6 THE MORGAN HORSE 



made a mare younger than George Wilkes his dam. Indeed, it is questionable 

 if a single pedigree in the eleven volumes of this Register would be correct if 

 extended according to its own instructions. One of the above-mentioned nine- 

 teen pedigrees is that of the bay gelding John Stewart by Tom Wonder, to 

 which in this same book two world's ten-mile records are credited, and in each 

 the pedigree of his dam is again given, without qualification, as by Harris' 

 Hamiltonian. In our correspondence about this mare we received the same 

 information from one of her former owners ; but to our enquiries for the evi- 

 dence, the answer was that the mare came from Vermont and had some white 

 hairs on her flanks, which the writer understood was characteristic of the 

 Harris' Hamiltonians, and he thought there was no doubt but that she was 

 got by this horse. This gentleman, however, very willingly assisted us in 

 tracing the mare by telling us of whom he had her, and we soon learned that 

 she was bred by Austin Dana, Cornwall, Vt., got by Sherman Black Hawk, 

 son of Black Hawk ; her dam also bred by Mr. Dana, got by Black Hawk, 

 son of Sherman Morgan. Mr. Dana sold this mare to Caleb Ticknor, then 

 of Middlebury, Vt., now of Great Barrington, Mass., who sold her to Sheldon 

 Leavitt of Brooklyn, N. Y., and he to W. M. Parks, New York city, who bred 

 her to Tom Wonder ; then sold her to Joseph Harker, whose property John 

 Stewart was foaled. She was black, 15 hands, very handsome and fast. 



We have given much time and attention to the investigation of the ped- 

 igree of the great sire of dams of trotters, Seely's American Star ; and have 

 learned that he was got by a horse named American Star that was owned by 

 a Mr. Coburn. We have learned, further, from the daughter of this Mr. 

 Coburn that her father went from Massachusetts to New York, and perhaps pro- 

 cured his horse in Massachusetts. There is a good deal of evidence tend- 

 ing to show that this horse, Coburn's American Star, was a Morgan, but not 

 sufficient, as yet, to warrant us, on that ground, in giving him a place in The 

 Morgan Register. We hope soon, however, to clear up the remaining ques- 

 tions on his pedigree. In the mean time, we may say, it is as absurd to re- 

 fer to Seely's American Star as a son of Stockholm's American Star, as to call 

 Dolly Spanker, dam of George Wilkes, a daughter of Henry Clay. 



