Prepotent Sons of Hambletonian 157 



Rhode Island, Lucy, American Girl, and Myron 

 Perry. His record of 2.22 was made at Provi- 

 dence, October 13, 1868. As he was small and 

 his hind action was called ducklike, there was no 

 irrepressible desire to breed to him in the East, 

 and in 1873 W. H. Wilson persuaded the Sim- 

 mons Brothers to send him to Kentucky. The 

 mares that visited him in the Blue-grass District 

 nicked well with him, and the boom methods of 

 William L. Simmons did the rest. When the 

 stud reputation of the brown "pony" began to 

 grow, an effort was made to establish the pedigree 

 of Dolly Spanker as by Henry Clay. Reams of 

 paper were spoiled in the discussion, and I was 

 thick in the fight. Mr. Felter, the Messrs. Sim- 

 mons, and others in a position to know insisted 

 that the lines of Dolly Spanker could not be 

 traced, and this was the decision of the American 

 Trotting Register Association. Mr. Simmons 

 often regretted that he had dropped the name of 

 Fillingham for George Wilkes, because the man 

 whom he sought to honor by the change proved 

 an ingrate. Trotters and pacers from George 

 Wilkes followed each other in such rapid succes- 

 sion that all the horse-loving world fixed its eyes 

 upon the modest quarters that the brown stallion 



