ABDALLAH. 163 



In answer to an inquiry made at that time, Mr, Timothy T. Kissam, 

 then an aged man, states in a letter that his brother, B. T. Kissam, 

 obtained her as above stated. He further states that Amazonia was 

 represented to his brother to have been sired by a get of imported 

 Messenger. He does not state who made this representation, or when 

 it was made, leaving it simply a matter of inference. It will be borne 

 in mind that this is merely the recollection of another man, and not 

 the purchaser himself, and after the lapse of half a century, about a 

 matter that did not seem at the time to have been one that concerned 

 anybody very greatly. It is barely sufficient to fix the locality of her 

 origin as toward Philadelphia, and the repute that she was in general 

 terms a Messenger — a general cognomen that was doubtless at that 

 time employed to indicate the family of horses that enjoyed a reputa- 

 tion for road purposes above and beyond all others. There is notliing 

 in this, and I have not anywhere else been able to find anything that 

 would indicate her age or the time. The same remark will apply 

 generally to nearly all the horses that have come to our notice in the 

 same region from which this mare came. There appears to be scarcely 

 any record or cotemporary publication that fixes the exact date of 

 the appearance of any of them, and we are left to the memories of 

 individuals, which we see in the case of Abdallah, the most noted 

 horse of his day, difler several years, both as to the date of his birth 

 and that of his death. 



Messenger left many sons and daughters on Long Island and in 

 New Jersey, and so great was the popularity of his stock in New 

 Jersey and the vicinity of Pennsylvania that in later years selections 

 were made on Lono- Island from his sons that were to be taken to the 

 further side of New Jersey. 



In 1834, the Messrs. Downing took from the neighborhood of 

 Trenton, New Jersey, to the State of Kentucky two stallions, one 

 called Grey Messenger, a large grey stallion with an immense ear, 

 which he gave to all his produce, and which has been transmitted to 

 them to this day, as a marked family pecuHarity. His pedigree was 

 as follows : 



Grey Messenger by Dove, 1st dam by Sir Solomon ; 2d dam by 

 Sanspariel ; 3rd dam by imp. Messenger; Dove, by All-fours, alias 

 Saratoga, and he by imported Messenger; 1st dam by imp. Expedition; 

 2d dam by imp. Messenger. 



The above pedigree shows that in-breeding in the blood of Messen- 

 ger was and had been common in New Jersey at and prior to the 

 date above given. 



