THE BLACK HAWK OR MORGAN FAMILY. 383 



not by Flying Morgan, but he can beat Flying Morgan or any 

 other stallion in the State of Vermont." 



The next fall Mr. Adams visited many of the fairs with his 

 horse and showed Holcomb's letter, and, it is said, with the post- 

 script torn off. Every man in Ticonderoga knew as well as Mr. 

 Holcomb how Ethan Allen was bred, and this letter created 

 much indignation. But Holcomb was a reckless man and cared 

 for nothing more than what he called a good joke, and the 

 more it hurt any one's feelings the better it suited him. 



This account of the "joke" was written down by Mr. Baker, 

 at the dictation of Mr. Woodward, April 22, 1875, and I have 

 implicit confidence in its substantial accuracy. It has been said 

 that the reason Holcomb did this was out of ill feeling toward 

 Mr. David Hill, the owner of Black Hawk, and Holcomb's uncle, 

 because he dunned him for payment of the horse's services in 

 getting Ethan Allen. One day at the Fashion Course, in the 

 spring of 1867, as I was looking at Ethan while he was taking 

 his daily exercise, either Mr. Holcomb or Mr. Koe, his partner 

 I knew them both by sight as the owners of Ethan Allen, but not 

 well enough to distinguish one from the other, but I think it was 

 Mr. Holcomb came up to me and expressed a good deal of 

 solicitude to know how I was registering the horse. He ap- 

 peared gratified when I assured him I had no doubt he was a son 

 of old Black Hawk and would so enter him. He remarked "that 

 was right," and said the Flying Morgan story originated in a 

 practical joke and should not be permitted to go into history as a 

 fact. This is the full history of the basis of the controversy, 

 and certainly, to a reasonable man, it does not leave a single peg 

 on which to hang a hope for the Flying Morgan story. 



But, the paternity of Ethan Allen is not left to the uncertain- 

 ties of recollection nor to be trifled with by practical jokers. 

 The books of Black Hawk's services show that the dam of Ethan 

 Allen was bred to him on a certain day or days of the season of 

 1848, and was taken away believed to be in foal. This fact is con- 

 ceded on all hands as wholly indisputable, but it is claimed that 

 Flying Morgan was kept in Holcomb's stable one night, after the 

 mare returned from Bridport, and the two were there surrepti- 

 tiously coupled. I have studied this claim in all its details, I 

 have examined every detail minutely, and I do not hesitate to 

 say there is not a single shadow of evidence to support the claim. 

 In Vermont, as in Kentucky, there are many people who can re- 



