418 MAMBRINO CHIEF. 



at the solicitation of a friend, devoted several days to irifervicwing parties 

 Tvith a view of srcttino; all the facts that are known in relation to her for pub- 

 lication, to set at rest forever all theorieH on the subject. 



Mr. Dan'l B. Haight, of Dover Plains, was the first party I called upon. 

 He informed me that the first he knew of the mare she was owned by Elder 

 Smith, a minister, who resided in the village of Dover Plains. He had her 

 only a short time, and sold her to Mr. John Taber, a neighbor, from whom he, 

 Mr. H., purchased her for |75. Notliing was knoicn of her pedigree; Mr. 

 Taber said that she came from the West. Mr. Haight describes her as being 

 a large brown mare, with a coarse head, and large heavy ears, low on the 

 shoulders, deep and broad in the cliest, a very long back, badly coupled, g(wd 

 limbs, large feet that looked as if she had been fed on corn, which strengthened 

 his belief that she came from the West. In disposition, speed and action she 

 was nothing more than an ordinary work horse. She was six or seven years 

 old when he bought her; he worked her seven or eight years on his farm, and 

 having her when he purchased Mambrino Paymaster, he bred her to him. 

 The produce was the horse Goliah. He did not breed her again, but soon 

 after traded her with Richard Eldridge, now of Mabbettsville, for another 

 horse. 



I called upon Mr. Eldridge, and found he had a much higher opinion of 

 the mare than Mr. Haight. He said she had a good-sized head and rather a 

 large but not a heavy ear ; her back, if anything, was a little long, but not 

 much out of the way in the coupling. She was broad in the breast and deep 

 in the girth. Her feet were not over-large for her size ; her legs were good — 

 the hind ones so good that they were often the subject of remark. She had 

 good carriage and was an uncommon smart traveler. He bred her twice to 

 Mambrino Paymaster and once to Dr. Camfield's horse Sir Andrew. The 

 produce by Mambrino Paymaster was the brown horse Mambrino Chief and 

 a bay colt ; from Sir Andrew it was a bay colt. 



After breeding the three colts, Mr. Eldridge sold her to a neighbor, Mr. 

 Lewis Wilber. I called on him. He said the mare had a great reputation 

 for speed when he bought her. She must then have been close on to twenty 

 years old. He represents her as being a good big mare, without anything in 

 particular to remark in her appearance. She did not have a bad back ; she 

 was strong and willing. While running at pasture, without any grain, she 

 •would take him, a man weighing over 200 pounds, in an ordinary one-horse, 

 square box farm wagon, with a pretty good load in it, to Poughkeepsie, 17 

 miles distant, over a hilly road, in three hours. In returning home she would 

 come the last half of the distance with as m.uch spirit as she did the first. 

 During the season of grass, when not at work, she was in the pasture field. 

 Winters she was stabled, and occasionally fed some grain. At no time while 

 he owned her was she fed more than two or three cjuarts of grain (oats) per 

 day. In 1855, the year after Mambrino Chief went to Kentucky, Mr. Clay 

 farmed her from Mr. Wilber and had her stinted to" Washington, a son of 

 Mambrino Paymaster, but nothing resulted from it. She died, as near as Mr. 

 Wilber can recollect, about the year 1857, sound in limb and body. Her 

 death was the result of an accident— she fell and broke her neck. 



