CHAPTER XIII 



MAMBRINO CHIEF AND HIS DESCENDANTS 



ONE of the greatest foundation sires was Mam- 

 brino Chief, foaled in 1844, and bred by Richard 

 Eldridge of Dutchess County, New York. He 

 was from the loins of Mambrino Paymaster, and 

 his dam was a large and somewhat angular mare 

 of untraced blood. Mambrino Paymaster was by 

 Mambrino, thoroughbred son of imported Mes- 

 senger, out of a highly formed and courageous 

 daughter of Paymaster, an imported stallion, and 

 he was possessed of more than ordinary action 

 for that day. Mambrino Chief was a natural 

 trotter, and he passed from Richard Eldridge to 

 Warren Williams, who in the spring of 1851 sold 

 him to James M. Cockroft and G. T. Williams 

 of New York. In October, 1884, while on a 

 visit to Mr. Edwin Thorne of Thorndale, I was 

 permitted to read the correspondence which led 

 to the transfer of Mambrino Chief from the state 

 of New York to the state of Kentucky, where he 

 founded a family second in importance to that of 

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