 THE HORSE OF AMEEICA- 



mares, was probably a daughter of this same horse, Cadmus. This-, 

 mare, Shanghai Mary, was a trotter of speed, not far from a 2:30 

 gait, and she won some races, but she was hot-headed and unreliable. 

 Notwithstanding continuous searches, for years, her origin re- 

 mained a profound mystery, until of recent date certain facts, 

 point to Mr. Coft'ein as her breeder and Cadmus as her sire. 

 This has not been established historically, but when the circum- 

 stances are understood and taken in connection with the internal 

 evidences, which are amazingly strong, and had been pointed out 

 and applied to this sire long before the recent developments, 

 there remains hardly a moral doubt that she was by Cadmus. 

 The fact that this mare is the maternal grandam of Electioneer, 

 the greatest of all trotting sires to date, makes her pedigree a 

 matter of special interest, and for details of the various investi- 

 gations the reader is ref erred to Wallace's Monthly, and to Chapter 

 XXIX. of this volume. 



Pocahontas seems to have produced but five foals that reached, 

 maturity: 1855, Tom Rolfe, of which hereafter; 1859, Young 

 Pocahontas, by Ethan Allen, a very fast trotter; 1860, May 

 Queen, by Ethan Allen; 1861, May Day, by Miles Standish; 1863 

 bay colt Strideway, by Black Hawk Telegraph. This was a very 

 fast and promising young horse, and doubtless would have stood 

 among the fastest stallions of his day, but he died on the very 

 eve of his public appearance on the trotting turf. 



TOM ROLFE had a checkered existence from his conception. 

 His dam, Pocahontas, was bred to Pugh's Aratus, by Abraham 

 Pierce, her then owner, May 10, 1853, and ten days afterward 

 she was sold without her new owner's knowing she had been bred. 

 He was thus carried in his mother's womb, during her training 

 and through her racing campaign in New Orleans, until a little 

 over two months of the time he was dropped. During most of 

 this period those handling the mare did not know she had been 

 bred, and hence the story that Tom was a f 'catch" colt. He was 

 a bay, about fifteen hands two inches high, and came to his speed 

 with very little handling. In private trials, it is said, he had 

 frequently shown a mile in 2:23. While on exhibition in a small 

 ring at Dayton, Ohio, he met with an accident, from which he 

 was ever afterward a cripple. In this condition however, he 

 afterward made a record in 2:33. His sire, Pugh's Aratus, was 

 a large, handsome farm horse, sixteen hands two inches high, and 

 weighing one thousand three hundred pounds. He was got by 



