RACEALONG 407 



of the horse trade on the highway near Canton, but 

 it was not long before several old gentlemen called 

 attention to the disappearance of Thaddeus Coffeen 

 from Red Lion with his father's sorrel filly, marked 

 with white face and legs, in the summer or fall of 

 1850. The incident would probably not have been 

 recalled had not his father. Goldsmith Coffeen, been 

 the most prominent horseman in the county at that 

 time and the filly a well-known member of his stable. 



'Trom three men, who were living in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the Coffeen farm at that time, and 

 were intimately acquainted with the younger mem- 

 bers of the family, I learned that when Thaddeus 

 arrived at an age when he began to want to do for 

 himself, he asked his father to give him a part of 

 the money he had won for him on the turf as a 

 rider. A controversy arose between them that led 

 to an estrangement which lasted as long as they 

 both lived, or at least prevented Thaddeus from 

 ever becoming a member of the family circle again. 



Thaddeus Coffeen disappeared and it was common 

 report that he had taken the filly with him in lieu 

 of pay for his services as a jockey. It does not now 

 appear whether he had any proprietorship in her, 

 but no one blamed him for taking her, unless it 

 was the old gentleman himself. Three other persons, 

 all members of the Coffeen household then, or about 

 that time, remembered the incident, wholly or in 

 part, and the Rev. Samuel Gallagher, who was a 

 nephew of Goldsmith Coffeen, and was raised by 

 Goldsmith Coffeen, Sr., on an adjoining farm, re- 



