JUSTIN MORGAN 75 



those from whom the evidence is derived have not been of those 

 whose habits of life led them to make records of pedigrees, and to 

 this accumulating testimony add the admitted ' cleanness of head and 

 limb, and Arab expression of countenance', so characteristic of turf 

 cattle, and is there any violence in the presumption that he had in 

 him even more of the ' blood stock' than we have so far been able 

 to prove ; and that is all that I have contended for or rather that I 

 have conjectured as being the fact. J. S. S". 



We have quoted this letter almost entire on account of its high 

 authority, and the pertinence and force of its suggestions. But it is 

 to the communication from John Morgan, which we have put in italics, 

 that we call attention more directly in this connection. Wildair and 

 Wild Deer were used interchangeably, as appears by the above letter 

 and by the letter of J. Fenimore Cooper, elsewhere quoted. 



Over three years later, in the " Albany Cultivator" for January, 

 1846, appeared a communication from Frederick A. Weir of Walpole, 

 New Hampshire, all of which that pertains to the origin of the Mor- 

 gan horse is here given: 



" For the last fifteen years my business has called me frequently 

 into almost all parts of Vermont, and I have been led to make very 

 particular and extensive inquiries into the history of the Morgan 

 horse. Although there are six or eight, or more, different stories in 

 circulation in relation to his origin, and several of them attempted to 

 be supported by affidavit, yet I perfectly agree with you, that the ac- 

 count given by Justin Morgan's son, Justin Morgan, 2d, who is a mer- 

 chant now in business at Stockbridge, Vermont, and a gentleman of 

 intelligence and standing, extended and confirmed by that of Mr. 

 John Morgan, is the only one entitled to belief. From my 

 correspondence with Justin and John Morgan, and others, I 

 am enabled to state the pedigree, on both sides, of the Morgan 

 horse. 



"He was foaled in 1793, was sired by True Briton, or Beautiful 

 Bay, owned by Selah Norton of East Hartford, Connecticut, and then 

 kept by John Morgan, at West Springfield, Massachusetts. True 

 Briton was sired by the imported horse Traveler. The dam of the 

 Justin Morgan horse, at the time he was sired, was owned by Justin 

 Morgan himself, at Springfield, Massachusetts, where he then lived. 

 The dam is described by Mr. John Morgan, who knew her, as of the 

 Wildair breed, of middling size, with a heavy chest, of a very light 

 bay color, with a bushy mane and tail, the hair on the legs rather 

 long ; and a smooth, handsome traveler. She was sired by Diamond^ 



