614 THE MORGANS. 



Horse, the sire ol" Hampshire Boy; the dam of the latter said to have 

 been a daughter of Napoleon, by Young Mambrino, son of Chan- 

 cellor, son of Mambrino; another instance of the j)rogressive advance- 

 ment of the Morgan in the channel of trotting blood, and evidenced 

 in this case by Hampshire Boy being sire of Susey, with record of 

 2:21, and forty-four heats in 2:30 or better. 



The highest advance, however, made by Vermont Blackhawk 

 toward founding a family of trotting horses was in having produced 



ETHAN ALLEN. 



Ethan was a bay stallion, bred by J. W. Holcomb, Ticonderoofa, 

 New York, and was foaled in 1849; by Vermont Blackhawk; dam a 

 small, grey mare, whose pedigree has never been ascertained, hut 

 whose blood qualities, in connection with the qualities of her son and 

 other produce, go to indicate that she was a highly bred mare, strong 

 in the blood of Messenger. The opinion has been advanced by Mr. 

 Wallace — but on what information I do not know — that this mare 

 was by the Freeman Horse, a son of Ogden's Messenger;, but the real 

 facts can not be ascertained, and probably will never be known; and 

 we are limited to this fact, which must be accepted and taken a& 

 assured by all who have studied the blood traits of our American 

 trotting families, that she was just such in every point and trait, as a 

 granddaughter or great granddaughter of imported Messenger; and 

 there is hardly room to doubt that such was her parentage. 



Like all the other maternals in this fortunate family of successful 

 sons— whose chief success in each case seems to have been achieved 

 in coming from a mare of superior blood — this mare seems to have 

 had the controllins: share in the formation of the character of her 

 son and of his own descendants. She also bore a full brother tO' 

 Ethan Allen, called Red Leg, and a full sister, called Blackhawk 

 Maid, and these were both fast. She also produced a filly by another 

 stallion, which was a remarkable trotter for its age, but was killed 

 when four years old. This mare was a small, flea-bitten grey mare — 

 just such as in the State of Vermont and the eastern edge of New 

 York were at that time, and for a long time before and since, called 

 Messengers. All her ])roduce were trotters, and their trotting action 

 very perfect. That of Ethan Allen has never been excelled. With 

 all her excellent qualities, however, and they were many and great,, 

 she was an unsound mare, and she transmitted to Ethan spavined 

 hocks, and gave him also the ability to transmit this taint and deeji- 



