CHAPTER XXXIV 



SOME OLD ORANGE COUNTY BREEDERS 



THE Waldberg stud at Haverstraw, N. Y., was a 

 hobby of A. B. Conger, who was a theoretical, rather 

 than a practical, horseman. Nothing great ever came 

 from it. Adam Lilburn, the neighbor of Mr. Con- 

 ger, was the owner of Edward Everett (formerly 

 Major Winfield) , and his band of brood mares was 

 small. In one of my notebooks I find a brief record 

 of a conversation with Lilburn, March n, 1884: 



" Charley Kent, a butcher who drove the dam of 

 Rysdyk's Hambletonian in the streets of New York, 

 was a drinker, and he kept the mare at work on the 

 stones until he lamed her, then he sent her to 

 Abdallah." 



The result of this mating was the great progenitor 

 of trotters. Here is another extract from the notes : 



" American Star (Seely's) was a light chestnut of 

 about 15 hands. He was long and low, and looked 

 like a thoroughbred. I saw him driven double with 

 his daughter at Goshen, when he was twenty years 

 old, in three minutes. He had hard usage, and was 

 often trotted on the ice of Orange Lake, back of 

 Newburgh." 



Jonathan Hawkins was a modest breeder in 

 Orange County. Dexter and Dictator were bred by 



316 



