THE PERCHERON 



103 



high and weighing 1200 to 1500 pounds. Diligence, which died 

 in 1860, was regarded as a fine specimen of the breed. 



In 1851 an important half century of Percheron history began 

 in the United States. At this time Fullington and Martin 

 brought to Milford Center, Ohio, the gray colt Louis Napoleon, 

 the first importation to the West. He was 15^- hands high 

 and weighed 1600 pounds. In 1856 A. P. Cushman of Illinois 

 purchased him. Louis 

 Napoleon proved to 

 be a great sire and 

 was no doubt one of 

 the very best draft 

 horses ever brought to 

 America. It has been 

 estimated that over 

 400 of his sons were 

 successful stallions. 

 In 1851 Dr. Marcus 

 Brown of Circleville, 

 Ohio, commissioned 

 Samuel Holman of 

 Chester Springs, Penn- 

 sylvania, to purchase 

 a stallion for him 

 in France. Holman 

 bought two, one for 

 himself and one for 



FIG. 36. Jocasse (89131), a two-year-old imported 

 Percheron mare, the property of Illinois Univer- 

 sity. From photograph by courtesy of Professor 

 J. L. Edmonds 



Brown, both grays, 

 and they landed at 



New York on August 12, 1 8 5 1 . l The one for Dr. Brown was named 

 Normandy 351 and is often referred to as " Pleasant Valley Bill," 

 "Old Bill," or the "Valley Horse." He stood 15.1 hands high 

 and weighed about 1400 pounds, and it is said that for eighteen 

 years he averaged about 60 colts a year. Charles Carroll of Bal- 

 timore, Maryland, is credited in Volume I of the "Percheron Stud- 

 book of America " with importing in 1853 the stallion Chartres 88, 

 and J. H. McHenry of the same state with importing the 



1 A History of the Percheron Horse (1917), p. 114. 



