THE BLACK HAWK OR MORGAN FAMILY. 367 



editors and others to say nothing of the advertisements of those 

 who had them for sale, they suffered greatly by too much praise. 

 The result is that the original type has been extinguished, and it 

 is doubtful whether a fair specimen could be found, even among 

 the mountains of New England. Next to the injury which the 

 family sustained from the exaggerated claims of speed put for- 

 ward by its too sanguine friends, there was another and even 

 greater injury from the asburd and foolish claims made for his 

 blood. It is impossible to make a thinking and sensible man be- 

 lieve that a little hairy-legged "nubbin" of a pony, weighing eight 

 hundred and fifty pounds, hired for fifteen dollars a year to drag 

 logs together in a clearing, at which employment he was a great 

 success, had the blood of the race horse in his veins. This was 

 always a stumbling block to my immature enthusiasm for the 

 Morgan horse. From an experience of a great many years and 

 from the developments of horse history during that time, I find 

 the "stumbling block" no longer worries me, for it has rotted 

 away and disappeared. Although the family has ceased to exist 

 as a factor in current horse history, it had a history in the past; 

 and, as a historian, I must consider its origin as well as the 

 deeds it has accomplished or failed to accomplish. 



Mr. Justin Morgan, the central figure in this investigation, 

 was born in West Springfield, 1747, where he married and lived 

 till 1788, when he removed to Randolph, Vermont, where he died, 

 March, 1798. He was a reputable citizen, fairly well educated 

 for his time, and taught school for a living. He owned a house 

 and lot in his native town, where he kept a wayside house of en- 

 tertainment, and during the early summer he usually had a stal- 

 lion to keep on the shares. In the spring of 1785 he had charge 

 of the horse True Briton, or Beautiful Bay, and I will here 

 add that three years later, John Morgan, Jr., had charge of the 

 same horse at Springfield, for the seasons of 1788 and 1789. 

 This John Morgan, Jr , removed to Lima, New York, late in 

 1790 or early in 1791. Justin had sold his place in West Spring- 

 field to Abner Morgan, on long payments, and in the summer of 

 1795 he came back to West Springfield to collect some money 

 that was due him, presumably on the price of his former home, 

 but he failed to get money and took two colts instead. One was 

 a three-year-old gelding and the other was a two-year-old bay 

 colt, entire. He led the three-year-old with a halter and the two- 

 year-old followed. The date of this visit to the old home is the 



