CHAPTEE XXL 



GOVERNOR SPRAGUE. 



The black stallion Governor Sprague was foaled on the 24th day of 

 February, 1871, in the State of Rhode Island, and was bred by Col. 

 Amasa Sprague, of that State. His sire was the stallion Rhode 

 Island, previously called Dan Rice. His dam was Belle Brandon, by 

 Hambletonian, and his grandam by Bacchus. His sire, Rhode Island, 

 a brown stallion, foaled about 1847, as is stated, was bred in Ohio, 

 and was by Whitehall, from a mare by Nigger Baby, a horse bred in 

 Virginia. His grandam is said to have been a Jersey mare, bred by 

 Mr. Manchester. 



This is the account as taken from the Trotting Register^ vol. I; 

 and the same authority informs us that Whitehall was bred by Mr. 

 Manchester, of Whitehall, N. Y., and was by North American, a son 

 of Sir Walter, by Hickory, the thoroughbred; that the dam of White- 

 hall was by Cock of the Rock, and he was by Duroc, from Romp, by 

 imported Messenger. It may not be unworthy of notice, also, that 

 the dam of North American is said to have been a fast pacing mare 

 of unknown blood. 



In the blood composition of this horse Rhode Island we fail to find 

 any lines that connect with noted trotting ancestral -currents, except 

 that which comes through the dam of his own sire, she being of the 

 Duroc-Messenger union, an unfailing source of the richest trotting 

 blood we have yet reached. The grandam of Rhode Island, the so- 

 called Jersey mare — if by that is meant a mare bred in the State of 

 New Jersey — may embrace lines deep and rich that are not described 

 to us in the faint and shadowy outlines of the pedigree that is given. 



I have thus gone through all the ancestral lines that have been 



placed before us, for the purpose of learning the source or sources 



from which this horse Rhode Island inherited his trotting qualities, 



which were of a character that do not come by chance or accident; 



2G (399) 



